Perception Engineer, Robot Safety

Lever, Inc.; Massachusetts; Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Tutor is seeking engineers to design and build perception and monitoring systems for safety-critical robot operations. You will own the code path from sensor readings to safe stopping, and you will test rigorously for weaknesses across the system.

You will work with multiple product teams to ensure safety is embedded in deployment, and you will help shape safety standards and customer-facing evidence as the fleet grows.

Qualifications

• Experience shipping perception or monitoring software on robots or vehicles.
• Owned code where a bug could injure someone and influenced design, testing, and review.
• Strong software engineering skills in Python and C++ or similar, with real-time constraints.
• Knowledge of stopping distances, latency budgets, and how a perception decision becomes a motion command.
• Proactive in fixing weaknesses and building fixes when discovered.

Responsibilities

• Build perception and monitoring systems for safety in production robots.
• Own the safety-critical software path from sensor input to a stopped robot, including tests and failure modes.
• Design and review safety-relevant systems and code that decides when a robot may move.
• Test systems with replayed field data, scenarios, and hardware faults to find weaknesses.
• Collaborate across product teams to integrate safety-focused solutions.
• Help shape Tutor's safety strategy and the evidential safety posture delivered to customers.

Skills

Perception software

Safety-critical code

Python & C++

Controls knowledge

Bug fixing

Job description

The Company

We believe general-purpose, generally-intelligent robots will be built in our lifetimes. Robots will work in our factories, move our goods, walk on our streets and eventually be in our homes. To build that future, research and deployment must work in lockstep: real-world operation must make the technology better and better technology must make deployment easier. We're looking for the thinkers, builders, and researchers who want to be part of that loop.

As an AI robotics company that deploys its inventions directly into the facilities that need them, on state-of-the‑art hardware, every line of code written at Tutor has a direct impact on the global, physical economy.

Our Culture

We believe that something truly special can happen when talented, motivated people work together; at Tutor, every member of our team is empowered to have real impact in everything that they do. We're characterized by both technical excellence and next-level collaboration and respect.

About the Role

Our robots work in customer facilities with people nearby. The systems that keep those people safe are perception systems: sensors that detect a person, and software that decides how the robot responds. We're looking for an engineer to build those systems and own the code they run on.

This is an engineering role. You will design and build perception and monitoring systems, own safety-critical code end to end, and be responsible for the design and review of the systems that decide whether a robot may move. You will work across our product teams, joining whichever one is building something that affects safety, and you will test our systems for weaknesses before they show up in the field.

You will also help shape how Tutor keeps its robots safe and deployable. A robot that hurts someone is unacceptable, and a robot that cannot be deployed where the work is does not help anyone. The formal side of safety, risk assessments and the standards customers ask about, is part of this role. We will teach it. We are hiring for the engineering.

What You'll Do

• Build the perception systems that keep people safe: Detection, tracking, and monitoring from lidar and cameras, running on robots in production
• Own safety-critical code: The software path from a sensor reading to a stopped robot, including its tests, its failure modes, and its behavior when something upstream fails
• Design and review safety-relevant systems: Set the design for how a robot decides it is safe to move, and review changes across the codebase that affect that decision
• Test for weaknesses: Use replayed field data, constructed scenarios, and hardware faults to find where the system fails, and fix what you find
• Work across product teams: Join the team building something that affects safety and build it with them
• Help set the strategy: Contribute to how Tutor keeps its robots safe and deployable as the fleet and the applications grow, including the evidence we give customers

What We're Looking For

• Experience shipping perception or monitoring software on robots or vehicles: Lidar or camera pipelines, detection, tracking, or sensor fusion, running on hardware in production
• You have owned code where a bug could injure someone: You know how that changes design, testing, and review
• Strong software engineering: Python and C++ or similar, real-time constraints, and code that other people can verify
• Some controls knowledge: Stopping distances, latency budgets, and how a perception decision becomes a motion command
• You fix what you find: When you find a weakness, you propose the fix and usually build it

Nice to Have

• Exposure to safety standards for robots or machinery, such as ISO 10218, ISO 13849, or ANSI/RIA R15.06
• Experience with safety-rated sensors or safety validation of a detector
• Experience in warehouses, manufacturing, or other environments where robots and people share space
• Simulation and replay tooling for testing perception at scale

$150,000 - $300,000 a year

About Our Roles & Titles

At Tutor, we believe great engineers and researchers are defined by what they build and the impact they have — not where they sit in an org chart or what title they have. Therefore, everyone in our R&D org holds the title Member of Technical Staff (MoTS). Our job postings use standard titles so you can find us, but if you join Tutor, you'll be a MoTS — with a level that is determined through the interview process.

That also means we hire people, not slots. Work at Tutor evolves every quarter, and we set the expectation of flexibility from day one — it's common for people to start on one thing and shift to another based on where the team needs them most. A high technical bar across the board is what makes that flexibility possible: it's what allows people to contribute meaningfully whatever problem they take on.