Research & Development Engineer - Robotics, Machine Vision & Precision Automation (PhD)

TE Connectivity Ltd.; Town of Webster (NY); On-site; USD 104,000 - 156,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Health insurance

401(k)

Job summary

TE Connectivity in Rochester, NY seeks an early-career PhD researcher for robotics, machine vision, and precision automation in optical interconnect manufacturing. You will bridge control, sensing, and software across hardware platforms and real-world production challenges.

Work directly with senior technical authorities to develop novel calibration, vision, and metrology methods, and scale prototypes into production equipment. Relocation support is available for this role.

Qualifications

• Doctoral-level research in robotics, vision, metrology, or related fields.
• Hands-on experience with hardware integration and debugging of robotic/mechatronic systems.
• Strong programming ability in Python/C++/MATLAB for research to production.
• Knowledge of coordinate frames, calibration, and sensor fusion.
• Experience with real hardware, experiments, and design of robust measurement systems.

Responsibilities

• Develop forward/inverse kinematics and coordinate-frame architectures.
• Design motion strategies and precision control for robotic systems.
• Create robust hand-eye calibration and sensor-to-machine registration methods.
• Develop 2D/3D vision methods for pose estimation and inspection.
• Conceive and execute experiments to quantify uncertainty and repeatability.

Skills

Forward/inverse kinematics

Calibration methods

Robot motion control

2D/3D vision

Pose estimation

OpenCV/PCL/HALCON

ROS/ROS2

Python

C++

MATLAB

Education

PhD in Robotics or related field

Tools

Python

C++

MATLAB

Job description

• Vision & Perception: Camera calibration, geometric vision, 2D/3D perception, pose estimation, image processing, active sensing, OpenCV/PCL/HALCON, ROS/ROS2, or similar tools.

At TE, you will unleash your potential working with people from diverse backgrounds and industries to create a safer, sustainable and more connected world.

Job Overview

If your PhD sits at the intersection of robotics, perception, controls, and real hardware, this role is designed for you. TE Connectivity’s Passive Optics organization is building the precision automation needed to manufacture the next generation of optical interconnects for AI and hyperscale computing. You will work on problems where coordinate frames, motion, vision, sensing, process physics, and software all have to agree in the real world — not just in simulation. This is an intentionally high-bandwidth early-career role. You will work directly with a senior technical authority, first learning and codifying advanced methods, then taking increasing ownership of new robotics, machine-vision, measurement, and equipment concepts. The goal is not to maintain yesterday’s equipment; it is to invent and prove the methods that become tomorrow’s equipment.

Why This Role Matters

As optical connectivity moves to higher density and tighter precision, manufacturing becomes a robotics and measurement problem as much as a product-design problem. We need machines that can find, align, inspect, join, and verify extremely small features repeatably — and we need the science behind those machines to be understood well enough to scale. Your work will bridge fundamental engineering with production reality: build the model, write the algorithm, instrument the experiment, integrate the hardware, and prove the result.

THIS POSITIION IS 100% ON-SITE AT THE ROCHESTER FACILITY

Job Requirements

What You’ll Research, Build & Prove

Robotics, Motion & Coordinate Systems

• Kinematics & Geometry: Develop forward/inverse kinematics, rigid-body transformations, coordinate-frame architectures, calibration methods, and geometric error models for precision equipment.
• Motion & Control: Design and evaluate motion strategies, servo behavior, trajectory generation, active alignment, and closed-loop control for precision positioning tasks.
• Calibration & Registration: Create robust methods for hand-eye calibration, sensor-to-machine registration, multi-axis alignment, and recovery from drift or reconfiguration.

Machine Vision, Sensing & Measurement

• Machine Vision: Develop 2D/3D vision methods for feature detection, pose estimation, inspection, alignment, and process feedback; select and optimize cameras, lenses, illumination, and acquisition strategies.
• Sensing Architecture: Integrate cameras, position sensors, force/other sensors, and process signals into coherent measurement systems; use sensor fusion and estimation where it adds value.
• Precision Metrology: Develop methods for repeatability, reproducibility, uncertainty, drift, calibration, correlation, and machine-to-external-metrology validation. Treat measurement as an engineered system, not just a sensor choice.

Difficult Process-Control & Equipment Problems

• Closed-Loop Process Control: Attack hard problems in precision alignment, fiber handling, stripping/cleaving, laser joining/welding, inspection, and other processes where motion, sensing, timing, and process physics interact.
• Next-Generation Equipment Concepts: Take new equipment ideas from first principles through benchtop prototype, algorithm development, hardware selection, integration, and technical proof-of-concept.
• Prototype to Scale: Partner with equipment, manufacturing-process, optics, mechanical, controls, and software engineers to turn successful prototypes into robust, maintainable production capability.

Software, Experiments & Technical Rigor

• Algorithms & Code: Develop research and prototype software in Python, C++, MATLAB, or similar environments; move critical algorithms into production software in partnership with the software team.
• Experimental Science: Design experiments that separate mechanism from noise, build error budgets, quantify uncertainty, and use data to challenge assumptions before they harden into equipment architecture.
• Technical Communication & IP: Document methods and design decisions clearly; contribute to invention disclosures, patents, internal technical standards, and external technical communication where appropriate.

What Your Background Should Look Like

• Education: PhD completed by the start date in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Engineering Science, Applied Physics, or a closely related field.
• Research Depth: Doctoral research demonstrating depth in at least two of the following: robot kinematics/dynamics/control; machine/computer vision; calibration/metrology; robotic manipulation; sensing/state estimation; precision automation; process control.
• Real Hardware: Hands-on experience building, integrating, calibrating, or debugging physical robotic, mechatronic, imaging, or automated systems. We are looking for someone who enjoys making hardware work.
• Programming: Strong technical programming ability in Python, C++, MATLAB, or equivalent, with the ability to turn mathematical methods into reliable experimental code.
• Fundamentals: Strong command of linear algebra, geometry, optimization/estimation, experimental design, and quantitative problem solving.
• Experience Level: Industry experience is not required. This role is intentionally designed for a new PhD, postdoctoral researcher, or early-career researcher/engineer ready to move from academic research into high-impact industrial R&D.

Especially Relevant Experience

• Robotics & Control: Visual servoing, robot calibration, precision manipulation, motion planning, servo control, system identification, or manipulation under uncertainty.
• Vision & Perception: Camera calibration, geometric vision, 2D/3D perception, pose estimation, image processing, active sensing, OpenCV/PCL/HALCON, ROS/ROS2, or similar tools.
• Precision Systems: Micro-assembly, semiconductor equipment, medical robotics, microscopy/instrumentation, aerospace mechanisms, automated test, or other systems where micron-scale accuracy and repeatability matter.
• Measurement Science: Uncertainty analysis, Gauge R&R/MSA, error budgeting, correlation, drift compensation, traceability, or high-precision calibration.
• Optics: Optics or photonics experience is useful but not required. Strong robotics, vision, controls, and measurement fundamentals are more important; you can learn the optical domain here.

Why TE Connectivity / Why Rochester

You will get a combination that is difficult to find in a single early-career role: a small advanced-engineering environment where your technical decisions matter, direct mentorship from senior technical leaders, hands-on access to real machines and laboratories, and the scale of a global technology company capable of turning successful ideas into manufacturing systems used across sites and products.

• Own the Full Loop: Work from first principles and algorithms through physical hardware, experiments, and production translation — rather than being confined to one narrow subsystem.
• High-Quality Mentorship: Learn directly from experienced technical authorities while being expected to develop your own point of view and technical ownership quickly.
• Work on AI Infrastructure: Apply robotics, sensing, and precision engineering to optical connectivity technologies serving rapidly evolving AI and hyperscale-computing architectures.
• Rochester Engineering Ecosystem: Build your career in one of North America’s deepest optics, photonics, imaging, and precision-engineering communities, with extensive academic and industrial expertise in the region.
• Relocation Support: This role is based in Rochester, NY because the work is hands-on with equipment and laboratories. TE will provide relocation assistance for the selected candidate.

Career Development

• Apprenticeship to Ownership: Start with close technical mentorship, then expand into independent ownership of new measurement, vision, robotics, and equipment capabilities as you demonstrate readiness.
• Broad Technical Range: Build depth across robotics, machine vision, metrology, software, precision mechanics, optics, and manufacturing rather than being locked into a single academic specialty.
• Technical Career Path: Develop toward senior technical roles in robotics, automation, sensing/metrology, advanced equipment development, or broader system architecture.
• Innovation Visibility: Opportunities to create intellectual property and contribute to technical communities, conferences, and standards where appropriate to the work.

SET : Strategy, Execution, Talent (for managers)

TE Connectivity plc (NYSE: TEL) is a global industrial technology leader creating a safer, sustainable, productive, and connected future. As a trusted innovation partner, our broad range of connectivity and sensor solutions enable the distribution of power, signal and data to advance next-generation transportation, energy networks, automated factories, data centers enabling artificial intelligence, and more. Our more than 90,000 employees, including 10,000 engineers, work alongside customers in approximately 130 countries. In a world that is racing ahead, TE ensures that EVERY CONNECTION COUNTS. Learn more at www.te.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook, WeChat, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).

Compensation

• Competitive base salary commensurate with experience: $103,900 - $155,900 (subject to change dependent on physical location)
• Posted salary ranges are made in good faith. TE Connectivity reserves the right to adjust ranges depending on the experience/qualification of the selected candidate as well as internal and external equity.
• Total Compensation = Base Salary + Incentive(s) + Benefits

Benefits

• A comprehensive benefits package including health insurance, 401(k), disability, life insurance, employee stock purchase plan, paid time off and voluntary benefits.

EOE, Including Disability/Vets

TE Connectivity has become aware of fraudulent recruitment activities being conducted by individuals or organizations falsely claiming to represent TE Connectivity. Please be advised that TE Connectivity never requests payment or fees from job applicants at any stage of the recruitment process. All legitimate job openings are posted exclusively on our official careers website at te.com/careers, and all email communications from our recruitment team will come only from actual email addresses ending in @te.com. If you receive any suspicious communications, we strongly advise you not to engage or provide any personal information, and to report the incident to your local authorities.