Robotics Lab Support Engineer

Aquent; Mountain View (CA); Presencial; USD 90.000 - 120.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

Aquent seeks a hands-on Robotics Lab Support Engineer to bridge software deployment, fabrication, sensor integration, and lab operations. You will build test setups, calibrate vision systems, and manage data pipelines for model evaluations in a global AI manufacturing program.

You will collaborate with researchers and engineers to maintain safe, efficient experiments, handle hardware readiness, vendor coordination, and ROS 2 deployments on physical robots.

Formación

• Degree or equivalent practical experience in robotics or related field.
• Experience maintaining robotics lab environments and safety SOPs.
• Hands-on teleoperation and structured data collection with UMI or similar.
• CAD, 3D printing, and hardware prototyping experience.

Responsabilidades

• Maintain robotics lab operations, prepare hardware, ensure safety and readiness.
• Conduct teleoperation and data collection using UMI and rigs.
• Design fixtures, calibrate sensors, fabricate mounts with CAD/3D printing.
• Support software deployment, ROS 2 workflows, and simulators like Isaac Sim.

Conocimientos

Robotics

Lab Operations

Teleoperation

Data Capture

CAD

3D Printing

Vision Systems

Ubuntu/Linux

ROS 2

Python

Educación

Degree or equivalent in Robotics/Engineering/CS

Herramientas

CAD

3D Printing

Gazebo

NVIDIA Isaac Sim

Git

Bash

Descripción del empleo

About the Role & Organization

We are building one of the most ambitious AI and robotics programs in manufacturing, developing physical AI systems capable of autonomously manipulating thousands of parts across a global plant network.

Our Robotics AI organization sits at the intersection of cutting-edge AI research, robotics engineering, data infrastructure, and global manufacturing operations. We bridge the gap between AI models and physical hardware—ensuring our experimental labs operate as high-reliability testing environments for next-generation manipulation policies.

Role Overview

We are seeking a hands-on Robotics Lab Support Engineer to serve as the critical bridge across software deployment, mechanical fabrication, sensor integration, teleoperation, and daily lab operations.

In this role, you will ensure our robotics laboratory runs with maximum efficiency, safety, and repeatability. You will support multidisciplinary teams of researchers and engineers by building test setups, calibrating vision systems, driving structured data collection pipelines, executing model deployments, and managing vendor/facilities operations.

What You Will Own

• 1. Robotics Lab Operations & Facilities Coordination

  Workstation & Hardware Readiness: Prepare robots, sensor packages, computer workstations, power drops, and safety barriers for daily experiments and policy evaluations.

  Troubleshooting & Maintenance: Manage setup changes between experiments and rapidly diagnose basic hardware, power, signal, or network connectivity issues.

  Facilities & Security Integration: Coordinate with Facilities Management and Security on room utilization, power load requirements, spatial storage, equipment receiving, and access control.

  Inventory & Vendor Operations: Track incoming and outgoing experimental components; manage vendor relationships for part ordering, shipping, warranty claims, service calls, and returns.

  Documentation & Safety: Maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs), test notes, issue logs, and handoff documentation while strictly enforcing lab safety standards.

• 2. Teleoperation, Data Collection & Policy Evaluation

  Data Capture Workflows: Conduct hands-on teleoperation and structured data collection using platforms like Universal Manipulation Interface (UMI) and custom rigs across tasks ranging from pick-and-place to complex assembly.

  Data Quality & Annotation: Execute structured data capture, annotation, quality checks, and dataset cleaning for imitation learning models.

  Systemic Evaluation: Support systematic policy evaluations on physical hardware, logging failure modes, tracking operational metrics, and generating evaluation summaries.

• 3. Mechanical Fabrication & Vision Systems Integration

  Prototyping & Fixturing: Design and build custom camera mounts, brackets, fixtures, and hardware modifications using CAD, 3D printing (FDM/SLA), and workshop power tools.

  Sensor & Camera Calibration: Perform camera calibration, sensor synchronization, coordinate frame setups, and stereo/RGB-D dataset capture under controlled visual/lighting conditions.

  Hardware Iteration: Modify and iterate physical components to improve rigidity, spatial positioning, usability, and experiment repeatability.

• 4. Software, Deployment & Simulation Support

  Linux Workflows: Work fluently in Ubuntu/Linux terminal environments, using Git, Bash, and Python scripts to run test routines, parse logs, and inspect data.

  ROS 2 & Hardware Deployment: Support basic ROS 2 workflows and follow deployment SOPs to flash and run software/models on physical robots.

  Simulation Configuration: Validate and configure simulation environments (including exposure to tools like NVIDIA Isaac Sim) to support sim-to-real workflows.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Education & Background: Degree or equivalent practical experience in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
• Lab & Operations Discipline: Demonstrated experience maintaining robotics lab environments, following safety SOPs, tracking inventory, and managing hardware readiness.
• Teleoperation & Data Capture: Practical experience with teleoperation setups (e.g., UMI), structured dataset collection, and quality control for robotic manipulation.
• Mechanical Fabrication: Hands-on experience with CAD modeling, 3D printing, and mechanical prototyping tools to fabricate mounts, brackets, and test rigs.
• Vision & Sensors: Experience with camera calibration, coordinate frame transformations, and handling RGB-D or stereo-camera datasets.
• Software & OS: Proficiency operating within Ubuntu/Linux terminal environments using basic Python, Bash, Git, and introductory ROS 2 workflows.

Strongly Preferred Qualifications

• Basic understanding of imitation learning, computer vision pipelines, and robotics training datasets.
• Familiarity with robotics simulation tools (e.g., NVIDIA Isaac Sim, Gazebo).
• Practical experience dealing with external vendors, procurement, and facilities management in an industrial or research setting.
• Familiarity with basic electrical prototyping, wire harness assembly, and connectivity troubleshooting.

Who You Are

The Hands-On Fixer: You thrive when moving between CAD design, power tools, Linux terminals, and robot arms.

The Methodical Operator: You believe that great AI models require disciplined, repeatable physical experiment setups, clean datasets, and strict SOP adherence.

The Cross-Functional Facilitator: You communicate effectively across software engineers, AI researchers, facilities staff, and vendors to eliminate downtime and keep experiments moving forward.