Robotics Research Engineer: Real-Time Control

The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 129,000 - 193,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental and vision coverage

Retirement plan

Transit and wellbeing stipend

Job summary

The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence is seeking a Research Engineer in Robotics - Roboticist to own the real-time control stack for robotic platforms in Seattle. You will tune torque and impedance control on arms, hands, and humanoids, ensuring safe, reliable hardware for researchers.

Collaboration with the simulation team and researchers is central to this role. Preferred candidates have humanoid whole-body control experience and familiarity with Unitree platforms, CAD for lab

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in robotics, control or related field; 3+ years experience.
• Strong background in real-time control of physical robots.
• Proficient in Python and C++ for robotics.
• Experience with ROS 2 and robot software systems.
• Experience with hardware integration and test rigs.

Responsibilities

• Build and own the real-time control stack for robots (arms, hands, humanoids).
• Stabilize whole-body controllers for humanoids and bimanual systems.
• Lead setup, calibration, maintenance and tuning of robots (arms, grippers, cameras).
• Diagnose stability, latency and contact issues; apply system identification.
• Design hardware for lab needs and develop supportive tooling and interfaces.
• Contribute to open-source releases and publications.

Skills

Real-time control

Robotics

Python

C++

ROS 2

System identification

Hardware integration

Simulation-to-real

Humanoid/Unitree experience

Education

Master's degree in robotics or related field

PhD (optional)

Tools

CAD (SolidWorks / Fusion 360 / Onshape)

MuJoCo

Isaac Lab

Job description

The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence is seeking a Research Engineer in Robotics - Roboticist to own the real-time control stack for robotic platforms in Seattle. You will tune torque and impedance control on arms, hands, and humanoids, ensuring safe, reliable hardware for researchers.

Collaboration with the simulation team and researchers is central to this role. Preferred candidates have humanoid whole-body control experience and familiarity with Unitree platforms, CAD for lab