Software Engineer - Manipulation

Frontdoor Defense; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Apptronik in Sunnyvale, CA seeks a Software Engineer - Manipulation to deploy learning-based policies from simulation to our robot fleet. You will bridge research and production software, delivering reliable, real-time manipulation capabilities on physical hardware.

You will collaborate with simulation, data, hardware, and systems teams to move policies from demonstrations through post-training to robust deployment, focusing on visuomotor control for grasping and whole-arm manipulation.

Qualifications

• Must have manipulation experience with hardware deployment.
• Experience training and debugging learned policies including RL fine-tuning, distillation, and imitation learning (e.g., DAgger).
• Proficiency in Python, C++, and PyTorch or JAX with real-time robotic software experience.
• Experience with demonstration and teleoperation data and building evaluation pipelines for learned policies.

Responsibilities

• Implement and deploy state-of-the-art learning-based manipulation policies on real hardware.
• Adapt policies for new tasks and hardware using post-training methods.
• Build and maintain data pipelines for teleoperation, demonstration collection, and dataset curation.
• Drive development from simulation to robust real-world deployment on the robot fleet.
• Develop visuomotor policies for grasping and manipulation with low latency.

Skills

Manipulation

Learning-Based Control

Software Engineering

Data & Evaluation

Education

MS degree with 3+ years experience

PhD in related field

Tools

IsaacSim

MuJoCo

Drake

PyTorch

JAX

Python

C++

Job description

Software Engineer - Manipulation

Own deployment of learning-based manipulation policies from simulation to real robotic fleet

Location: Sunnyvale, California

Compensation: $180,000 - 240,000 USD / year

About The Role

Software Engineer - Manipulation

Apptronik is a human-centered robotics company developing AI-powered robots to support humanity in every facet of life. Our flagship humanoid robot, Apollo, is built to collaborate thoughtfully with people, starting with critical industries such as manufacturing and logistics, with future applications in healthcare, the home, and beyond. We operate at the cutting edge of Applied AI, applying our expertise across the full robotics stack to solve some of society's most important problems. You will join a team dedicated to bringing Apollo to market at scale, tackling the complex challenges like safety, commercialization, and mass production to change the world for the better.

The Software Engineer - Manipulation is a core contributor to our robot's ability to interact with the world reliably and precisely. This role is responsible for developing and deploying learning-based manipulation policies, with a focus on post-training methods that adapt and improve those policies on real tasks and physical hardware.

This role will bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and scalable, reliable production software. Working closely with the simulation, data, hardware, and systems teams, this engineer will take manipulation policies from demonstration data through post-training to robust deployment across our fleet.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities or Key Accountabilities:

• Implement and deploy state-of-the-art learning-based manipulation policies to achieve reliable, world-class performance on real-world tasks with physical hardware.
• Adapt and improve policies for new tasks and hardware using post-training methods such as RL fine-tuning, policy distillation, and interactive imitation learning (e.g., DAgger).
• Build and maintain the data pipelines that support post-training, including teleoperation and demonstration collection, retargeting, dataset aggregation, and curation.
• Drive the development cycle from simulation and offline evaluation to robustly transferring and fine-tuning policies on the robot.
• Develop visuomotor policies for grasping, in-hand manipulation, and whole-arm manipulation, with reliable, low-latency execution on hardware.
• Define evaluation metrics and regression tests for policy performance in simulation and on hardware, and use the results to guide technical decisions.
• Collaborate closely with the simulation, data, hardware, and systems teams to diagnose system-level issues and co-develop solutions.
• Maintain high standards for the codebase through testing, documentation, and peer code reviews.

Skills and Requirements:

Technical Skills (Must-Have)

• Manipulation: Strong experience in robotic manipulation, including grasping, in-hand or whole-arm control, and high-DOF motion, with a track record of hardware deployment.
• Learning-Based Control: Hands-on experience training and debugging learned policies, including post-training methods such as RL fine-tuning, distillation, and imitation learning (e.g., DAgger).
• Software Engineering: Proficiency in Python, C++, and PyTorch or JAX, with experience building real-time robotic software stacks.
• Data & Evaluation: Experience working with demonstration and teleoperation data, and building evaluation pipelines for learned policies.

Good to Have

• Simulation Environments: Experience with physics engines such as IsaacSim, MuJoCo, or Drake for policy training and validation.
• Generalist Policies: Experience adapting large, general-purpose manipulation policies to specific tasks and embodiments.
• Teleoperation: Experience with VR/haptic interfaces and retargeting algorithms for human-in-the-loop control.
• Tactile Sensing: Experience integrating tactile/haptic feedback into manipulation pipelines.
• Computer Vision: Familiarity with 6D pose estimation, point cloud processing, or visual-servoing.

Education and/or Experience:

• An MS with 3+ years of relevant experience, or a recent PhD, in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• Relevant experience specifically focused on learning-based manipulation or a closely related area.
• A proven track record of taking learned policies from a research/simulation environment and successfully deploying them on physical hardware.

Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times
• Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen
• Hearing and speech to communicate

The annual salary range is $180,000 - $240,000

Apptronik provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.