Software Engineer: Robotics Controls

Generalist AI, Inc.; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Generalist AI, Inc. is seeking an experienced robotics software engineer to own and advance the real-time control software for diverse robot embodiments.

You will work with ML and hardware teams to ensure safe, efficient and reliable robot actions across multiple platforms. The role emphasizes high-performance, production-ready Python and C++ code, extensive knowledge of kinematics, and integration with middleware such as ROS/ROS2/ZCM.

Qualifications

• Design, implement and test real-time control systems across firmware and per-embodiment input specs.
• Work with multiple robot embodiments from stock arms to custom hardware.
• Extensive experience in rigid body kinematics and robotics controls.
• Experience deploying robots in production with high Reliability requirements.
• Strong proficiency in production-grade Python and C++.
• Familiarity with kinematics/simulation libraries and robotic middleware.

Responsibilities

• Designing, implementing, and testing the entire real-time control system from the low-level firmware to the input spec for each embodiment we have
• Ownership over a wide variety of robot embodiments from stock industrial co-bot arms to custom hardware

Skills

Python

C++

Robotics controls

Rigid body kinematics

Education

PhD in Robotics or related field

MS in Robotics

Tools

ROS/ROS2/ZCM

Job description

At Generalist, we are on a mission to build general intelligence for the physical world and make it useful to everyone. We believe the industries and homes of the future will depend on humans and machines working together in new ways. Robots can help us build more and get more done.

We build embodied foundation models, starting with a focus on dexterity. This requires advancing the frontiers of data, models, and hardware, to enable robots to intelligently interact with the physical world.

The company embraces both large-scale AI and robotics as core to its DNA. Our team of researchers, roboticists, and company builders come from OpenAI, Boston Dynamics, Google DeepMind, and other frontier labs—with a track record of shipping AI breakthroughs. Before Generalist, we pioneered large embodied multimodal models and vision-language-action models (PaLM-E, RT-2 , Gemini Robotics ), launched and scaled ChatGPT and GPT-4 to hundreds of millions of users, engineered the foundations of autonomous driving, built next-generation robots ( Atlas , Spot , Stretch ) and pushed the limits of what they can do (from parkour to manipulation , and testing robustness ).

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

About the Role

You will own the software that controls our robots. You will collaborate with ML to turn output intentions into smooth, efficient, safe, and responsive actions on a variety of robot embodiments. You will collaborate with hardware and partners to ensure the system, dynamics, and components are behaving optimally.

You’ll be responsible for:

• Designing, implementing, and testing the entire real-time control system from the low-level firmware to the input spec for each embodiment we have
• Ownership over a wide variety of robot embodiments from stock industrial co-bot arms to custom hardware

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have extensive experience in rigid body kinematics, and robotic controls
• Have experience bringing robots into production environments with stringent reliability requirements
• Are experienced in high performance, production-ready Python and C++
• Experience with kinematics/simulation libraries
• Have experience in robotic middleware platforms such as ROS/ROS2/ZCM
• Successful candidates have extensive experience (5+ years), often including a PhD