Software Engineer: Robotics Controls

Generalist AI; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Generalist is building software to control robots across multiple embodiments, turning research output into real-time, safe actions. You will own the real-time control stack, from firmware to high-level input specifications, collaborating with ML and hardware teams.

The role suits experts in rigid body kinematics and robotic controls, with production-ready Python and C++, and experience deploying robots in reliable environments. PhD holders are common in our team.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in rigid body kinematics and robotic controls.
• Production experience for robots with stringent reliability requirements.
• Proficient in high-performance, production-ready Python and C++.
• Experience with kinematics and simulation libraries.
• Familiar with robotic middleware like ROS/ROS2/ZCM.
• 5+ years of experience, often with a PhD.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and test the entire real-time control system from firmware to embodiment input specs.
• Own a variety of robot embodiments from stock arms to custom hardware.
• Collaborate with ML and hardware teams to ensure system reliability and performance.

Skills

Robotic controls

C++

Python

ROS/ROS2

Kinematics

Real-time systems

Education

PhD or equivalent

Tools

ROS

Gazebo

Job description

About Generalist

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