Staff Robotics Controls Engineer - Humanoid Systems

Apptronik; Sunnyvale, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Apptronik in Sunnyvale, CA is building robots to improve human life. As Staff Software Engineer – Humanoid Controls, you will be a senior technical force multiplier on the Motion Control & Planning team, shaping whole-body control for our wheeled-base platform and biped, translating advanced control and learning into real capability.

You will own architecture and real-time performance, collaborate with hardware and RL teams, mentor engineers, and drive safer, scalable software from simulation

Qualifications

• Strong grounding in kinematics, dynamics, state estimation, and optimization.
• Expertise in whole-body control (WBC/OSC/MPC) for floating-base or mobile platforms.
• Hands-on experience with learning-based control / reinforcement learning in robotics.
• Experience deploying controllers on real robot hardware.
• Preferred: safety-critical / certified software experience (ISO 13849, IEC 61508).

Responsibilities

• Raise the quality of the controls stack: architecture, algorithms, testing, maintenance.
• Advance whole-body control across platforms: wheeled-base and biped.
• Translate state-of-the-art methods from simulation to hardware bring-up.
• Collaborate with hardware, systems, and RL teams to diagnose issues.
• Mentor engineers and influence roadmap across teams.

Skills

Robotics fundamentals

Whole-body control

Learning-based control

Realtime C++/Python

Production-grade controllers

Education

MS/PhD in Robotics or Computer Science

Job description

Apptronik in Sunnyvale, CA is building robots to improve human life. As Staff Software Engineer – Humanoid Controls, you will be a senior technical force multiplier on the Motion Control & Planning team, shaping whole-body control for our wheeled-base platform and biped, translating advanced control and learning into real capability.

You will own architecture and real-time performance, collaborate with hardware and RL teams, mentor engineers, and drive safer, scalable software from simulation