JOB SUMMARY

This role is responsible for leading our Controls Infrastructure team in delivering essential software and processes enabling precise, high-performance control of Apptronik robots. They will ensure seamless integration between robot data and models such that the robot abstraction API used for planning and controls matches both simulation and hardware across a fleet of dynamic humanoid platforms. Their team will ensure that data is properly mapped from sensors to robot models to actuator commands during real-time operation. They will also work closely with the Systems and Validation teams to translate system requirements into technical roadmaps which can deliver functionality backed by the range of unit and integration testing. Their technical leadership in software design, robot hardware integration, and controls fundamentals will drive the innovation that brings our robots to life, and their operational and managerial leadership will help the team efficiently realize those goals.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Lead a team of software engineers to deliver production-grade real-time controls software infrastructure
• Integrate low-level firmware data with high-level controls logic
• Characterize and improve the quality of robot kinematics, estimation, and actuation
• Perform root-cause analysis on complex hardware-software-controls integration bugs
• Develop API for controls and autonomy systems to interact with robot hardware and simulation
• Translate prototype algorithmic code into production-grade software
• Implement rigorous unit and integration testing of controls infrastructure and hardware integration
• Maintain comprehensive and accurate architecture and design documentation
• Deliver reliable software through code reviews, continuous integration, and automated testing
• Translate system requirements around controls infrastructure into technical roadmaps
• Keep the team aligned internally and in the broader organizational context through goal setting, planning, and accountability check-ins
• Support team personnel through 1:1s, reviews, and direct feedback to help them reach their individual professional goals
• Represent and lead with Apptronik's core values: CHIPC - Curiosity, Humility, Integrity, Passion, Creativity

SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS

• Experience providing technical leadership and translating requirements into technical roadmaps
• Strong technical communication and personal skills
• Strong modern C++ and Object-Oriented Programming skills, including inheritance, templates, and design patterns
• Proven experience integrating and testing controls software with complex robotics hardware, especially with hardware abstraction layers for the sensors and actuators of articulated systems
• Familiarity with basic robotics fundamentals such as kinematics, dynamics, controls, estimation, and system identification
• Experience with common robotics and controls packages such as ROS, URDF, MuJoCo and Eigen
• Multi-threaded and multi-process design/development/debugging skills
• Experience developing Linux applications
• Software testing methodologies (unit & integration testing)
• Git or similar version control systems
• Familiarity with Agile process (sprint planning, design reviews, & code reviews)

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE

• MS or PhD degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, or related field
• Proven industry experience (5 years, or 2 with PhD) integrating robot hardware and software; 1+ year leadership experience preferred

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