Encord

Robotics Systems Engineer

Encord

full-time

Posted on:

Location Type: Hybrid

Location: San Francisco • California • United States

Visit company website

Explore more

✨ AI Apply
Apply

Tech Stack

CloudDockerLinuxPython

About the role

  • Build the hardware infrastructure — Set up and maintain robot arms, cameras, and VR teleoperation rigs. Design workstation layouts. Keep systems calibrated. When something breaks mid-shift, get us back online. When we scale from 10 to 50 stations, figure out how.
  • Build the data pipeline — Ingest multi-modal sensor streams (joint states, wrist and scene cameras, gripper, 6DOF controller poses), synchronize across modalities, validate quality, and export in formats customers need — LeRobot HDF5, RLDS, MCAP, ROSBAGS and custom specs. Own the full journey from sensor to deliverable dataset.
  • Maintain edge infrastructure — Run local buffering and automated upload at capture facilities. Keep data flowing reliably from the floor to the cloud even when connectivity is flaky.
  • Operationalize annotation tooling — Work with our ML team to run VLM/VLA-based annotation passes that auto-generate action labels from raw robot video. Own throughput, prompt reliability, and output validation.
  • Solve problems as they come — Debug hardware failures, adapt to new customer requirements, work around sensors that don't behave as expected. Document what you learn so we don't hit the same wall twice.
  • Shape what comes next — Help us figure out when to specialize, what to build vs. buy, and how to scale globally.

Requirements

  • You've built something from scratch before — a lab setup, a data collection system, a side project, a startup — and you loved the ambiguity
  • You default to action. When you don't know the answer, you run an experiment instead of waiting for direction
  • You have hands-on experience with robotics, automation, or mechatronic systems — robot arms, drones, CNC machines, or something you built yourself
  • You're proficient in Python and comfortable building data pipelines from scratch
  • You're at home in Linux and ROS/ROS 2, and can pick up new tools quickly (Docker, cloud infra, whatever's needed)
  • You understand what makes a robot episode good training data — not just that it recorded, but that it's actually usable for imitation learning
  • You've dealt with multi-modal timestamp synchronization — hardware triggers, PTP, or software alignment across cameras and joint encoders
  • You'd rather ship something imperfect and iterate than wait for perfect requirements
  • You take ownership end-to-end, even when it's outside your "job description"
Benefits
  • Health insurance
  • 401(k) matching
  • Flexible working hours
  • Professional development opportunities
Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools
roboticsautomationmechatronic systemsdata pipelinesPythonmulti-modal timestamp synchronizationimitation learningdebuggingcalibrationdata validation
Soft Skills
problem-solvingownershipadaptabilityaction-orientedexperiment-drivencollaborationdocumentationiterative developmentambiguity managementcommunication