OpenAI

Control Systems Software Engineer, Robotics

OpenAI • $130K — $155K *
Consumer Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Strong robotics background including manipulators and mobile robots.
  • Experience with actuation, control systems, and robot dynamics.
  • Hands-on expertise with robotic hardware for commissioning and debugging.
  • Solid grasp of classical control, system dynamics, and estimation techniques.
  • Familiarity with modern learning-based and reinforcement learning methods.
  • Proficient in C++ or Rust for writing production-quality software.
  • Experience in transitioning between simulation and real-world testing environments.

Responsibilities

  • Design and implement real-time control algorithms for robotic systems.
  • Define control architecture from actuators to whole-robot behavior.
  • Conduct rigorous experimentation to characterize actuator and software parameters.
  • Collaborate with machine learning engineers on reinforcement learning implementations.
  • Work with cross-functional teams to integrate control logic with hardware.
  • Inform mechanical and electrical designs for enhanced capabilities.
  • Create comprehensive control system architecture for the robotic systems.

Benefits

  • Work in a hands-on role focused directly on robot behavior and performance.
  • Opportunity to collaborate with diverse teams across various engineering disciplines.
  • Engage in intensive hands-on experimentation and debugging.
  • Gain exposure to cutting-edge technology in robotics and AI.
  • Be part of a foundational role that shapes the future of the robot team.
Full Job Description
About the RoleWe're looking for a Robotics Control Systems Engineer to take on a foundational role within our robotics team. You'll help architect, implement, tune, and verify the control infrastructure that enables intelligent, reliable, and responsive robot behavior.

This is a deeply hands-on role focused on real-time systems, actuation, dynamics, low-level hardware interaction, and whole-robot performance. You'll spend significant time working directly with robots onsite: debugging behavior, tuning subsystems, running experiments, and providing feedback across mechanical, electrical, and software teams.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA, and requires in-person 5 days a week.

In this role, you will:
  • Design and implement real-time control algorithms for robotic systems, including motion control, feedback loops, state estimation, actuator control, and subsystem tuning.
  • Define the control architecture from low-level actuators and hardware interfaces through whole-robot behavior and policy.
  • Identify and characterize actuator, hardware, and software parameters through rigorous experimentation, testing, commissioning, and verification.
  • Work with machine learning engineers to implement reinforcement learning models.
  • Collaborate across mechanical, electrical, and software teams to integrate control logic with sensing and actuation hardware.
  • Help inform the mechanical and electrical design to maximize capability and flexibility.
  • Create the control system architecture; determine the correct level of abstraction from actuators all the way up to whole-robot policy.

You might thrive in this role if you:
  • Have a strong robotics background, including manipulators, mobile robots, or other complex physical systems.
  • Have experience with actuation, control systems, robot dynamics, estimation, subsystem tuning, or whole-body motion.
  • Are comfortable being hands-on with robotic hardware, including commissioning, debugging, testing, and iterating on real robots.
  • Have strong fundamentals in classical control, system dynamics, and estimation, with exposure to modern learning-based or reinforcement learning approaches.
  • Can move comfortably across the stack, from low-level actuator behavior and hardware interfaces to higher-level algorithms and whole-robot performance.
  • Have experience writing performant production-quality software in C++ or Rust.
  • Experience with robotic hardware and enjoy iterating quickly between simulation and real-world testing environments.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research laboratory consisting of the for-profit corporation OpenAI LP and its parent company, the non-profit OpenAI Inc. The company was founded in 2015 by a group of technology leaders, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and John Schulman. OpenAI's mission is to develop and promote friendly AI for the betterment of humanity. The company has developed a number of cutting-edge AI technologies, including GPT-3, a language processing system that can generate human-like text. OpenAI has received funding from a number of high-profile investors, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
Learn more about OpenAI
Size
100 employees
Industry
Founded
2015

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