Robotics Engineer, Mobile Manipulation - NREC

At the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC), it is our engineers and technicians who drive the breakthroughs that define our success. Our technical staff collaborates closely with leadership and multidisciplinary teams to design, build, and deploy sophisticated robotic solutions that address complex challenges in industrial, commercial and government sectors. Each project benefits from their expertise, creativity, and hands-on problem-solving, fueling progress and innovation across the organization.

As part of our dedicated team, you will work alongside world-class robotics professionals committed to pushing the boundaries of technology and redefining ideas into solutions for real-world applications. We foster a culture of professionalism, respect, and collaboration, offering a flexible and encouraging environment where you can sharpen your skills, lead impactful projects, and take control of your career development.

We are seeking a motivated roboticist to help develop and deploy the next generation of mobile manipulation systems for real-world applications. You'll bridge research and industry by transforming advanced robotic concepts into robust, production-ready technologies. The work emphasizes hands-on development, integration, and deployment of systems that combine perception, planning, and control to address impactful challenges in areas including logistics, manufacturing, and automated science.

If you're passionate about building real robots that make a measurable difference in the world, we'd love to hear from you.

Your primary responsibilities are:

* Developing algorithms for perception-aided control of manipulators on mobile robots for real world applications

* Prototyping in scripting languages

* Transitioning applications to deployment with production quality code

* Designing, developing, documenting, testing, troubleshooting, and maintaining software applications and integrated systems

* Interacting with sponsors for planning, application support, and reporting purposes

* Surveying literature and implementing innovative techniques to take on exciting problems

* Following protocols for team software development (peer reviews of designs and code, unit and system testing, version control, bug tracking, integrated documentation)

* Developing, documenting, and applying software system testing, troubleshooting, and verification procedures

* Collaboration with engineers with varied skills, including communication, co-design, and joint decision making

Required Qualifications:

* B.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics or equivalent experience (M.S. or PhD is a bonus).

* 1-3 years combined graduate academic and professional software development experience

* Experience with 3D perception (LiDAR, stereo vision, RGB-D, point cloud processing)

* Knowledge of kinematics, dynamics, and control of manipulators

* Strong background in at least one of

* Motion planning (Move It, OMPL, RRT*, etc.)

* Grasp/manipulation planning or whole-body control

* Strong C++ skills

* Experience with scripting languages for quick prototyping of computer vision applications (Python or Matlab preferred)

* Linux development experience

* Knowledge of basic software engineering principles

* Technical communication skill

* Demonstrated success collaborating alongside a multi-functional team

We especially want to hear from you if you have experience or qualifications in any of the following areas:

* Sensor and robot calibration (stereo, hand-eye, multi-modal)

* Visual sensing

* Robot navigation, field robotics

* Reinforcement learning, imitation learning, or foundation models for robotics

* Visual/inertial odometry, mapping, or SLAM

* Familiarity with Gazebo, Isaac Sim, or Mujoco for simulation

* Knowledge of real-time control

* Real-world deployment, systems engineering

* Embedded systems or real time application development

* C++ Libraries such as OpenCV, PCL, ROS, Boost, Eigen

* CUDA programming

Other Requirements:

Successful pre-employment background check

This position will require work on a variety of projects, including projects that involve military/defense applications and/or are funded by military/defense sponsors.

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