Systems Engineer, Robotics Hardware

Systems Engineer Role

As a Systems Engineer on the Hardware Team at Field AI, you will bring new robot platforms into our fleet and ensure that they operate at high standards in real world environments. This will involve integrating our control systems, autonomy stack, and payloads onto new robotic platforms. Your work will span across areas including platform abstraction, robot control, autonomy, sim-to-real validation, and electro-mechanical integration.

Responsibilities may include the full lifecycle from initial platform bring-up through safety qualification and field deployment. You will collaborate closely with the Autonomy/RL, Manipulation, Mechanical, and Electrical teams to build tightly integrated solutions ready for deployment in challenging field environments. Additionally while your focus will be on platform integration, you may contribute across hardware, field operations, and autonomy domains.

What You Will Get To Do

• Platform Integration & Controls

• Platform Abstraction: Build software abstraction layers between each robot's native control stack (such as ROS/ROS2) and our own systems, enabling payloads to move across platforms.
• Robot Controls & Navigation: Ensure navigation and controls stacks running correctly on physical hardware across quadruped, humanoid, and wheeled platforms.
• Electro-Mechanical Integration: Work with mechanical and electrical engineers on designing and integrating mechanical (saddles) and electrical (power distributions boards) interfaces.
• Sim-to-Real: Validate and adapt RL-based autonomy policies from simulation (Isaac, Gazebo, MuJoCo) to real-world performance on terrain, stairs, and uneven ground.

• Cross-Team Collaboration & Fleet Scaling

• Cross-Functional Integration: Coordinate across Autonomy/RL, Manipulation, Mechanical, and Electrical teams to bring new platforms online.
• Testing & Validation: Use SIL/HIL testing to ensure integrated systems are safe, reliable, and ready for field operation. Test features such as safety features and operations under different Operational Design Domains (ODDs).
• New Robots: Identify, procure, test, and integrate diverse new robotic systems.
• Multi-Platform Support: Support multiple robot morphologies including legged, quadruped, biped/humanoid, and wheeled UGVs.

• Safety & Infrastructure

• Safety Systems: Implement e-stop and redundancy/fault-tolerant safety layers, contributing to functional safety (ISO 26262, ASIL) as practices mature.
• Charging & Docking Infrastructure: Support charging station and docking infrastructure for charging, data offload, and communications.
• Field Deployment Logistics: Handle the hands-on logistics of standing up new robot platforms for field deployment across construction, mining, and oil & gas environments.

What You Have

• Education: B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Robotics, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Experience Level: We are looking to fill this role with someone with 3-9 years of experience.
• Software: Hands-on experience with middleware (ROS/ROS2) and computing languages (python, C++).
• Robotics Software Generalist: Strong generalist robotics software background spanning controls, navigation, and systems integration across legged and wheeled platforms.
• Sim-to-Real Experience: Comfort working across the sim-to-real gap, validating RL or autonomy policies from simulation (Isaac, Gazebo, MuJoCo) on physical hardware.
• Cross Functional Hardware Knowledge: Working familiarity with motors, actuation, BLDC motor controllers, and power distribution or electrical systems.
• Communication Protocols: Familiarity with CAN bus, EtherCAT, or similar real-time robotics communication protocols.
• Systems Thinking: Ability to work across mechanical, electrical, controls, and autonomy domains to make integrated systems function reliably on real hardware.

What Will Set You Apart

• Multi-Platform Experience: Experience integrating software across multiple robot platforms, including legged/quadruped, humanoid, and wheeled UGVs (e.g., Unitree, Boston Dynamics, Clearpath).
• Field Environments: Experience deploying robots in harsh, diverse industrial field environments such as construction, mining, and oil & gas.
• Functional Safety: Background in functional safety standards (ISO 26262, ASIL, SOTIF/ISO 21448) and safety-critical systems testing and validation.
• Advanced Controls: Experience with whole-body control, impedance/admittance control, MPC, or trajectory optimization for legged or manipulator systems.
• Fleet & Infrastructure: Experience with multi-robot fleet operations, auto-docking/charging infrastructure, or teleoperation systems