{"id":3367863,"url":"https://alion.io/job/apptronik-software-engineer-manipulation","title":"Software Engineer - Manipulation","company":{"id":47983,"name":"Apptronik","domain":"apptronik.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/apptronik","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":81,"open_postings":23,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.565,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":77,"computed_at":"2026-10-29T05:49:05Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"middle","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Sunnyvale, United States","Austin, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":180000,"max":240000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":240000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Fine-tuning","optional":false},{"name":"Imitation Learning","optional":false},{"name":"JAX","optional":false},{"name":"Knowledge Distillation","optional":false},{"name":"Model Distillation","optional":false},{"name":"Post-training","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":false},{"name":"Teleoperation","optional":false},{"name":"Computer Vision","optional":true},{"name":"Drake","optional":true},{"name":"Human-in-the-Loop","optional":true},{"name":"Isaac Sim","optional":true},{"name":"Localization","optional":true},{"name":"MuJoCo","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-27T19:39:41Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-27","last_verified_at":"2026-10-29T19:57:46Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"Apptronik is a human-centered robotics company developing AI-powered robots to support humanity in every facet of life. Our flagship humanoid robot, Apollo, is built to collaborate thoughtfully with people, starting with critical industries such as manufacturing and logistics, with future applications in healthcare, the home, and beyond.\nWe operate at the cutting edge of Applied AI, applying our expertise across the full robotics stack to solve some of society's most important problems. You will join a team dedicated to bringing Apollo to market at scale, tackling the complex challenges like safety, commercialization, and mass production to change the world for the better.\nJOB SUMMARY\nThe Software Engineer - Manipulation is a core contributor to our robot's ability to interact with the world reliably and precisely. This role is responsible for developing and deploying learning-based manipulation policies, with a focus on post-training methods that adapt and improve those policies on real tasks and physical hardware.\nThis role will bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and scalable, reliable production software. Working closely with the simulation, data, hardware, and systems teams, this engineer will take manipulation policies from demonstration data through post-training to robust deployment across our fleet.\nESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES\nImplement and deploy state-of-the-art learning-based manipulation policies to achieve reliable, world-class performance on real-world tasks with physical hardware.\nAdapt and improve policies for new tasks and hardware using post-training methods such as RL fine-tuning, policy distillation, and interactive imitation learning (e.g., DAgger).\nBuild and maintain the data pipelines that support post-training, including teleoperation and demonstration collection, retargeting, dataset aggregation, and curation.\nDrive the development cycle from simulation and offline evaluation to robustly transferring and fine-tuning policies on the robot.\nDevelop visuomotor policies for grasping, in-hand manipulation, and whole-arm manipulation, with reliable, low-latency execution on hardware.\nDefine evaluation metrics and regression tests for policy performance in simulation and on hardware, and use the results to guide technical decisions.\nCollaborate closely with the simulation, data, hardware, and systems teams to diagnose system-level issues and co-develop solutions.\nMaintain high standards for the codebase through testing, documentation, and peer code reviews.\nSKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS\nTechnical Skills (Must-Have)\nManipulation: Strong experience in robotic manipulation, including grasping, in-hand or whole-arm control, and high-DOF motion, with a track record of hardware deployment.\n Learning-Based Control: Hands-on experience training and debugging learned policies, including post-training methods such as RL fine-tuning, distillation, and imitation learning (e.g., DAgger).\nSoftware Engineering: Proficiency in Python, C++, and PyTorch or JAX, with experience building real-time robotic software stacks.\nData & Evaluation: Experience working with demonstration and teleoperation data, and building evaluation pipelines for learned policies.\nGood to Have\nSimulation Environments: Experience with physics engines such as IsaacSim, MuJoCo, or Drake for policy training and validation.\nGeneralist Policies: Experience adapting large, general-purpose manipulation policies to specific tasks and embodiments.\nTeleoperation: Experience with VR/haptic interfaces and retargeting algorithms for human-in-the-loop control.\nTactile Sensing: Experience integrating tactile/haptic feedback into manipulation pipelines.\nComputer Vision: Familiarity with 6D pose estimation, point cloud processing, or visual-servoing.\nEDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE\nAn MS with 3+ years of relevant experience, or a recent PhD, in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.\nRelevant experience specifically focused on learning-based manipulation or a closely related area.\nA proven track record of taking learned policies from a research/simulation environment and successfully deploying them on physical hardware.\nPHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS\nProlonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer\nMust be able to lift 15 pounds at times\nVision to read printed materials and a computer screen\nHearing and speech to communicate\nThe annual salary range is $180,000 - $240,000 \n*This is a direct hire. Please, no outside Agency solicitations. \nApptronik provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4946,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":3,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"phd","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Robotics AI","Robotic Components & Sensors","Humanoid Robots"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-27T23:51:16Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 23","filings_12m":23,"filings_prev_12m":20,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":157500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-29T16:27:21+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":63,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.632,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":77,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-29T05:49:05Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":240000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/apptronik-software-engineer-manipulation","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/apptronik-software-engineer-manipulation.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-29T21:05:01Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":31287,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-30T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":47983},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=47983"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fapptronik-software-engineer-manipulation"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fapptronik-software-engineer-manipulation"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fapptronik-software-engineer-manipulation"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/apptronik-software-engineer-manipulation\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fapptronik-software-engineer-manipulation"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3367863}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"apptronik.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3367863},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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