{"id":663129,"url":"https://alion.io/job/foundryrobotics-robotics-research-engineer","title":"Robotics Research Engineer","company":{"id":673210,"name":"Foundry Robotics","domain":"foundryrobotics.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/foundryrobotics","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":4,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":121,"computed_at":"2026-11-04T06:34:25Z"}},"role":"Robotics","role_family":"Robotics","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Emeryville, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":150000,"max":250000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":250000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"ROS2","optional":false},{"name":"Vision-Language-Action","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-03-04T17:56:04Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-03-04","last_verified_at":"2026-11-04T11:32:44Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":244,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":[],"days_open":244},"description":"Robotics Research Engineer\nAbout Us\nWe are reimagining manufacturing through advanced robotics. Our mission is to rebuild the American manufacturing industry as an AI-first, assembly-focused, dual-use contract manufacturer. We aim to empower manufacturers with intelligent, efficient, and adaptable robotic systems that redefine productivity and quality. As a founding member of our engineering team, you will have a direct and significant impact on our product, culture, and ultimate success. This role is 100% in-person at our office in Emeryville, CA.\nThe Role\nWe are hiring aRobotics Research Engineer to design, implement, and deploy intelligent robotic systems for manufacturing.\nThis is not a purely academic role - and not a generic software role. You will work across:\nROS2-based system architecture\n\nManipulation and navigation\n\nPerception and VLA-based control\n\nTraditional controls fused with learned methods\n\nOn-site deployment in production manufacturing workcells\n\nYou should be equally comfortable reading robotics papers, tuning controllers, debugging sensor calibration, and pushing production code to robots running on a factory floor.\nKey Responsibilities\nRobotics Systems & Architecture\nDesign and implement distributed robotic systems in ROS2\n\nBuild modular autonomy stacks for manipulation and mobile platforms\n\nOwn system-level performance, latency, and reliability\n\nRobotics Foundation Models (VLA)\nDevelop and integrate Vision-Language-Action models for robotic control\n\nDesign data collection pipelines and fine-tune foundation models for assembly tasks\n\nBenchmark and evaluate real-world performance\n\nControls + Learning\nFuse traditional control with learned policies\n\nImplement hybrid perception-planning-control architectures\n\nImprove robustness, repeatability, and safety in physical systems\n\nManipulation, Navigation & Deployment\nDevelop algorithms for dexterous manipulation and industrial navigation\n\nShip systems from prototype to production\n\nDebug real-world edge cases (lighting, calibration drift, wear, latency) and maintain deployed robotic cells\n\nWhat We're Looking For\nDeployment Mentality\nExperience shipping systems into real environments (not just lab demos)\n\nComfort debugging hardware-software integration issues\n\nAbility to own systems end-to-end\n\nOwnership\nThrives in high-velocity, ambiguous environments\n\nTakes full technical ownership of complex systems\n\nWilling to get into the weeds of mechanical, electrical, and software challenges\n\nNice to Have\nPhD in Robotics or related field\n\nExperience working on dual-use or DoD-related systems\n\nAbility to obtain a government security clearance\n\nExperience with safety-critical robotic systems\n\nGrowth Opportunities\nDefine the technical direction of robotics foundation model deployment in manufacturing\n\nBuild and lead the autonomy team\n\nShape the next generation of AI-driven assembly systems\n\nBecome a core technical interface with defense and industrial partners\n\nWhy Join Us?\nThis is one of the only places where world-class manufacturing operators, mechanical engineers, robotics researchers, and software engineers sit in the same room - building production systems together.\nWe are committed to being deeply embedded in the U.S. industrial base. Our focus is simple: build adaptive robotic assembly systems that make American manufacturing scalable, resilient, and competitive again.\nIf you want to publish papers, this may not be the role.\nIf you want to build and deploy the systems those papers were meant to enable - this is it.\nThe base salary range for this full-time position in the location of Emeryville is:\n$150,000-$250,000 USD\nCompensation packages at Foundry Robotics for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position, determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Foundry Robotics employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. You’ll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: Comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, and generous PTO.\nFoundry Robotics is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4520,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"phd","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Growth opportunities"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Industrial Robotics","Manufacturing & Industrial Software"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-10T21:43:41Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 2","filings_12m":2,"filings_prev_12m":0,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":192500,"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":2}],"liveness":{"score":15,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.434,"p_room":0.35,"age_days":244,"expected_fill_days":121,"reasons":["conf:4","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-11-04T06:34:25Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":250000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/foundryrobotics-robotics-research-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/foundryrobotics-robotics-research-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-04T15:36:36Z","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":23884,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-05T00:00:00Z"}},"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":673210},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=673210"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Ffoundryrobotics-robotics-research-engineer"},{"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%2Ffoundryrobotics-robotics-research-engineer"},{"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%2Ffoundryrobotics-robotics-research-engineer"},{"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/foundryrobotics-robotics-research-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ffoundryrobotics-robotics-research-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":663129}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"foundryrobotics.ai","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":663129},"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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