Senior / Staff Sim-to-Real Engineer (Tendon-based Robotic Hands)

Senior Engineer:

Preferred Qualifications

• Specific experience modeling, calibrating, or controlling tendon-driven or cable-driven robotic systems.
• Familiarity with modern RL environments and physics simulators (e.g., MuJoCo, Isaac Sim/Gym, Drake, or Bullet).
• Experience with sim-to-real techniques such as Domain Randomization, System ID-based digital twins, or Actuator Net modeling.
• PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS
• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times
• Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen
• Hearing and speech to communicate
• This is a direct hire. Please, no outside Agency solicitations.
• Apptronik 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.

Qualifications

• AND REQUIREMENTS
• Experience Level: 5+ years of industry or development experience post graduation in robotics, controls, or physical simulation, operating at a Senior or Staff level.
• Sim-to-Real Expertise: Proven track record of successfully transferring RL-based control policies from simulation to physical hardware. (Experience in locomotion or whole-body control is highly valued and directly applicable).
• System ID & QDD Actuators: Deep, hands-on experience with control, system identification, and characterization of Quasi-Direct Drive (QDD) actuators.
• Dynamics & Calibration: Strong foundation in rigid multi-body dynamics, kinematic calibration, and inertial identification.
• Hardware Profiling: Proven experience verifying effort production, characterizing friction/backlash, and diagnosing hardware-software discrepancies in complex mechanisms.
• Autonomy: Demonstrated ability to take an open-ended problem (e.g., "our policies fail when the tendon stretches"), design an empirical test, update the simulation model, and resolve the reality gap independently.
• BS, MS or PhD in Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 5+ years of relevant industry experience in robotics, controls or physical simulation with a BS (or 3+ years with an MS, or 1-2 years with a PhD)
• MS or PhD in Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 10+ years of relevant industry experience in robotics, controls or physical simulation with a BS (or 8+ years with an MS, or 6+ years with a PhD).