Engineering Manager - Controls
Summary
Leads a team of software engineers building the real-time control software for Apptronik's humanoid robot Apollo in Austin, TX — managing people and delivery while staying hands-on with C++ robot controls, state estimation, simulation-to-hardware deployment, and integration of learned policies and teleoperation.
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.
We 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.
JOB SUMMARY
The Engineering Manager - Controls leads a team of software engineers responsible for the real-time control software that runs on our humanoid robots. This role is accountable for the team's people and delivery: hiring and developing engineers, driving the team's deliverables within the broader Controls roadmap, and making sure the control stack is reliable, well tested, and ready for production.
This is a player-leader role. The ideal candidate brings a strong background in robot control and real-time software, stays close enough to the code to review designs and unblock engineers, and partners closely with the firmware, embedded software, learning, teleoperation, and test teams to bring new capabilities from simulation onto the robot fleet.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
- Real-Time Control Software: Oversee development of the real-time control framework that runs on the robot, including robot drivers, state estimation, control interfaces, and the integration of learned policies and teleoperation.
- Execution & Planning: Plan and drive the team's deliverables in coordination with other leads within the broader Controls roadmap. Break program goals into deliverable work, track progress against milestones, and raise risks to schedule or quality early.
- Team Leadership & Growth: Hire, manage, and mentor a team of controls and software engineers. Set clear priorities and ownership, give regular feedback, and develop engineers and tech leads into stronger technical contributors.
- Quality & Release: Maintain a high bar for code quality through design reviews, code reviews, and automated testing, including simulation and hardware-in-the-loop regression tests. Own the team's part of the software release process and the stability of what ships to the fleet.
- Iteration Speed: Keep the control software and tooling fast to work with, so engineers can quickly try new approaches to hard robotics problems in simulation and on hardware.
- Simulation & Hardware Validation: Ensure the control stack behaves consistently in simulation and on hardware, and support robot bring-up, calibration tooling, and root-cause analysis of issues found in testing and in the field.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with the firmware, embedded software, learning, teleoperation, systems, and test teams to align on interfaces, priorities, and schedules, and represent the team in stakeholder reviews.
SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS
Technical Skills (Must-Have)
- Controls Background: Strong foundation in robot kinematics, dynamics, and control, with hands-on experience in areas such as whole-body control, manipulation, or teleoperation.
- Real-Time Software: Experience building or leading development of real-time robotic software in C++, including multi-threaded execution, timing, and hardware interfaces.
- Hardware Deployment: A track record of taking control software from simulation to physical robots and supporting it in testing and deployment.
- People Leadership: Experience managing or leading engineers, including hiring, mentoring, performance feedback, and setting team priorities.
- Execution: Experience planning and delivering software in a fast-moving R&D environment, balancing near-term deliverables with long-term code health.
Good to Have
- Humanoid or Legged Robots: Experience with humanoid, legged, or mobile manipulation platforms.
- State Estimation & System Identification: Experience with state estimation and system identification for robotic systems.
- Learned Policy Integration: Experience integrating reinforcement learning or other learned policies into a real-time control stack.
- Simulation Environments: Experience with physics engines such as MuJoCo, IsaacSim, or Drake.
- Testing Infrastructure: Experience with hardware-in-the-loop testing, continuous integration, and release processes for robotics software.
- Robotics Middleware: Familiarity with ROS 2 or similar robotics middleware.
EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE
- MS or PhD in Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
- 4+ years of relevant industry experience in robot controls or robotics software (or 2+ years with a PhD), including 1+ year managing engineers and 2+ years as a technical lead.
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.
Skills
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- Do you have 4+ years of industry experience in robot controls or robotics software (or 2+ years with a PhD)?
- Do you have 1+ year of experience managing engineers AND 2+ years as a technical lead?
- Have you built or led development of real-time robotic software in C++?
- Have you taken control software from simulation to physical robots?
- Do you have an MS or PhD in Robotics, EE, ME, CS, or a related field?
- Do you have experience with humanoid, legged, or mobile manipulation robots?
