Senior Software Engineer - Robot Data Collection

Job description:

Description

Role Overview We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to own the systems that power a large-scale data collection operation, including the collection platform, operator tooling, data pipeline, and fleet infrastructure. This is an engineering role. Day-to-day teleoperation is performed by a dedicated operator team that you direct — you build what they run on, and you own what comes out of it. Project Details • Location: 100% Onsite (Santa Clara, CA, US) • Employment: Full-time W-2, Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM • Start Date: ASAP • Contract Duration: 12-month contract with possibility of extension • Rate: $105/hour What You'll Do • Design, build, and maintain the software behind our data collection stations — teleoperation stack, multi-camera recording, and session tooling. • Deploy and upgrade that stack across the fleet without stopping collection; keep workstations, containers, and networking healthy. • Own the data pipeline end to end: automated validation, conversion into our dataset format, upload, metadata, and versioning. • Build the QA tooling that catches dropped frames, stream desync, bad calibration, and mislabeled episodes before data reaches training. • Direct a team of teleoperators — define task protocols and SOPs, onboard them on new tasks and embodiments, review session quality, and unblock them daily. • Own fleet reliability: calibration and firmware pipelines, sensor and end-effector integration, root-cause analysis of recurring faults, and vendor escalation. • Bring up new stations and new embodiments; report throughput, yield, and data health to the research team.

Requirements

What we need to see • MS in CS, Robotics, EE/ME, or a related field (or BS with equivalent hands-on experience). • 3+ years building software for real robot systems — not simulation only. • A system you designed and shipped that other people depended on daily, and that you kept running. • Strong Python and Linux; Docker, git, CI, and SSH-based fleet administration. • Robot middleware and real-time multi-sensor recording — ROS 2 or equivalent vendor SDKs. • Experience supporting a data collection or teleoperation operation: you have built the tools operators depend on and owned throughput and quality numbers. • Comfortable around robot hardware — arms or humanoids, dexterous hands, RGB-D cameras, and the calibration that keeps them honest. • Able to lead operators without formal authority: you write clear SOPs, train people, and communicate status without being asked. Ways to stand out from the crowd • Humanoid or bimanual platforms (Unitree, Fourier, ALOHA/ARX-class rigs) and dexterous hands. • XR teleoperation: Quest / PICO / Vision Pro, motion-capture gloves, whole-body retargeting. • Imitation-learning data tooling — LeRobot, HDF5/Zarr episode stores, dataset versioning, S3 at TB–PB scale. • Built internal dashboards or tooling for a production line or high-throughput lab. • Open-source contributions to robotics data or teleoperation tooling.