Forward Deployed Engineer - AI Partnerships (Teradyne Robotics, San Jose, CA)

Teradyne•San Jose, CA

6d•$125,700 - $201,200•Onsite

About The Position

This role sits at the intersection of robotics platforms, partner integration, and physical AI deployment. You will work directly with leading AI model builders, robotics startups, and strategic partners to help them build, validate, and deploy applications on Teradyne’s robotics platforms, including Universal Robots (UR) and Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR). Unlike traditional robotics or AI roles, this position is deeply partner-facing and deployment-oriented. Your primary responsibility is to ensure partners can successfully leverage our robotics platform stack (control, motion, interfaces, Polyscope integration) to bring their products to life in real-world environments. While you will collaborate closely with AI/ML teams, your focus will be on robotics systems, interfaces, and performance in production environments.

Requirements

BS/MS in Robotics, Mechatronics, Computer Science, or related field
4+ years of experience in robotics engineering or systems integration roles
Strong hands-on experience with: ROS2 and Linux-based robotics systems, Python development (production-level codebases), Robot control, kinematics, motion planning, and system integration
Experience working directly with robot hardware (integration, debugging, bring-up)
Ability to troubleshoot across hardware/software/system boundaries in real deployments
Strong communication skills with the ability to work directly with external partners/customers
A systems thinker who can move fluidly between software, control, and hardware
Highly hands-on, comfortable working on robots in real-world environments
Comfortable in ambiguous, fast-moving partner environments
Strong bias toward execution and problem-solving in production contexts
Able to translate between research, product, and deployment constraints

Nice To Haves

Experience with industrial robot platforms (UR preferred) or similar systems
Familiarity with: Robot programming environments (e.g., URScript, PLCs), Real-time control systems and motion optimization, Perception pipelines and sensor integration (RGBD, LiDAR, etc.)
Exposure to physical AI concepts (imitation learning, RL, or VLA models)
Experience with simulation environments (e.g., NVIDIA Isaac Sim)
Background working in startup, partner-facing, or customer-facing engineering roles

Responsibilities

Work hands-on with strategic partners to integrate their applications onto UR and MiR platforms
Serve as the technical bridge between partner engineering teams and internal robotics/product teams
Debug and resolve issues across software, control, and system integration layers in real-world deployments
Support partner teams onsite when needed during critical development and validation phases
Enable partner success across key platform layers: Motion planning and optimization, Control interfaces and trajectory execution, Polyscope and URCap integration, Robot APIs, SDKs, and communication interfaces
Develop and maintain reference implementations, integration examples, and tooling for partners
Contribute feedback to internal product teams based on real-world partner usage patterns
Build and adapt software components using Python, ROS2, and Linux-based systems
Integrate partner software stacks with robot systems using standard and custom interfaces
Support debugging of latency, control loops, and system-level performance issues
Assist with simulation, testing, and deployment pipelines where relevant
Work alongside AI/ML teams to ensure models interface effectively with robotic systems
Understand and support integration of perception, VLA, or learning-based components into robot workflows
Help bridge sim-to-real gaps from a robotics execution standpoint (e.g., control, timing, actuation)