Principal Software Engineer - AI and Simulation

Apptronik•Sunnyvale, CA

22h•$280,000 - $350,000

About The Position

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 embodied 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. Apptronik is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead development of high-performance embedded AI systems and simulation infrastructure for humanoid robots. This role focuses on GPU-centric workload orchestration, graphics-driven simulation performance, and robust on-device AI execution. The candidate brings deep experience in graphics, display systems, Linux platforms, and low-level embedded software. This person will be leveraged to scale simulation fidelity and optimize real-time AI workloads on robotic platforms.

Requirements

Extensive experience in C/C++ and object-oriented system design
Deep expertise in graphics and display subsystems
Strong background in Linux platform development, including kernel and HAL layers
Proven experience building and optimizing embedded systems at scale
Experience with GPU programming and performance optimization
Track record of owning complex system components end-to-end
Bachelor degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science or related field
At least 12 years of relevant experience

Nice To Haves

Experience with AI/ML model deployment on embedded devices
Familiarity with simulation frameworks and real-time rendering pipelines
Exposure to robotics systems, perception stacks, or computer vision pipelines
Experience with heterogeneous compute (CPU/GPU/accelerator coordination)

Responsibilities

GPU Workload Orchestration
Architect and implement a pipeline for efficient GPU utilization across multiple concurrent AI workloads.
Design schedulers and runtime systems to orchestrate perception, planning, and control models on-device.
Optimize latency, throughput, and power efficiency for real-time robotic operation.
On-Device AI Systems
Improve robustness and reliability of deployed AI models under constrained embedded environments.
Enable efficient execution of multi-model pipelines (vision, tracking, control).
Collaborate with ML teams to co-design models and runtime systems.
Simulation Performance
Lead efforts to significantly improve simulation throughput and realism.
Optimize rendering, physics integration, and data pipelines using graphics expertise.
Align simulation outputs with real-world deployment requirements.
Embedded Systems & Platform Integration
Own low-level system integration across Linux based platforms.
Work across kernel, drivers, HAL, and user-space layers to ensure end-to-end performance.
Drive system-level optimizations including memory, I/O, and device scheduling.
Technical Leadership
Define architecture for scalable embedded AI infrastructure.
Mentor engineers across graphics, embedded systems, and AI runtime domains.
Establish best practices for performance engineering and system design.