Robotics Engineering Intern - Fall 2026

Niantic Spatial•San Francisco, CA

20h•Onsite

About The Position

About Niantic Spatial At Niantic Spatial, we’re building the future of physical AI. Powered by a proprietary database of over 30 billion posed images, our groundbreaking mapping technology unlocks a new dimension of interaction and spatial intelligence that helps both humans and machines better understand, represent, navigate, and engage with the real environment. Our reconstruction technology captures environments with geometric accuracy and extreme detail from any standard camera, and our Visual Positioning System delivers precise positioning almost anywhere in the world. We serve customers across robotics, the public sector, and energy and industrial markets — building for the 80% of economic activity that takes place beyond our screens. About the Role As a Robotics Engineering Intern or Co-op at Niantic Spatial, you will work directly at the intersection of learning-based systems and physical hardware. You will work hands-on with physical hardware, push robots toward fully autonomous operation across locomotion, navigation, and control, and iterate rapidly based on real-world feedback.

Requirements

Currently enrolled in (or a recent graduate of) a BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
Strong proficiency in Python and modern deep learning frameworks (PyTorch or JAX).
Hands-on experience with simulation environments (Isaac Sim, MuJoCo) and physical robotic hardware.
Ability to work on-site full-time in San Francisco, CA for the duration of the program.

Nice To Haves

Can take a robotics system from 0 to 1 and iterate quickly based on real world feedback.
Comfortable working with hardware - sensor calibration, hardware debugging, and fixing edge cases under tight deadlines.
Ability to weigh trade-offs between classical robotics and learning-based approaches.
High intellectual curiosity and a focus on pushing systems beyond existing baselines.
Passionate about robotics and love what you do because you will be doing a lot of it.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and deploy learning-based systems on physical robotic hardware, working across locomotion, navigation, and control to push robots toward full autonomy.
Work across simulation environments (Isaac Sim, MuJoCo) and physical platforms, closing the sim-to-real gap and validating system behavior under real-world conditions.
Debug hardware, perform sensor calibration, and fix edge cases under real deployment conditions.
Evaluate and weigh tradeoffs between classical robotics and learning-based methods, choosing the right tool for each problem and contributing to technical decision-making on the team.