Senior Perception Hardware Engineer

Apptronik • Austin, TX

3d • Onsite

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 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.

Requirements

• 5+ years of industry experience in perception hardware, computer vision, or robotics, with a primary focus on sensor calibration and validation.
• Deep understanding of 3D geometry, linear algebra, coordinate frame transformations (quaternions, rotation matrices, SE(3)), and non-linear optimization (least-squares, bundle adjustment).
• Strong programming skills in Python and C++ .
• Extensive experience with computer vision libraries (OpenCV, PCL) and optimization frameworks (e.g., Ceres Solver, g2o).
• Hands-on experience working directly with optical components, LiDAR mechanisms, and MEMS IMUs. You understand the physical limitations that cause optical distortion, rolling shutter artifacts, and IMU drift.
• Ability to translate abstract autonomy requirements (e.g., "we need 1cm grasping accuracy at 1 meter") into concrete hardware and calibration tolerances.

Responsibilities

• Define and implement robust intrinsic models for various optical sensors (e.g., pinhole, fisheye, Brown-Conrady, Kannala-Brandt) and inertial sensors (bias, scale factors, random walk).
• Develop highly accurate sensor-to-sensor and sensor to kinematic base spatial transformations.
• Work with electrical and embedded teams to validate hardware-level timing. Ensure sub-microsecond synchronization across all perception streams using PTP (Precision Time Protocol), PPS, and hardware triggering.
• Design the physical calibration targets (e.g., CharuCo boards, custom 3D geometries) and the lighting environments required for high-repeatability factory calibration.
• Collaborate with mechanical engineers to evaluate and optimize sensor mounting rigidity. Characterize calibration drift caused by thermal gradients, mechanical shock, and joint wear.
• Build the automated calibration pipeline for our manufacturing line, allowing non-engineers to reliably calibrate a multi-sensor humanoid head in minutes.
• Develop lightweight "auto-calibration" or self-diagnostic routines that allow Apollo to detect sensor drift in the field and dynamically adjust its extrinsic transforms without human intervention.
• Establish a data-tracking architecture to monitor fleet-wide calibration health, identifying batch variances or specific hardware degradation over time.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior