Senior Robotics Engineer, Robot Learning

Senra Systems•Cypress, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Senra Systems is hiring a Senior Robotics Engineer to own the technical implementation of robot learning in its Automation Program. The company manufactures electrical wire harnesses on its own production lines for aerospace and defense customers, and is working to automate complex, high-mix assembly. This hands-on senior role focuses on learning-based manipulation, perception, and robot learning using real production data, with the goal of deploying reliable capabilities on the factory floor rather than demonstrating them only in a lab. Initial work includes machine tending and handling parts that vary between jobs, with longer-term work toward dexterous wire manipulation. The engineer will report to Senra's cofounder and Head of AI & Robotics, who owns the program's technical vision, and work with senior engineers to execute and shape it. The role partners closely with the Senior Robotics Engineer, Production to develop and deploy robotic capabilities, analyze failures, and transfer learned skills and models into production cells. It also owns data collection and training pipelines, research into dexterous manipulation, model strategy, partner pilots, and a quarterly research plan. The position is onsite at the Cypress, California facility, with regular time at the Redondo Beach, California facility. Success in the first 6–12 months includes deploying a learned machine-tending skill on a wire machine with measured real-job performance; incorporating at least one learned capability into a production cell with measured improvement; establishing a demonstration data pipeline with a technician consent policy; attempting a dexterous or wire-manipulation task on production harnesses and measuring the result; setting a quarterly research plan and making model and hardware build-or-buy recommendations; and contributing to the technical roadmap and hiring.

Requirements

Hands-on experience training and deploying learning-based manipulation on real robots, such as imitation learning, diffusion or transformer policies, reinforcement learning, or robot foundation models; simulation-only experience is not sufficient.
Experience building data collection and evaluation systems, including teleoperation or demonstration collection, data pipelines, and evaluation on hardware.
A track record at a robotics research lab, frontier robotics company, or team shipping learned robotic systems, including work the candidate led.
Experience with contact-rich or deformable-object manipulation, such as cables, insertion, or cloth.
Evidence of moving quickly on real hardware, with experiments that answer questions in days rather than months.
Strong Python skills and experience with a deep learning framework such as PyTorch or JAX; comfort with C++ and ROS 2 or similar systems on real robots.
Ability to take end-to-end ownership of a technical area, collaborate with senior engineers, and communicate clearly with technicians, engineers, and leadership.
Master's or PhD in robotics, computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or computer engineering, or equivalent research or industry experience.
Must meet the stated U.S. Person requirement under ITAR or be eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Nice To Haves

Experience shipping learned skills into a production or commercial setting while working alongside the engineers who operate them.
Experience with dexterous hands, tactile sensing, or force-controlled manipulation.
Experience with sim-to-real transfer and simulation tools such as MuJoCo or Isaac Sim.
Publications or open-source work in robot learning.
Experience in wire harness, cable assembly, or other high-mix assembly.
Startup or high-growth company experience.
Experience mentoring engineers or helping build a research team.

Responsibilities

Own learned manipulation on the production line, from research through deploying skills on real work, beginning with machine tending such as picking, loading, and feeding variable wire and parts.
Transfer learned skills, perception and grasping models, and failure analysis to the Senior Robotics Engineer, Production for incorporation into production cells.
Build and own data pipelines for learned skills, including teleoperation demonstrations, station-camera data, production-cell data, labeling, and training and evaluation pipelines.
Research dexterous and wire manipulation for tasks that have resisted automation, including small parts, deformable wire, and contact-rich assembly.
Evaluate and post-train open-weight and partner robot foundation models on Senra data, and recommend what to build versus buy.
Run partner pilots involving robotic hands and models while ensuring Senra retains its data and results.
Set a quarterly research plan with the Head of AI & Robotics, including deliverables and go/no-go criteria for each task.
Help hire and mentor engineers as the team grows.
Work closely with the Senior Robotics Engineer, Production to develop and deploy factory-floor robotic capabilities, improve performance using real production data, and address failure modes.
Contribute to the technical roadmap with the Head of AI & Robotics and help hire the next engineers on the team.

Benefits

Equity participation.
Medical, dental, vision, life, and long-term disability coverage.
Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Dependent Spending Account (DSA) for health-related expenses.
20 vacation days per year and 12 company holidays.
401(k) plan.
A monthly DoorDash credit of $50.
Up to $100 per month reimbursement for gym memberships.
Fully stocked kitchen with snacks and beverages.
Regular team-building events and meals.
Free parking.