Senior Research Engineer, Robotics Systems - CA, Santa Clara, United States
$184,000 - $287,500 USD yearly
Originally posted 31 July 2026 by the employer.
About the role
NVIDIA is searching for a senior or principal engineer specializing in robotics systems in the Generalist Embodied Agent Research (GEAR) group. The team focuses on Project GR00T, developing foundation models and full-stack technology for humanoid robots.
What you'll do
- Design and maintain teleoperation software for controlling humanoid robots with low latency and high precision.
- Develop and optimize the control stack, including locomotion, manipulation, and whole-body control algorithms.
- Deploy and evaluate neural network models in physics simulation and on real humanoid hardware.
- Implement tools and processes for regular robot maintenance, diagnostics, and troubleshooting to ensure system reliability.
- Monitor teleoperators at the lab and develop quality assurance workflows to ensure high-quality data collection.
- Collaborate with researchers on model training, data processing, and the full MLOps lifecycle.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
- 8+ years of full-time industry experience in robotics hardware or software full-stack.
- Hands-on experience with deploying and debugging neural network models on robotic hardware.
- Ability to implement real-time control algorithms, teleoperation stack, and sensor fusion.
- Proficiency in languages such as Python, Rust, C++, and experience with robotics frameworks (ROS) and physics simulation (Gazebo, Mujoco, Isaac, etc.).
- Experience in maintaining and troubleshooting robotic systems, including mechanical, electrical, and software components.
- Ability to work on-site at NVIDIA HQ on all business days.
Nice to have
- Master’s or PhD degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Engineering, or a related field.
- Experience at autonomous driving or humanoid robotics companies on real hardware deployment.
- Experience in robot hardware design.
- Demonstrated Tech Lead experience coordinating robotics engineers and driving projects from conception to deployment.
- Contributions to popular open-source robotics frameworks or research publications in conferences such as ICRA, IROS, RSS, CoRL.
Skills: robotics, teleoperation software, control algorithms, neural network models, physics simulation
This role has been open 170 days — well above the 54-day median for Software Engineering Semiconductor roles.
Software Engineering Semiconductor · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
341
|
Median days open
54 d
|
Median salary
$147k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | NVIDIA | All employers we track in this specialty (341 roles · 59 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 30 | 341 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 997 | 6277 · 144 employers |
| Median days open | 49 d | 54 d (−5 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $147k |
Skills observed across this category: robotics, teleoperation software, control algorithms, neural network models, physics simulation
Who's hiring in this category
- Keysight Technologies · 37 open roles · median 31 d
- NVIDIA (this employer) · 30 open roles · median 50 d
- Cadence Design Systems · 27 open roles · median 214 d
- KLA Corporation · 27 open roles · median 128 d
- Micron Technology · 27 open roles · median 51 d
- Applied Materials · 25 open roles · median 31 d
How we counted: 341 open Software Engineering Semiconductor (Systems Software) roles from 59 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 25 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.