Boston Dynamics · 3 months ago
Principal Robotics Engineer, Atlas Controls
Waltham Office (POST)
Full-time
Onsite
Lead/Staff
8+ years expBoston Dynamics is creating the world's most advanced humanoid robots, and they are seeking a Principal Robotics Engineer to ensure the reliability and performance of the Atlas fleet. This role involves investigating complex issues, bridging design and operations, and advocating for design changes to improve the fleet's robustness and serviceability.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)RoboticsSoftware
Responsibilities
Become the Fleet's Lead Detective: You will own the investigation and resolution of the most complex, intermittent, and systemic issues across the Atlas fleet. You'll go deep into the system—from motor control firmware and electrical systems to control software—to uncover the root cause of elusive problems
Bridge Design and Operations: Act as the critical engineering link between our robot operations technicians and the core controls and hardware design teams. You'll be on the front lines, providing expert guidance for diagnostics, and then translate your findings into actionable, data-driven feedback that directly influences future robot designs
Build for Scale: Move beyond individual robot repairs to architect fleet-wide solutions. You will design and develop automated diagnostic checks, create data-driven models to monitor performance consistency, and build tools that empower our operations team to identify and resolve issues more efficiently
Champion Reliability: Serve as the "voice of the fleet," using field data to advocate for design changes that improve robustness, serviceability, and performance consistency. Your work is key to ensuring that robot #100 performs just as reliably as robot #1
Mentor and Lead: As a principal engineer, you will mentor other engineers in best practices for system-level debugging and designing for reliability. This role has a clear path to grow into a technical leadership position for the right candidate
Qualification
Required
You have extensive, hands-on experience debugging complex, multidisciplinary robotic systems (a minimum of 12+ years with a Bachelor's degree, 8+ with a Master's, or 5+ with a PhD)
You possess a deep and intuitive understanding of electric geared motors, including brushless DC motor principles, motor control firmware, and the subtle ways they can fail in integrated systems
You have a 'scaling mindset' and a proven track record of moving beyond one-off fixes to implement systemic, data-driven solutions that improve the reliability of an entire fleet of products
You are fluent in C++ for on-robot debugging and Python for large-scale data analysis and tool development
You thrive in a hands-on environment, working closely with technicians and operations teams to solve real-world problems
You have a fundamental and extensive understanding of robotics, including kinematics, dynamics, and processing complex sensor data (e.g., encoders, IMU, etc.)
Preferred
Experience developing and implementing large-scale data analysis pipelines and working with time-series databases
Experience in a role specifically focused on robotics reliability, diagnostics, or fleet management for a complex hardware product
Deep expertise in statistical analysis, signal processing, and developing predictive models for hardware performance
Company
Boston Dynamics
Boston Dynamics is an engineering company that specializes in building dynamic robots and software for human simulation.
501-1000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Boston Dynamics has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (16)
2024 (25)
2023 (7)
2022 (6)
2020 (3)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$37MKey Investors
SoftBank
2020-12-09Acquired
2019-02-06Series Unknown· $37M
Leadership Team
Robert Playter
Chief Executive Officer
Marc Theermann
Chief Strategy Officer
Recent News
2026-01-12
2026-01-12
Company data provided by crunchbase