SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
OpenAI's Robotics team is seeking a Control Systems Software Engineer to architect and implement the real-time control infrastructure enabling intelligent, reliable robot behavior. This is a hands-on, foundational role focused on bridging high-level AI capabilities with the physical constraints of robotic systems.
You will design and implement real-time control algorithms including motion control, feedback loops, state estimation, and actuator control. You'll define the control architecture from low-level hardware interfaces through whole-robot behavior and policy integration. A significant portion of your time will be spent onsite working directly with robots: debugging behavior, tuning subsystems, running experiments, and collaborating with mechanical, electrical, and software teams.
Key responsibilities include:
- Designing real-time control algorithms for robotic systems with focus on dynamics, actuation, and subsystem tuning
- Defining control architecture across the full stack from actuators to whole-robot policy
- Characterizing actuator and hardware parameters through rigorous experimentation and verification
- Implementing reinforcement learning models in collaboration with ML engineers
- Integrating control logic with sensing and actuation hardware
- Informing mechanical and electrical design to maximize capability and flexibility
Ideal candidates have strong robotics backgrounds (manipulators, mobile robots, or complex physical systems), experience with actuation, control systems, robot dynamics, and estimation. You should be comfortable with hands-on hardware commissioning, debugging, and testing on real robots. Strong fundamentals in classical control, system dynamics, and estimation are essential, with exposure to learning-based or reinforcement learning approaches. You'll write performant production-quality software in C++ or Rust and move fluidly across the stack from low-level actuator behavior to higher-level algorithms. Experience iterating between simulation and real-world testing environments is valued.
This role requires in-person presence 5 days per week in San Francisco.
