Director Robotics Jobs in Rochester, MI (NOW HIRING)

Job Title:
Software Engineer, Tactile Sensor for Safety Applications
The Role
We are looking for a Software Engineer contractor to help develop tactile sensing capabilities for safety-critical detection applications. This role is focused on research and advanced development, with an emphasis on signal/data processing, detection algorithms, and experimental validation. You will work on software that transforms raw tactile sensor data into reliable, actionable signals that support safer robotic and intelligent systems.This is a strong fit for someone who enjoys bridging sensing hardware, data analysis, and algorithm development, and who can move quickly from experimental setup to prototype software.
What You'll Do
•Develop signal/data processing pipelines for tactile sensor data, including filtering, feature extraction, event detection, and classification
•Design and prototype algorithms that detect safety-relevant events, anomalies, and edge cases from noisy real-world sensor signals
•Build software tools to visualize, analyze, and validate tactile sensor performance across experiments and test conditions
•Work with hardware and robotics engineers to define sensor interfaces, evaluation methods, and data collection workflows
•Improve robustness and reliability of detection methods under varying environmental conditions, contact patterns, and sensor behaviors
•Support experimental studies by creating reproducible analysis workflows, test scripts, and performance metrics
•Document methods, assumptions, results, and limitations clearly so they can be shared across the team and improved over time
Required Qualifications
•Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field
•Strong programming skills in Python or C++
•Hands-on experience with signal/data processing, time-series analysis, or sensor data analysis
•Experience with image and signal processing techniques such as filtering, denoising, feature extraction, clustering, and related methods for interpreting noisy real-world sensor data
•Experience developing detection, classification, tracking and estimation algorithms from real-world data
•Ability to work with experimental data sets and turn ambiguous sensing problems into structured software solutions
•Strong problem-solving and communication skills in a collaborative engineering environment
Preferred Qualifications
•Understanding of functional safety principles, safety requirements development, and safety-oriented system design for sensing or control applications
•Familiarity with safety-related detection problems in robotics, automotive, industrial, or embedded systems
•Experience with PLC-based safety integration, including safety I/O, interlocks, and interface development between sensing systems and industrial control hardware
•Experience working with tactile, force, pressure, strain, or other physical sensing systems
•Experience with data acquisition systems, embedded sensing pipelines, or hardware-software integration
•Experience with machine learning methods for sensor interpretation or event detection
•Familiarity with ROS, robotics experimentation, or perception system evaluation
•Experience designing validation metrics and benchmarking algorithm performance across test scenarios
What Success Looks Like
•Raw tactile sensor signals are converted into reliable software outputs that can support downstream safety decisions
•Detection methods are interpretable, reliable, and without decencies on machine-learning based approaches
•Detection algorithms show strong performance across representative scenarios, including noisy and edge-case conditions
•Experimental workflows are efficient, repeatable, and well documented
•Cross-functional teams can use the resulting tools, metrics, and insights to guide sensing and system design decisions
Why This Role Is Interesting
•You will work on an emerging sensing area with direct impact on system safety and intelligent behavior
•You will help shape how tactile information is interpreted in real-world engineering applications
•You will contribute across the full loop of research, prototyping, testing, and algorithm refinement
•You will collaborate with a multidisciplinary team spanning sensing, software, robotics, and safety-focused development
*Fully Onsite