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Field Robotics Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

As a Robotics Algorithm Engineer focused on Humanoid Whole-Body Control , you will work across VLA ... or related fields * Strong C++ and Python skills * Experience developing learning-based robot ...

Bachelor's in Computer Science, Robotics, or related field with 5+ years of professional experience. * Proficient in programming languages such as C++ and Python. * Strong knowledge of data ...

Robotics Engineer

Tracy, CA · On-site

$75K - $85K/yr

... Engineering, Industrial Automation or Robotics ... Will also accept individuals with 7 years working experience in related fields. * A general ...

Robotics Engineer

Sunnyvale, CA · On-site

$60 - $85/hr

We are seeking a highly specialized Robotics Engineer to join our team. This role focuses on the ... fields $60 - $85 an hour LTA Research & Exploration welcomes all candidates to apply including ...

... Engineering, Industrial Automation or Robotics ... Will also accept individuals with 7 years working experience in related fields. * A general ...

Robotics Engineer

Sunnyvale, CA · On-site

$60 - $85/hr

We are seeking a highly specialized Robotics Engineer to join our team. This role focuses on the ... fields $60 - $85 an hour LTA Research & Exploration welcomes all candidates to apply including ...

We are seeking a highly specialized Robotics Engineer to join our team. This role focuses on the ... fields LTA Research & Exploration welcomes all candidates to apply including those with limited ...

Education: BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field, or self-taught with extensive hands-on experience * 3+ years of experience ...

Bachelor's in Computer Science, Robotics, or related field with 5+ years of professional experience. * Proficient in programming languages such as C++ and Python. * Strong knowledge of data ...

Education: BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field, or self-taught with extensive hands-on experience * 3+ years of experience ...

Education: BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field, or self-taught with extensive hands-on experience * 3+ years of experience ...

About the Role As a Robotics Field Engineer, you will be the on-site operational lead for our robotic system deployed in Los Angeles, California. Working at the intersection of robotics and biopharma ...

Robotics Field Engineer

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$90K - $160K/yr

About the Role As a Robotics Field Engineer, you will be the on-site operational lead for our robotic system deployed in Los Angeles, California. Working at the intersection of robotics and biopharma ...

Showing results 21-40

Field Robotics Engineer information

See California salary details

$15

$33

$53

How much do field robotics engineer jobs pay per hour?

As of Sep 15, 2026, the average hourly pay for field robotics engineer in California is $33.65, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $23.70 and $40.34 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a field robotics engineer?

Field robotics engineers are professionals who design, develop, test, and deploy robotic systems that operate in complex, unstructured environments outside of traditional factory settings. These environments can include agriculture fields, construction sites, oceans, mines, or disaster areas. Field robotics engineers integrate hardware and software to create robust, autonomous or semi-autonomous robots capable of navigating and performing tasks in challenging real-world conditions. Their work often involves multidisciplinary knowledge in mechanical, electrical, and software engineering, as well as a strong understanding of sensors, actuators, and control systems.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a field robotics engineer?

To thrive as a Field Robotics Engineer, you need a solid grasp of robotics fundamentals, programming (such as C++ or Python), and systems integration, often backed by a degree in robotics, electrical engineering, or a related field. Familiarity with ROS (Robot Operating System), sensor technologies, and hands-on experience with embedded systems or mechatronics is typically required. Strong problem-solving skills, adaptability, and effective teamwork are essential soft skills for handling dynamic field environments and unexpected technical challenges. These skills ensure reliable robot deployment, efficient troubleshooting, and successful collaboration in diverse and often unpredictable real-world settings.

What are some common challenges faced by field robotics engineers when deploying robots in real-world environments?

Field Robotics Engineers often encounter unpredictable conditions such as harsh weather, variable terrain, and unexpected obstacles during deployments. These factors can affect robot performance and require quick problem-solving and on-the-spot adaptations. Collaboration with interdisciplinary teams—including software developers, hardware specialists, and field operators—is essential to troubleshoot issues and ensure smooth operations. The role also involves continuous testing, data collection, and iterative improvements to adapt robots for reliable and safe field use.

What is the difference between Field Robotics Engineer vs Robotics Technician?

AspectField Robotics EngineerRobotics Technician
Required CredentialsBachelor's or higher in robotics, engineering, or related fields; certifications like FANUC or ABB are commonAssociate's degree or technical certification in robotics or electronics
Work EnvironmentDesign, develop, and test robotic systems in the field or lab settingsMaintain, troubleshoot, and repair robotic systems on-site or in workshops
Industry UsageUsed across manufacturing, agriculture, and exploration industriesPrimarily in manufacturing and industrial settings

While both roles involve working with robotic systems, Field Robotics Engineers focus on designing and developing new robotic solutions, whereas Robotics Technicians handle installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of existing systems. The roles often overlap but differ mainly in scope and responsibilities.

Is robotics a high paying field?

Field Robotics Engineers typically earn competitive salaries due to the specialized skills required, such as programming, sensor integration, and automation systems. Salaries can vary based on experience, location, and industry, but overall, robotics is considered a well-paying field with strong growth prospects.

What cities in California are hiring for Field Robotics Engineer jobs?

Cities in California with the most Field Robotics Engineer job openings:

Infographic showing various Field Robotics Engineer job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 100% Full Time. Highlights an 74% In-person, and 26% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $69,982 per year, or $33.6 per hour.

Robotics Engineer

Milpitas, CA

SERES
1 - 10 employees

Full-time

Posted 25 days ago


Job description

About the Role

We are building a next-generation humanoid robot platform with high-bandwidth torque-controlled joints and full-body actuation.

As a Robotics Algorithm Engineer focused on Humanoid Whole-Body Control, you will work across VLA / WAM, vision-based RL, whole-body control, simulation, state estimation, and real-robot deployment. You will develop learning-based systems that coordinate locomotion, manipulation, perception, and full-body motion.

We are looking for engineers with strong implementation skills, solid robotics fundamentals, and the ability to turn research ideas into reliable real-world robot behaviors.

ResponsibilitiesWhole-Body Learning & Control
  • Develop and deploy learning-based whole-body control policies for humanoid robots
  • Coordinate locomotion, balance, torso, arms, and end-effectors
  • Integrate learned policies with WBC, inverse dynamics, IK, and optimization-based control
  • Develop robust contact-aware behaviors for locomotion, manipulation, and interaction
  • Analyze and debug instability, contact failures, coordination issues, and policy failures
VLA / WAM & Generalist Policies
  • Develop and integrate VLA / WAM models for humanoid control
  • Adapt foundation-model-based policies to humanoid embodiment and full-body action spaces
  • Connect high-level semantic reasoning with low-level whole-body control
  • Design action spaces, observations, policy interfaces, and skill representations
  • Explore imitation learning, behavior cloning, diffusion policies, transformers, and RL
  • Use teleoperation, demonstration, and robot interaction data for training and fine-tuning
Vision-Based Reinforcement Learning
  • Develop vision-based RL policies using RGB, depth, proprioception, and onboard sensing
  • Build visuomotor policies for locomotion, navigation, mobile manipulation, and whole-body tasks
  • Develop visual-proprioceptive representation learning and sensor fusion
  • Use privileged learning, teacher-student training, distillation, domain randomization, and sim-to-real
  • Improve robustness to environment variation, object variation, appearance changes, occlusion, and sensor noise
Modeling, State Estimation & Control
  • Apply rigid-body dynamics, contact dynamics, and humanoid kinematics to whole-body control
  • Develop and integrate state estimation using IMU, encoders, force/contact sensing, and vision
  • Work with floating-base dynamics and multi-contact estimation
  • Combine learning-based policies with feedback control and model-based methods
Simulation, Data & Training
  • Build humanoid simulation and training environments using MuJoCo, Isaac Sim / Isaac Lab, or similar platforms
  • Develop scalable RL, imitation learning, and visuomotor training pipelines
  • Design tasks, curricula, rewards, domain randomization, and system identification
  • Generate and use simulation, teleoperation, demonstration, and real-robot datasets
  • Analyze sim-to-real gaps in dynamics, contact, sensing, perception, and actuators
Real Robot Deployment
  • Deploy whole-body and visuomotor policies on humanoid hardware with high-bandwidth torque control
  • Perform real-robot tuning, debugging, system identification, and optimization
  • Diagnose failures across perception, policy inference, estimation, dynamics, latency, and low-level control
  • Optimize policy inference and control pipelines for real-time execution
  • Work closely with perception, firmware, motor control, systems, and hardware teams
QualificationsMust Have
  • 3+ years of experience in robotics, controls, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, or related fields
  • Strong C++ and Python skills
  • Experience developing learning-based robot control policies
  • Experience deploying algorithms on real robots
  • Experience with whole-body control, humanoid robotics, legged robotics, or mobile manipulation
  • Hands-on experience with reinforcement learning and/or imitation learning
  • Solid understanding of rigid-body dynamics, floating-base systems, contact dynamics, and feedback control
  • Experience with MuJoCo, Isaac Sim / Isaac Lab, or similar simulation platforms
  • Familiarity with state estimation and multimodal sensing
  • Strong simulation, algorithm, and hardware debugging skills
  • Experience working in Linux environments
Strongly Preferred
  • Experience with VLA, WAM, whole-body action models, or generalist robot policies
  • Experience with vision-based RL or visuomotor learning
  • Experience with transformer-based policies, diffusion policies, behavior cloning, or large-scale imitation learning
  • Experience combining RGB / RGB-D observations with proprioception
  • Experience with humanoid locomotion and manipulation
  • Experience with domain randomization, privileged learning, distillation, and system identification
  • Experience with teleoperation and demonstration-data pipelines
  • Experience with real-time policy deployment and GPU inference
  • Experience integrating learned policies with WBC, MPC, inverse dynamics, IK, or trajectory optimization
Nice to Have
  • Publications or strong project experience in humanoid robotics, robot learning, RL, imitation learning, VLA, or visuomotor control
  • Experience with large-scale robot datasets and multi-task policy training
  • Experience with dexterous or bimanual manipulation
  • Familiarity with foundation models for robotics and embodied AI
  • Experience with object detection, tracking, 3D perception, or scene representations
  • Experience building production-quality robotics software and deployment infrastructure

Pay Range: $80,000- $120,000 per year. The actual base salary offered will depend on factors such as the candidate's experience, skills, qualifications, and job-related considerations. This position may also be eligible for additional compensation and benefits.

SERES is an equal opportunity employer committed to a culturally diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status or protected veteran status.