Control Systems Software Engineer, Robotics

About the Team

Our Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and pushing towards AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world settings. Working across the entire model stack, we integrate cutting-edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high-level AI capabilities with the constraints of physical systems to improve peoples' lives.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Control Systems Engineer to take on a foundational role within our robotics team. You’ll help architect and implement the control infrastructure that enables intelligent, reliable, and responsive robot behavior. This is a deeply technical role focused on real-time systems, dynamics, and low-level hardware interaction and control - ideal for someone excited about high-impact, cross-functional engineering work.
This role is based in San Francisco, CA, and requires in-person 4 days a week.

In this role, you will:

• Design and implement real-time control algorithms for complex robotic systems (e.g., motion control, feedback loops, state estimation).

• Work with machine learning engineers to implement reinforcement learning models.

• Collaborate across mechanical, electrical, and software teams to integrate control logic with sensing and actuation hardware.

• Help inform the mechanical and electrical design to maximize capability and flexibility.

• Create the control system architecture; determine the correct level of abstraction from actuators all the way up to whole-robot policy.

You might thrive in this role if you: 

• Have strong fundamentals in control theory, system dynamics, and estimation with an emphasis on whole-body motion planning.

• Have solid engineering fundamentals with hands-on experience delivering production-quality software as part of a collaborative team.

• Are comfortable writing performant code in C++ or Rust for controlling physical systems.

• Have experience with robotic hardware and enjoy iterating quickly between simulation and real-world testing environments.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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