Source description
About the role
At Rhoda AI, we’re building the next generation of generalist intelligent robots. We own the full robotics stack from high-performance hardware and robot systems to the infrastructure and state-of-the-art foundation world models that control our robots. Our robots are designed to be generalists capable of operating in complex, real-world environments and handling long-tail edge cases, made possible by our cutting edge research and end-to-end system design. We've raised over $450M and are investing aggressively in model research, infrastructure, hardware development, and manufacturing scale-up to make generalist robotics a reality.
We're looking for a Robot Perception Engineer to develop and maintain the perception systems that give our humanoid robots a real-time understanding of the world around them. You'll own the software that transforms raw sensor data into reliable, actionable perception — from sensor integration and calibration to safety-certified object detection and streaming data to our foundation models and teleoperation stack.
What You'll Do
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Develop and maintain real-time perception pipelines — integrating and calibrating sensors (cameras, LiDAR, IMUs, depth sensors) with our humanoid robot platforms
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Build and optimize object detection, tracking, and scene understanding systems for safe operation in complex, unstructured environments
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Own the streaming infrastructure that delivers sensor data reliably to foundation models, teleoperation systems, and onboard control stacks
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Work closely with the AI/ML team to bridge perception outputs and learned policy inputs — ensuring low-latency, high-reliability data delivery
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Implement and validate safety-certified perception components, including object detection and collision avoidance, to meet real-world deployment requirements
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Support bring-up and field testing of new camera hardware and sensor configurations
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Contribute to system reliability, fault detection, and recovery logic for robust real-world perception
What We're Looking For
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4+ years of experience in robotics perception, computer vision, or a closely related field
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Strong software engineering fundamentals in C++, Python, or Rust
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Hands-on experience with sensor integration and calibration (cameras, LiDAR, IMUs, depth sensors)
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Experience building real-time perception pipelines on embedded or edge compute platforms
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Familiarity with streaming and networking systems for low-latency sensor data transport
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Experience with ROS/ROS2 or similar robotics middleware in production or research contexts
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Ability to debug across the full stack — from driver-level sensor issues to perception behavior on live hardware
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Nice to Have (But Not Required)
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Experience with safety-certified or safety-critical perception systems (e.g., ISO 26262, IEC 61508, or similar)
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Background in multi-sensor fusion and calibration for robust perception under real-world conditions
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Familiarity with teleoperation systems and the latency and reliability constraints they impose
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Experience deploying and optimizing perception models on edge or onboard compute (quantization, TensorRT, etc.)
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Familiarity with humanoid or legged robot platforms and the unique perception challenges they present
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Prior work on early-stage hardware programs (prototype or pre-production robots)
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Why This Role
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Your perception stack is the robot's eyes — the software you write directly determines what our humanoids can see, understand, and safely interact with in the real world
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Work at the boundary of hardware and AI, integrating state-of-the-art sensors and learned perception models onto real robotic systems
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High ownership in a small, fast-moving team where your contributions shape how the next generation of humanoid robots perceive and navigate the world
More at Rhoda AI
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