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Control Systems Software Engineer, Robotics

OpenAI· Research
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San FranciscoFull-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Robotics Control Systems Engineer role focused on designing, implementing, tuning, and verifying real-time control infrastructure for robotic systems; hands-on work with hardware, on-site at San Francisco office, collaborating across mechanical, electrical, and software teams.

Responsibilities

  • Design and implement real-time control algorithms for robotic systems, including motion control, feedback loops, state estimation, actuator control, and subsystem tuning.
  • Define the control architecture from low-level actuators and hardware interfaces through whole-robot behavior and policy.
  • Identify and characterize actuator, hardware, and software parameters through rigorous experimentation, testing, commissioning, and verification.
  • 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.

Qualifications

  • Strong robotics background, including manipulators, mobile robots, or other complex physical systems.
  • Experience with actuation, control systems, robot dynamics, estimation, subsystem tuning, or whole-body motion.
  • Hands-on experience with robotic hardware, including commissioning, debugging, testing, and iterating on real robots.
  • Strong fundamentals in classical control, system dynamics, and estimation, with exposure to modern learning-based or reinforcement learning approaches.
  • Ability to move across the stack from low-level actuator behavior to higher-level algorithms and whole-robot performance.
  • Experience writing performant production-quality software in C++ or Rust.
  • Experience with robotic hardware and iterating between simulation and real-world testing environments.

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
  • Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
  • 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
  • Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)
  • Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
  • 13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time
  • Mental health and wellness support
  • Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
  • Annual learning and development stipend
  • Daily meals in offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
  • Relocation support for eligible employees
  • Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends
Last updated Sep 10, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About OpenAI

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