Systems Engineer, Robotics Hardware, Large Wheeled Platforms at FieldAI in Irvine, CA

Job description

FieldAI ’s Irvine team is where embodied AI meets real robots, real sensors, and real field deployments. Based in the heart of Southern California’s robotics ecosystem, we build risk-aware, reliable, field-ready AI systems that solve the hardest problems in robotics and unlock the full potential of embodied intelligence. If you want your work to ship, get tested on hardware, and improve through real deployments, Irvine is the place. We go beyond typical data-driven approaches or pure transformer-only architectures, combining rigorous engineering with learning systems proven in globally deployed solutions that deliver results today and get better every time our robots run in the field. Hardware Team: The Hardware Team at FieldAI develops perception and compute payloads that power autonomous robotics systems in complex real world environments. Our work spans the full hardware stack — designing and integrating sensing systems (LiDAR, camera, TOF, IMU, GPS), embedded compute (CPUs, GPUs, microcontrollers, Linux, ROS), electrical systems (power distribution, communication), and mechanical components (structures, thermal regulation, ingress protection). The team focuses on both development (research, design, prototyping, testing) and operations (production, testing, QA, debugging). We're a small, fast-moving team, and we care deeply about improving: 1) core capabilities, 2) system reliability, 3) system scalability. As a growing team we are also building operational systems and procedures from the ground up. Systems Engineer Role: As a Systems Engineer for Large Wheeled Platforms on the Hardware Team at FieldAI, you will bring new large wheeled platforms into our fleet and ensure that they operate at high standards in real world environments. This will involve integrating our control systems, autonomy stack, and payloads onto new robotic platforms. Your work will span across areas including platform abstraction, robot control, autonomy, sim-to-real validation, and electro-mechanical integration. Responsibilities may include the full lifecycle from initial platform bring-up through safety qualification and field deployment. You will collaborate closely with the Autonomy/RL, Manipulation, Mechanical, and Electrical teams to build tightly integrated solutions ready for deployment in challenging field environments. Additionally while your focus will be on platform integration, you may contribute across hardware, field operations, and autonomy domains. What You Will Get To Do 1. Platform Integration & Controls Platform Abstraction: Build software abstraction layers between each robot's native control stack (such as ROS/ROS2) and our own systems, enabling payloads to move across platforms. Robot Controls & Navigation: Ensure navigation and controls stacks running correctly on physical hardware across quadruped, humanoid, and wheeled platforms. Electro-Mechanical Integration: Work with mechanical and electrical engineers on designing and integrating mechanical (saddles) and electrical (power distributions boards) interfaces. Sim-to-Real: Validate and adapt RL-based autonomy policies from simulation (Isaac, Gazebo, MuJoCo) to real-world performance on terrain, stairs, and uneven ground. 2. Cross-Team Collaboration & Fleet Scaling Cross-Functional Integration: Coordinate across Autonomy/RL, Manipulation, Mechanical, and Electrical teams to bring new platforms online. Testing & Validation: Use SIL/HIL testing to ensure integrated systems are safe, reliable, and ready for field operation. Test features such as safety features and operations under different Operational Design Domains (ODDs). New Robots: Identify, procure, test, and integrate diverse new robotic systems. Multi-Platform Support: Support multiple robot morphologies including legged, quadruped, biped/humanoid, and wheeled UGVs. 3. Safety & Infrastructure Safety Systems: Implement e-stop and redundancy/fault-tolerant safety layers, contributing to functional safety (ISO 26262, ASIL)