Robotics Lab Support Engineer [AQ-22821]

About the Role

Aquent is supporting a global innovator in manufacturing, focusing on groundbreaking physical AI systems for autonomous part manipulation. This role is within their pioneering Robotics AI organization, at the intersection of AI research, robotics engineering, data infrastructure, and manufacturing.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee daily readiness of robotics workstations, sensor packages, computer systems, power infrastructure, and safety protocols.
• Rapidly diagnose and resolve hardware, power, signal, or network connectivity issues.
• Manage setup changes between experimental runs.
• Coordinate logistics with facilities and security teams for room utilization, power, storage, equipment receiving, and access control.
• Manage inventory of experimental components, including vendor relationships for ordering, shipping, warranty claims, service, and returns.
• Maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs), test notes, issue logs, and documentation.
• Execute hands-on teleoperation and structured data collection for precision pick-and-place and complex assembly.
• Ensure data integrity through structured capture, annotation, quality checks, and dataset cleaning for imitation learning models.
• Support policy evaluations on physical hardware, logging failure modes, tracking metrics, and synthesizing summaries.
• Design and fabricate custom hardware modifications using CAD software, 3D printing (FDM/SLA), and workshop tools.
• Conduct camera calibration, sensor synchronization, coordinate frame setups, and capture stereo/RGB-D datasets.
• Iterate and refine physical components to enhance rigidity, spatial positioning, usability, and repeatability.
• Utilize Ubuntu/Linux terminal environments with Git, Bash, and Python scripts for running tests, parsing logs, and data inspection.
• Facilitate basic ROS 2 workflows and execute deployment SOPs for running software and models on robotic hardware.
• Configure and validate simulation environments, including NVIDIA Isaac Sim, for sim-to-real workflows.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Educational foundation or equivalent practical experience in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.
• Demonstrated expertise in maintaining robotics laboratory environments, including safety SOPs, inventory management, and hardware readiness.
• Proven practical experience with teleoperation setups, structured dataset collection, and quality control for robotic manipulation.
• Hands-on proficiency in CAD modeling, 3D printing, and mechanical prototyping.
• Experience with camera calibration, coordinate frame transformations, and processing RGB-D or stereo-camera datasets.
• Strong operational proficiency in Ubuntu/Linux terminal environments.
• Working knowledge of Python, Bash scripting, Git, and introductory ROS 2 workflows.

Qualifications

• Hands-On Fixer: Comfortable with CAD design, power tools, Linux terminals, and robot arm operation.
• Methodical Operator: Understands the importance of disciplined, repeatable physical experiment setups, clean datasets, and SOP adherence.
• Cross-Functional Facilitator: Strong communication skills for collaborating with software engineers, AI researchers, facilities staff, and external vendors.

Nice-to-Have Skills

• Foundational understanding of imitation learning principles, computer vision pipelines, and robotics training datasets.
• Familiarity with robotics simulation tools such as NVIDIA Isaac Sim and Gazebo.
• Practical experience managing external vendors, procurement processes, and collaborating with facilities management.
• Experience with basic electrical prototyping, wire harness assembly, and troubleshooting connectivity issues.