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Senior Robotics SWE, System Identification & Modeling

San Francisco, CA
About Nimble
 
Nimble is an AI robotics company building the autonomous supply chain to power fast, efficient and economical commerce. We’re training robot AGI to power a proprietary generalist supply chain superhumanoid, the first robot in the world capable of performing thousands of tasks across the supply chain. We’ve raised over $220M at over $1B valuation and formed a strategic alliance with FedEx to build a national network of autonomous warehouses capable of generating many billions in annual revenue. We are a hardcore and obsessed team of the world’s best engineers and operators. If you are obsessed with your craft, enjoy a high-intensity and fast moving high impact environment, are super high agency in getting hard things done and want to be part of building the world’s most legendary robotics company at the most pivotal moment in history, we want to work with you.We are on a mission to empower and inspire mankind to accomplish legendary feats by inventing robots that liberate us from the menial. We will accomplish this by training robot AGI to invent and build the Autonomous Supply Chain – everything from the inside of factories and warehouses to your front door – powered by generalist superhumanoids.Our founding team comes from the AI labs at Stanford and Carnegie Mellon and our board of directors include famed robotics and AI legends including Fei-Fei Li (Chief Scientist of AI at Google and Director of Stanford’s AI Lab), Marc Raibert (founder of Boston Dynamics), and Sebastian Thrun (founder of GoogleX, Waymo; Stanford Professor and considered the father of autonomous vehicles).Let’s be legendary.
 
 
 
Why Join Nimble?
At Nimble, we are committed to building legendary products, a legendary team, and a legendary legacy. Join us and become part of an ambitious, humble, and resourceful culture where your work will leave a lasting impact on the future of robotics and commerce.
 
Nimble's Core Values:
Be relentlessly resourceful - Challenge conventions and overcome obstacles.
Be legendary - Be the very best and do work that inspires.
Be humble - Prioritize growth, learning, and doing whatever is needed to further the mission.
Be dependable - Take ownership and deliver with high agency.

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Robotics Software Engineer specializing in System Identification and Modeling to build the core software powering our next-generation autonomous robots. In this role, you will develop and maintain the mathematical models, parameter estimation pipelines, and feedforward/feedback control systems that allow our robots to operate with exceptional reliability, precision, and efficiency in real production environments.

You will work across the full robotics and autonomy stack — building robust, production-grade software that scales as we deploy more robots into high-throughput operations — while serving as the team's deep expert in system identification, dynamics modeling, and model-based control. You'll collaborate closely with AI, hardware, controls, and infrastructure teams to integrate frontier AI capabilities with rigorous physics-based models, continually improving robot uptime, performance, and overall intelligence.

Responsibilities

  • Design and execute system identification experiments for actuators, mechanisms, and full robot subsystems — motors, arms, elevators, drivetrains — fitting dynamic models via regression and curve-fitting to derive accurate feedforward and feedback controllers.
  • Own kinematic calibration workflows: DH parameter identification, wheel radius estimation, and tool-center-point calibration to drive measurable improvements in arm accuracy and mobile base odometry.
  • Build automated calibration and sys-id tooling that runs on production hardware, enabling rapid re-characterization after mechanical changes, wear, or new platform deployments.
  • Lead design and implementation of robot behaviors and task-level intelligence across the full stack, integrating perception, planning, and control into reliable end-to-end execution across nominal and edge-case scenarios.
  • Drive measurable improvements in autonomy quality and arm accuracy using data, operational metrics, and model validation (diagnostic plots, residual analysis, statistical benchmarks).
  • Collaborate with hardware engineering on software–hardware integration for new platforms and upgrades; triage and resolve production robotics issues.
  • Lead technical design reviews, drive architecture decisions for core subsystems, and mentor engineers and technicians on reliability, testing, and operational excellence.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
  • 5+ years of software engineering experience building production robotics systems.
  • Strong foundation in dynamics, controls, and system identification — including least-squares regression, parameter estimation, state-space and transfer-function modeling, and feedforward/feedback controller design.
  • Hands-on experience characterizing real electromechanical systems: motors, gearboxes, linear actuators, articulated arms, or similar mechanisms.
  • Strong proficiency in at least one of the following: Rust, Python, C++.
  • Proven ability to design, implement, and maintain complex, high-reliability software systems.
  • Experience integrating software with sensors, actuators, and embedded systems.
  • Familiarity with software best practices including testing, documentation, code reviews, and robust architectural design.
  • Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate across multi-disciplinary teams.
  • Willingness to support production operations through an on-call rotation.

Nice to Have

  • Graduate-level coursework or research in system identification, optimal estimation, or adaptive control.
  • Experience with nonlinear system identification techniques (e.g., extended Kalman filters, particle filters, neural-network-based model learning).
  • Familiarity with physics simulators (MuJoCo, Drake, Isaac Sim) and sim-to-real transfer, including using identified parameters to calibrate simulation environments.
  • Experience with real-time embedded system development, RTOS, or bare-metal firmware.
  • Exposure to automation environments such as warehousing, manufacturing, or logistics.
  • Experience with safety-critical systems.
  • Familiarity with ROS/ROS 2 and standard robotics middleware.
  • Experience building data pipelines for collecting, storing, and analyzing robot telemetry at scale.

Compensation & Benefits

The pay range for this position at the start of employment is expected to be between $190,000 and $250,000/year. Your exact offer may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition to cash compensation, this position will also receive generous equity for this position.
 
Culture:
We embrace challenges and strive to make the impossible possible each day. We’re not in this to do what’s easy or to be mediocre. We want to create something legendary and leave our mark on the world. We’re ambitious, we’re gritty, we’re humble and we’re relentlessly resourceful in pursuit of our goals. If this sounds like you then you might be a great fit!
 
Nimble Robotics, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We make all employment decisions based solely on merit. We provide equal employment opportunity to all applicants and employees without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable state, federal or local laws.
 
Nimble's Benefits
 
Unlimited Flexible Time Off
Enjoy the time you need to travel, rejuvenate, and connect with friends and family.
 
Health Insurance
Nimble provides medical, dental, and vision insurance through several premier plans and options to support you and your family.
 
Paid Parental Leave
Enjoy paid bonding time following a birth.
 
Commuter Benefits
Take the stress out of commuting with access to fully-paid parking spots. 
 
Referral Bonus
Get a cash bonus for any friend or colleagues that you refer to us that we end up hiring. 
 
401k
Contribute towards a 401k for retirement planning.
 
Equity
Be an owner in Nimble through our equity program

 

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