Python Robotics Engineer

Role: Python Robotics Engineer

Location: Los Altos, California (onsite)

Type: Full-time, Permanent

Experience: 8+ years (minimum 5+ years in robotics-focused Python development)

Mandatory Expertise

Python Internals & Real-Time

- Mastery of CPython internals: zones, GIL modeling, bytecode tracing

- Real-time task schedulers in Python (custom-built)

- Cython/PyO3 for performance bridging

- Python controlling physical robots with <1ms jitter

Robotics Systems Engineering

- Designed/controlled 2 real robots (drones, manipulators, etc.)

- Sensor fusion pipelines: IMU + LiDAR + vision

- Implemented PID/LQR/MPC control in production Python code

- Kinematics/dynamics from scratch (no MoveIt)

Embedded & Low-Level Integration

- Interfaced Python with SPI, I2C, CAN directly

- Wrote/modified firmware for ARM or RISC-V

- Python <-> RTOS coordination (e.g., FreeRTOS, Zephyr)

- ROS2 with DDS tuning & custom Python nodes

Safety-Critical Control Systems

- Built systems compliant with ISO 26262 / DO-178C / IEC 61508

- Failover logic and watchdog timers in deployed robots

- Verified safety transitions via SMV, TLA+, or similar

- Software fault injection & response metrics

Simulation & Autonomy Frameworks

- Extended simulators (Isaac, Mujoco, PyBullet) with real-world parity

- Created motion planning/pathfinding in pure Python

- Created HALs and middleware for dynamic robot topologies

- Digital twins with <5ms sync loop

Disqualifiers

- Python use limited to scripting/web/data science

- No real hardware deployment

- Only simulation experience

- No sub-1ms loop control experience

- No firmware or low-level integration knowledge