Robotics Autonomy Engineer, Triage

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. Field AI is building the future of autonomy—from rugged terrain to real-world deployment. We’re on a mission to develop intelligent, adaptable robotic systems that operate beyond simulation and thrive in unpredictable environments. As our Robotics Autonomy Engineer – Triage, you’ll be the fastest link between what our robots experience in the field and how our autonomy stack improves, reproducing behaviors, finding root causes, and driving rapid fixes and tests that make every deployment smoother than the last. You’ll be part of a deeply technical team advancing real-world robotic capabilities through cutting-edge research, simulation tools, and field validation. If solving hard puzzles on real robots and seeing your fixes land in the field within days excites you, and you want to work where your code hits the ground (literally)—this is your role.
What You’ll Get To Do

• Triage incoming reports from field deployments and customer sites, assess impact, and decide what gets fixed now, what gets routed, and what gets tracked.
• Reproduce field behaviors from logs, telemetry, and recordings, both in simulation and on hardware.
• Root cause behaviors that span perception, localization, planning, control, and integration boundaries, and ship targeted fixes quickly.
• Turn every fix into a regression test, scenario, or hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) check so the improvement holds.
• Build triage tooling for log analysis, event detection, and trend tracking across robots and sites.
• Run structured test campaigns before releases and help decide when a build is ready for the field.
• Share clear findings and summaries with owning teams, and champion design improvements when patterns emerge.
• Travel occasionally to deployment sites to see robots operate firsthand and support field teams

What You Have

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• 2+ years of experience working on real autonomous systems in industry or research.
• Strong debugging skills across the full autonomy stack, from sensors and drivers to planning and control.
• Solid programming skills in C++ and Python in Linux-based environments.
• Familiarity with robotics middleware such as ROS/ROS 2.
• Experience analyzing logs, telemetry, and recorded robot data to understand system behavior.
• Comfort working quickly with incomplete information, and communicating clearly with engineers and field teams.

The Extras That Set You Apart

• Experience with release testing, validation, or quality engineering for autonomous systems.
• Experience building simulation based regression pipelines or hardware-in-the-loop test setups.
• Experience with data pipelines and event detection over large volumes of robot data.
• Experience with incident management or defect tracking in a fast moving engineering team.
• Time spent in the field with deployed robots or autonomous vehicles.
• Familiarity with continuous integration and automated test infrastructure.
• Experience with legged, wheeled, or humanoid platforms.

Our salary range is generous and we consider each individual’s background and experience when determining final compensation. Base pay may vary based on role scope, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and the Irvine, California market.   Why Join FieldAI in Irvine? In Irvine, you will work where the robots are. Our local team builds and tests systems on real hardware with real sensors, then ships them to operate in unstructured, previously unknown environments around the world. We are solving one of robotics’ hardest challenges: reliable deployment outside the lab. Our Field Foundational Models™ raise the bar for perception, planning, localization, and manipulation, with an emphasis on explainability and safety for real-world use. You will collaborate with a world-class team that thrives on creativity, resilience, and bold thinking. We bring deep experience from organizations such as DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA, Amazon, Tesla Autopilot, Cruise, Zoox, Toyota Research Institute, and SpaceX, along with a track record of field deployments and strong performance in DARPA challenge segments.   Be Part of the Next Robotics Revolution We are looking for builders who want their work to leave the whiteboard and show up on robots. If you enjoy tackling tough, uncharted questions and working across disciplines, you will find your people here. Our teams span AI, software, robotics engineering, product, field deployment, and technical communication, all focused on shipping systems that perform in the real world.   Our headquarters is in Irvine, and we partner closely with teams there as well as colleagues across the US and around the world. Join us in Southern California and help define what dependable, field-ready autonomy looks like.   We value diverse perspectives and are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace. We evaluate candidates and employees based on merit, qualifications, and performance, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or any other legally protected status.