Space Robotics Research Engineer - Blue Origin Advanced Development Programs - Kent, Wa

Blue Origin’s Advanced Development Programs group is hiring space-roboticists again!

Note: due to ITAR restrictions, candidates must be US Persons (citizens, green card holders, or lawfully admitted refugees).

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Space Robotics Research Engineer - Advanced Development Programs [ linkedin ]

Description
We are a diverse team of collaborators, doers, and problem-solvers who are relentlessly committed to a culture of safety. This position will directly impact the history of space exploration and will require your commitment and detailed attention towards safe and repeatable space flight. Join us in lowering the cost of access to space and enabling Blue Origin’s vision of millions of people living and working in space to benefit Earth.

As part of a small, ardent and accomplished team of experts, you will design, develop, prototype, demonstrate and deploy advance space robotic and autonomous systems. You are the swiss-army knife of robotic engineers, equally comfortable writing prototype software, integrating robots in the laboratory, and demonstrating robots in the field. You are an expert in one or more field of robotics, have practical experience in others, and are able to learn and champion relevant areas as projects require. You excel at rapid prototyping and designing compelling technology demonstrations of autonomous robots, multi-robot systems and human-robot teams. You will share in the team’s impact on all aspects of advanced space robotic technology development and deployment. Your contributions will directly impact the history of space exploration.

We are looking for someone to apply their technical expertise, leadership skills, and commitment to quality to positively impact safe human spaceflight. Passion for our mission and vision is required!

Responsibilities

  • Define requirements for space robotic systems
  • Rapidly develop and test robotic software prototypes
  • Integrate and construct robotic hardware prototypes
  • Work with the space robotics team to design compelling technology demonstrations for customers and stakeholders
  • Maintain code bases and inventory for collaboration and posterity
  • Generate documentation and artifacts for presentation and posterity
  • Support the definition of Blue Origin’s space robotics roadmap and vision
  • Maintain understanding of space robotic trends in academia and industry
  • Participate in conferences and customer meetings as a Blue Origin representative
  • Establish and foster academic and research partnerships
  • Contribute to technical proposal writing

Qualifications

  • M.S. degree in relevant technical field plus relevant robotics experience
  • Practical experience employing Robot Operating System (ROS 1.0 and ROS 2.0) in prototype robotic systems
  • Practical experience developing prototype software using Matlab, Python and C++ programming languages
  • Practical experience with robotic software (algorithms) and hardware (sensors and actuators) for perception, localization, mapping, navigation, mobility and path planning, and other relevant applications.
  • Practical experience with relevant robotic compute platforms (e.g., Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ODROID, FPGA, GPU, Cloud)
  • Practical experience with Linux Operating System, and real-time operating systems
  • Practical experience integrating and demonstrating commercial-off-the-shelf robotic platforms, including manipulators, mobile platforms and multi-robot systems
  • Practical experience simulating robotic systems using common robotic simulation platforms (e.g., Gazebo, Simulink, Unity)
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a small team on rapid development programs
  • Experience working with U.S. Government research agencies (e.g., NASA, AFRL, DARPA)
  • Excellent verbal, written and presenter communication skills
  • Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Desired

  • Ph.D. in robotic systems
  • Research experience in space robotics and spacecraft is strongly desired; or related safety and mission-critical systems such self-driving autonomous vehicles
  • Experience with multi-robot systems and human-robot interaction
  • Experience across robotic and autonomous system product life cycle