Mbodi AI

About the team Mbodi builds the software layer that lets industrial robots learn new skills from instruction in minutes instead of weeks of hand-tuning. We work with Fortune 100 companies across manufacturing, logistics, and pharmaceutical labs, where we operate at the intersection of real-time robotics control, distributed agent orchestration, and compiled neural inference. As one of our early engineers, you'll work on the core systems that translate camera input into a software representation of the physical world, orchestrate agents that reason over it, and compile learned skills into fast, deterministic robot behavior on the fly. About the role We're looking for a senior software engineer with deep intuitions about concurrency who is comfortable writing performance-critical code across the stack, from compiled C runtimes to Python agent orchestration and TypeScript frontends. You'll work directly with the founders on the core platform: the robot interface, the real-time world model, and the APIs that tie everything together. The systems you build ship into customer environments. Correctness and uptime matter from day one, and you'll own your decisions end to end. This role is based in New York City. We work a hybrid model with a minimum of three days per week in our SoHo office. In this role, you will Design and implement the distributed execution layer that coordinates robot agents, validators, and skill runners across work cells Own the concurrency model for the platform, from scheduling and synchronization to failure recovery Build the real-world representation layer that turns camera input (objects, positions, states) into a live, persistent picture the system can reason over Write performance-critical runtime components in C that turn design-time agent reasoning into deterministic, low-latency execution Develop the TypeScript interfaces and APIs that surface robot status, task state, and live feedback to operators Instrument the system for observability, including tracing, latency profiling, and failure analysis across a distributed fleet Work closely with ML and robotics engineers to keep the execution layer and the learning loop tightly coupled You might thrive in this role if you Have 5+ years of experience building distributed systems, with production exposure to concurrency bugs, partial failures, and consistency tradeoffs Write fluent Python and TypeScript, and are comfortable dropping into C when performance demands it Have strong intuitions about concurrent execution and know when to reach for locks, queues, or message passing Have built systems where correctness is non-negotiable, such as robotics, autonomous systems, real-time control, or similar domains Design for retry, rollback, and graceful degradation before the happy path Move fast without cutting corners on correctness, observability, or API contracts Are comfortable switching between a C runtime, a Python orchestrator, and a TypeScript dashboard in the same afternoon Have hands-on experience with large language models (LLMs), agent frameworks, or model inference, though this is a bonus rather than a requirement About Mbodi Mbodi makes industrial robots learn like humans. Our AI software plugs into any robot and lets anyone teach it new skills through conversation. We're backed by leading investors. Our founders bring experience from Google and the University of Pennsylvania's robotics lab, and we're building a small, senior team focused on hard problems in the physical world. We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. Compensation Salary: $150K – $250K Equity: 0.25% – 2.00%

About Mbodi Mbodi makes industrial robots learn like humans. Our AI software plugs into any robot and lets anyone teach it new skills through conversation. We're backed by leading investors. Our founders bring experience from Google and the University of Pennsylvania's robotics lab, and we're building a small, senior team focused on hard problems in the physical world. We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. Role Overview We’re looking for a Senior Robotics Engineer (Systems & Controls) to join our core team. You will design and tune the systems that make robot behavior reliable under real-world constraints, turning task intent into stable, precise, production-grade motion on real hardware. This includes controller design, dynamics and system-response analysis, industrial hardware integration, and deployment through commissioning. This is a hands-on role for someone equally comfortable with control design, motion behavior, hardware integration, and debugging across the full stack. What You’ll Do Design and Tune Control Architectures: Design and tune controllers for robot motion using PID, feedforward, state-space methods, LQR, and MPC. First-Principles Modeling: Model system dynamics with block diagrams, transfer functions, and state-space methods; analyze stability, overshoot, settling time, damping, tracking error, and robustness. Motion Execution & OEM Interfacing: Build motion execution around industrial OEM controllers, accounting for latency, calibration error, joint limits, motion constraints, and fault handling. Lead System Integration: Integrate our platform with real-world industrial robotic systems across sensors, network interfaces, safety I/O, and hardware. Deploy and Commission: Own bring-up, validation, commissioning, and on-site issue resolution in production environments. Full-Stack Debugging: Debug failures across controls, software, networking, calibration, and hardware. What We’re Looking For Applied Control Theory: Deep expertise in classical and modern control theory (Laplace transforms, frequency-domain analysis, LQR, MPC) with a proven track record of deploying these algorithms on physical hardware, not just in simulation. Strong Systems Intuition: A deep understanding of closed-loop system behavior, including stability, overshoot, tracking error, and robustness in messy physical environments. Hardware & Commissioning Experience: Hands-on experience integrating, tuning, and commissioning industrial robot hardware (ABB, Fanuc, KUKA, UR) in real-world or production settings. Software Engineering: 4+ years of experience in robotics software. Strong C++/Python skills, especially at the boundary between high-level task planning services and deterministic robot execution. Startup DNA: High agency, strong bias toward action, and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, execution-focused environment. Preferred Qualifications RAPID Proficiency: Deep experience programming and interfacing with ABB controllers via RAPID. ROS2 Proficiency: Strong experience building production-grade robotics pipelines in ROS2. Advanced Degree: PhD or equivalent experience in Robotics, Controls, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related field. Compensation Salary: $100K – $250K Equity: 0.50% – 2.00%

About Mbodi Mbodi makes industrial robots learn like humans. Our AI software plugs into any robot and lets anyone teach it new skills through conversation. We're backed by leading investors. Our founders bring experience from Google and the University of Pennsylvania's robotics lab, and we're building a small, senior team focused on hard problems in the physical world. We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. In this role, you will: Conduct applied research at the intersection of generative AI and robotics, with a focus on models and systems that work in the real world. Design and implement algorithms and models for robot learning, perception, planning, and skill generalization across complex tasks. Build robust, scalable systems that connect foundation models to reliable physical world execution, turning theory into impact. Collaborate across ML, robotics, and product to advance agent orchestration and intelligent system integration. Drive technical direction, architecture decisions, and research strategy from day one. You'll thrive in this role if you: Have strong experience in AI, robotics, machine learning, or agentic systems. Are highly proficient in Python and PyTorch, with experience training, evaluating, and deploying neural networks. Understand modern ML techniques such as transformers, diffusion models, vision language models, imitation learning, reinforcement learning, or robotic foundation models. Have built and shipped real systems, not just trained models in isolation. Are comfortable working across models, data pipelines, APIs, evaluation workflows, and runtime components. Care deeply about reliability, latency, observability, and correctness in real world systems. Think in terms of failure modes, edge cases, and how systems behave under pressure. Are adaptable, execution focused, and comfortable with the ambiguity of startup life. Why join us This is a chance to work on one of the hardest and most important problems in AI: bringing intelligence into the physical world. You will work directly with the founders and help shape the core platform, from agent architecture and robot learning to production deployment with global industrial customers. We are building a small, senior team that wants to solve hard problems with real world stakes.