What are the responsibilities and job description for the Robotics Engineer position at Clera?
About The Role
A seed-stage, Y Combinator–backed humanoid robotics software company is looking for a Robotics Engineer to join a tight-knit, three-person engineering team in San Francisco. This company builds the "social brain" for humanoid robots — software that enables natural, intelligent human-robot interaction, including perception, emotional awareness, on-device decision-making, and autonomous locomotion.
You'll work hands-on with cutting-edge humanoid hardware, develop real-world autonomy software, and advise robot manufacturers on sensor placement and hardware design. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role where your work ships directly to customers.
What You'll Do
Must-haves:
This is a full-time, on-site role based in San Francisco, California. Candidates must be willing to work from the San Francisco office. Work authorization sponsorship is available for qualified candidates.
A seed-stage, Y Combinator–backed humanoid robotics software company is looking for a Robotics Engineer to join a tight-knit, three-person engineering team in San Francisco. This company builds the "social brain" for humanoid robots — software that enables natural, intelligent human-robot interaction, including perception, emotional awareness, on-device decision-making, and autonomous locomotion.
You'll work hands-on with cutting-edge humanoid hardware, develop real-world autonomy software, and advise robot manufacturers on sensor placement and hardware design. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role where your work ships directly to customers.
What You'll Do
- Develop autonomy software for humanoid robots deployed in real-world, customer-facing environments.
- Advise robot manufacturers on sensor placement, hardware interfaces, and operational design for next-generation humanoids.
- Work hands-on with premium humanoid hardware (robots that cost more than most cars).
- Implement and improve camera-based 3D perception, including object detection, tracking, gesture recognition, body language understanding, and speaker identification.
- Improve locomotion systems for safe walking in public environments.
- Collaborate with animators to make robot movement, body language, and gestures more fluid and natural.
- Deploy and maintain onboard C 20 and offboard Python 3.14 code on humanoid platforms upfit with custom hardware.
- Iterate rapidly on software deployed to customer robots in live, real-world settings.
Must-haves:
- 3 years of professional robotics engineering experience delivering autonomous robotic systems.
- Background in a relevant robotics domain — humanoids, self-driving vehicles, drones, off-road robotics, or similar.
- Strong hands-on experience with C (C 20) or Rust.
- Proven track record shipping robotics products into real-world deployments.
- Comfortable working with, debugging, and interfacing with physical hardware.
- High ownership mindset — you take full responsibility for the features you build.
- Experience deploying software on humanoid robot platforms (e.g., Unitree G1 or equivalent) with custom hardware integrations.
- Camera-based 3D perception: detection, tracking, gesture recognition, body language understanding, and/or speaker identification.
- Experience iterating on software deployed directly to customer robots in production environments.
- Locomotion engineering for navigating safely in public or unstructured environments.
- Python offboard software development experience.
- Experience with sensor placement and hardware interfacing in robot system design.
- Collaboration experience with animators or motion designers on robot behavior.
- Salary: $150,000 – $225,000 USD annually, depending on experience.
- Work visa sponsorship is available.
- Opportunity for significant early-stage equity and outsized impact at a seed-stage company.
This is a full-time, on-site role based in San Francisco, California. Candidates must be willing to work from the San Francisco office. Work authorization sponsorship is available for qualified candidates.
Salary : $150,000 - $225,000