EdTech, Artificial Intelligence, Software

Perception Engineer, Robot Safety

Watertown, MAOnsiteFull TimePosted 1 month agoVisa sponsorship available

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Required skills

AI
robotics
perception systems
robot safety
sensors

Role summary

Seeking a Perception Engineer focused on Robot Safety to join an AI robotics company. This role involves developing and deploying perception systems that ensure the safety of robots operating in customer facilities alongside people. Responsibilities include creating sensors and software that detect people and determine appropriate robot responses. The ideal candidate is a thinker, builder, and researcher passionate about advancing AI robotics and its direct impact on the physical economy. This position emphasizes technical excellence and collaboration.

About Tutor

We believe robots are the biggest lever we have to making the physical world a better, more affordable place. But robots are a rounding error in our society: nearly nine out of ten American factories and warehouses don’t even have a single robot, and robots have yet to make their way into our homes or places of business.

Tutor Intelligence is changing that.

Tutor is a robotics research and deployment company, building generally capable robot hardware and artificial intelligence to enable robots to go where no robots have gone before. Sonny is a semi-humanoid robot with frontier dexterity approaching the human form. Cassie does back-breaking work, moving boxes, pallets, and bulk goods for businesses from family-owned manufacturers to some of the largest brands in the world. Tutor robots are manufactured at scale and operate as a network, combining the whole fleet’s learned experience to train ever more capable robot artificial intelligence.

Founded at MIT and headquartered in Watertown, MA, our team is full stack: we design and manufacture robot hardware, train our own models, work directly with the smallest and largest end-customers, and maintain our fleet across the United States. We’re a team of researchers, engineers, technicians, operators, and sellers who love building things and solving hard problems.

Our mission is grand: robots everywhere, for the common good, raising the standard of living across North America, and then the world.

The Role

Our robots work in customer facilities with people nearby. The systems that keep those people safe are perception systems: sensors that detect a person, and software that decides how the robot responds. We're looking for an engineer to build those systems and own the code they run on.

This is an engineering role. You will design and build perception and monitoring systems, own safety-critical code end to end, and be responsible for the design and review of the systems that decide whether a robot may move. You will work across our product teams, joining whichever one is building something that affects safety, and you will test our systems for weaknesses before they show up in the field.

You will also help shape how Tutor keeps its robots safe and deployable. A robot that hurts someone is unacceptable, and a robot that cannot be deployed where the work is does not help anyone. The formal side of safety, risk assessments and the standards customers ask about, is part of this role. We will teach it. We are hiring for the engineering.

What You'll Do

Build the perception systems that keep people safe: Detection, tracking, and monitoring from lidar and cameras, running on robots in production

Own safety-critical code: The software path from a sensor reading to a stopped robot, including its tests, its failure modes, and its behavior when something upstream fails

Design and review safety-relevant systems: Set the design for how a robot decides it is safe to move, and review changes across the codebase that affect that decision

Test for weaknesses: Use replayed field data, constructed scenarios, and hardware faults to find where the system fails, and fix what you find

Work across product teams: Join the team building something that affects safety and build it with them

Help set the strategy: Contribute to how Tutor keeps its robots safe and deployable as the fleet and the applications grow, including the evidence we give customers

What We're Looking For

Experience shipping perception or monitoring software on robots or vehicles: Lidar or camera pipelines, detection, tracking, or sensor fusion, running on hardware in production

You have owned code where a bug could injure someone: You know how that changes design, testing, and review

Strong software engineering: Python and C++ or similar, real-time constraints, and code that other people can verify

Some controls knowledge: Stopping distances, latency budgets, and how a perception decision becomes a motion command

You fix what you find: When you find a weakness, you propose the fix and usually build it

Nice to Have

Exposure to safety standards for robots or machinery, such as ISO 10218, ISO 13849, or ANSI/RIA R15.06

Experience with safety-rated sensors or safety validation of a detector

Experience in warehouses, manufacturing, or other environments where robots and people share space

Simulation and replay tooling for testing perception at scale

Why Tutor?

Whether you’re designing robots, closing deals, running deployments, or creating the processes that help us scale, your work doesn’t sit on a shelf. It shows up on real production floors, making physical work safer and more affordable.

Our team of 160+ is driven by curiosity and a genuine love of building. Everyone here takes real ownership, learns fast, and holds a high bar while having each other’s backs. If you love hard problems and creating things that didn’t exist before, you’ll fit right in.

Benefits

We take care of our team so they can do their best work. At Tutor, you’ll get:

Fully employer-covered health insurance, so you’re protected without the premium.
A managed 401(k) to help you plan for the future.
Generous time off: unlimited PTO and all federal holidays off for full-time salaried employees, and 16+ days of accrued paid time off plus 1.5x pay on federal holidays for hourly employees.
Regular in-office meals and team social events throughout the year.

As Tutor grows, so will our benefits. We’re continuing to invest in ways to support our team at work and beyond.

Tutor Intelligence is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds.

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