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Robotics Engineer

Not Disclosed

Job Description & Details

This contract role is a hands‑on robotics debugging gig at a company in Cupertino. You won’t be designing new arms from scratch; you’ll be the go‑to person for getting existing hardware and software to work reliably.

What You'll Actually Be Doing

You’ll spend most of your day glued to a robotic arm that’s already built, running diagnostics, swapping out power modules, and chasing down flaky ROS nodes. Expect to assemble components, run QA test rigs that move the arm from point A to point B, and write or tweak Python scripts that surface sensor data. When something crashes, you’ll trace the fault through firmware, drivers, and the control software, then hand a clean, documented fix back to the engineering team.

The Core Tech Stack

The must‑know stack is ROS on top of a Linux‑based controller, with heavy Python scripting for test automation. You also need solid hardware troubleshooting chops – power supplies, motor drivers, and sensor wiring are all fair game. The company expects you to understand the mechanical kinematics of the arm enough to spot a mis‑aligned joint without opening the CAD model.

Interview Expectations

  1. “Walk me through how you would debug a ROS node that intermittently drops messages during a trajectory execution.” – They’re looking for a systematic approach: checking topic bandwidth, verifying real‑time constraints, using rqt_graph, and maybe adding watchdog timers.
  2. “Explain how you would isolate a power‑supply fault that causes the arm to stall only under load.” – Expect them to probe your hardware intuition: measuring voltage sag, inspecting decoupling caps, and confirming firmware limits.

Application Advice

Tailor your resume to shout out every keyword the JD uses: debugging, ROS, Python scripting, hardware troubleshooting, and robotic arm assembly. Highlight any contract or research projects where you took a pre‑built system and got it running end‑to‑end, especially if you documented test scripts or QA procedures. A brief bullet that says “Performed QA and debug of ROS‑based robotic arms in a production environment” will get past most ATS filters.