Robotics careers · Career guide

Robotics engineerwhat the job involves, pay and who’s hiring

There are 360 open robotics engineer roles on Robotics Connected today, at 277 employers. Below is what the work involves, the skills employers ask for, how people get in, and the roles open now.

By Olivier Ayache · Figures from the jobs board, updated
360
open robotics engineer roles
277
employers hiring
5
roles showing pay
2%
can be done remotely

What does a robotics engineer do?

A robotics engineer designs, builds and improves robots and the systems around them. In practice the title covers a wide range of work: at a humanoid start-up it can mean writing whole-body controllers, at a warehouse automation company it can mean getting a fleet of mobile robots to work reliably on a customer's site, and at a research lab it can mean building the test rigs for a new gripper.

What the roles have in common is that they sit between disciplines. A robotics engineer is expected to understand enough mechanics, electronics and software to make the whole machine work, and usually goes deep in one of them.

Also advertised as: Robotics systems engineer, Robotics software engineer, Robot engineer.

A typical week

  • Writing and testing software for motion, control or perception, often in C++ or Python with ROS
  • Bringing up new hardware: wiring, calibrating sensors and working out why an arm or a robot base isn't doing what it should
  • Running experiments in simulation and on real robots, and reading the logs afterwards
  • Working with mechanical, electrical and product colleagues on the next version of the robot

Skills employers ask for

  • C++ and Python, and usually ROS or ROS 2
  • Kinematics, dynamics and control theory
  • Sensors and actuators: cameras, lidar, IMUs, motors and encoders
  • Simulation tools such as Gazebo, Isaac Sim or MuJoCo
  • Patient debugging on real hardware

How much do robotics engineers earn?

Only 5 of the 360 open roles give pay today, which is too few to give a fair figure, so I've left it out rather than guess. You can see the roles that do show pay on the jobs board.

Who is hiring robotics engineers?

The employers with the most open robotics engineer roles today:

Where are the jobs?

The cities with the most open robotics engineer roles, each with its own page of robotics jobs:

And by country:

What levels are open?

173 of the 360 roles say their level in the title. They split like this:

Entry-level roles are scarce across robotics, not only in this one. I looked at why, and what I’d suggest if you’re starting out, in this article on the entry-level gap.

How to become a robotics engineer

Most robotics engineers have a degree in mechanical, electrical or software engineering, mechatronics or robotics, and many have a master's. Employers look closely at what you have built, so I'd suggest keeping a short portfolio of projects (a robot arm, a competition robot, a ROS package on GitHub) since it says more than a list of modules.

Internships and graduate schemes at larger robotics companies are the most common first step, and smaller start-ups often hire people who have shown they can build things on their own.

If you’re early on, the robotics internships and entry-level and graduate roles are the places to start.

Open robotics engineer jobs

The newest, one an employer:

Search the jobs board for “robotics engineer”All Robotics Software & Infrastructure roles

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