Robotics Engineer (Navigation)
Laelaps AI
The Role
You'll join as an early technical hire. That means real ownership: you'll shape the navigation stack, sensor integration, and autonomy architecture. You'll ship end-to-end systems, from drivers and calibration to sensor fusion, global planning, and local control, so our robots operate reliably in complex, real-world environments.
This is a high-trust role at pre-seed: we're looking for someone who has shipped robotics systems before, can make strong technical calls, and can take responsibility for performance, safety constraints, and reliability in the field.
Who We're Looking For
This role is for a builder with rare ambition and low ego. You like owning problems, moving fast, working close to hardware, and raising the quality bar around you.
You care about shipping real-world systems that operate outside the lab, where safety, reliability, and edge cases actually matter.
This is not a junior position. We're looking for a Robotics Engineer who can own a large part of the stack with minimal guidance and bring battle-tested engineering judgment to autonomy in the wild.
You'll likely thrive here if you…
- Have a Master's degree and 3+ years of industry experience, or a PhD (or equivalent depth) in Robotics / Controls / Perception.
- Can build end-to-end: Drivers → Calibration → Sensor Fusion / State Estimation → Navigation → Control.
- Ship production-quality robotics code (C++, Python, ROS 2) and care about correctness and performance.
- Are fluent in core autonomy concepts: SLAM, state estimation, planning, control, and systems integration.
- Have deployed robots in the field (not just simulation or lab demos) and can reason about failure modes.
- Take ownership and communicate clearly, especially when things are messy.
Bonus points
- Experience with Nav2, GTSAM, Ceres, or similar libraries.
- Deep understanding of SLAM (vSLAM, LiDAR-based) and robust multi-sensor fusion.
- Experience delivering systems under constraints (limited compute, poor GPS, degraded sensors, harsh environments).
- Knowledge of AI/ML applied to robotics (e.g., perception, VLMs, embodied AI).
- Experience with defense, government, or critical infrastructure deployments.
- Background in embedded systems or hardware integration.
What We Offer
- Exceptionally talented team (ex-Cambridge, UCL, Imperial, TUM, Helsing) with high ambition and low ego.
- You'll shape product and engineering foundations from day one.
- Build systems that strengthen European security, defense readiness, and infrastructure resilience.
- Competitive salary + meaningful equity.
- Best hardware/software for the job.
- In-person in Zurich.
