Robotics Systems Architect

Who we are:

Formic is on a mission to reshape American manufacturing by making automation accessible to every factory. As labor constraints rise costs increase and global competition intensifies automation is no longer optional for manufacturers that want to stay competitive.

We deliver automation through a Robotics-as-a-Service model that combines industrial robotics proprietary software and full-service support into a single integrated solution. By removing the traditional barriers of cost complexity and risk we enable manufacturers to deploy automation quickly and realize measurable gains in throughput safety and operational efficiency without large upfront capital investment.

Backed by leading investors including Lux Capital Initialized Capital Blackhorn Ventures and Mitsubishi HC Capital North America Formic is scaling rapidly and building the foundation for a new era of high-performance Made in America production.

About the team:

The Software Engineering Team builds and operates the systems that power Formics Robotics-as-a-Service platform. The team develops the monitoring provisioning and data infrastructure that enables real-time visibility across a growing fleet of deployed industrial robotic systems. Engineering ensures systems are observable resilient and remotely diagnosable at scale by building production-grade edge and cloud systems that support reliable data collection remote troubleshooting live video streaming and continuous system improvement. This work directly impacts fleet uptime service efficiency and customer outcomes.

Within Engineering Formic is launching a brand-new Advanced Robotics Team focused on building next-generation intelligent robotic systems designed to operate in real industrial environments. This team will develop wheeled humanoids and advanced mobile manipulation platforms pushing beyond classical robotics stacks into modern embodied AI systems.

Formic is uniquely positioned to do this. We already operate hundreds of deployed robotic systems and maintain production-grade deployment monitoring and fleet infrastructure across real manufacturing customers. This provides what most humanoid startups do not: continuous real-world data production testing environments and a clear path from research to scaled deployment.

This is not a demo lab. We are building learning-driven robotic systems that operate daily in real factories.

About this role:

As a Robotics Systems Architect you will define and lead the control architecture for next-generation intelligent robotic platforms including wheeled humanoids and advanced mobile manipulators. You will own the system-level design of whole-body control actuator interfaces and deterministic execution across the robotics stack.

This role sits at the core of hardware controls and embodied intelligence. You will work across software AI and hardware domains to ensure our robotic systems are safe performant and deployable in real industrial environments. Your work will directly influence how learning-driven systems translate policy outputs into reliable real-world motion.

In this role you will:

• Architect and lead development of whole-body control systems for advanced robotic platforms including humanoids
• Design real-time control interfaces and hardware abstraction layers
• Define actuator interfaces and enforce hardware performance specifications with external manufacturing partners
• Develop and optimize kinematics dynamics and coordinated motion control systems
• Own safety architecture and deterministic execution across the robotics stack
• Collaborate with AI and perception teams to define state representations and control APIs
• Validate hardware performance including torque bandwidth latency and thermal behavior
• Lead system-level integration testing and debugging across hardware and software boundaries
• Drive architectural decisions that balance research flexibility with production reliability
• Ensure systems are deployable serviceable and scalable in real-world industrial environments

What makes you a great fit:

• 8 years of experience building complex robotic systems
• Strong background in control systems rigid body dynamics and robot kinematics
• Experience working with mobile manipulators humanoids or high-DOF robotic platforms
• Deep understanding of actuator systems torque control and motor performance characteristics
• Experience with ROS2 real-time Linux environments and modern C
• Proven experience shipping physical robotic systems beyond research prototypes
• Comfort working with external hardware vendors and defining detailed technical specifications
• Strong system-level debugging skills across mechanical electrical and software domains
• Ability to operate at both architectural and implementation depth
• Located in or willing to relocate to the San Francisco CA (Oakland) area and able to work in a hybrid environment (3 days per week)

Nice to have:

• Experience with whole-body control frameworks and optimization-based control
• Familiarity with model predictive control (MPC) or hierarchical control architectures
• Experience integrating learning-based policies with classical control stacks
• Background in safety-critical or industrial robotics environments

What we look for:

Were building this company from the ground up and every person we hire has an outsized impact on our culture performance and trajectory. While each team member brings unique strengths and perspectives we look for people who align with our Operating Principles and embody them in action. If this sounds like you Formic may be the right place for you!

• Fearless Optimism: You make bold bets and default optimistic. You believe in the mission arent paralyzed by risk and fear inaction more than failure. You see ambiguity as opportunity and bring energy to building what doesnt yet exist.
• Create the Magic: You absorb complexity so customers dont have to. Whether your customer is external or internal you focus on delivering experiences that are clear fast value-added and outcome-driven. You dont say not my job. You make things work.
• Today Not Tomorrow: You have a bias to action. You close the loop. You take extreme ownership. You understand that speed compounds and you dont confuse activity with results.
• Seek Truth: You think from first principles. You value data over ego and strong opinions loosely held. Youre willing to challenge assumptions including your own in pursuit of the best answer.
• Made of Rubber: You are resolute and adaptable. When things break or priorities shift you rebound stronger. You treat setbacks as learning moments and move forward with grit.
• One Formic: You operate without silos. You practice radical helpfulness document clearly and make clean handoffs. You assume positive intent and prioritize team success over individual credit.

Equal Opportunity Employment:

Formic is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race color religion or religious creed sexual orientation gender gender identity marital status family or parental status disability military or veteran status or any other basis protected by law. All employment decisions are based on a persons merit business needs and role requirements. If you require further accommodations or have questions regarding accessibility of our roles please reach out to.

AI Use:

At Formic fairness and transparency are at the heart of our hiring process. We use AI-powered tools in some interviews to help our teams evaluate candidate responses but all final hiring decisions are made by humans. You can learn more about how AI is used in our recruitment process by reviewing our AI Hiring Disclosure linkedhere.