--- title: 'Senior Robotics Engineer at Yondu AI' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-engineer-yondu-ai-gardena-r9phjzqqd7sg' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-05' --- # Senior Robotics Engineer at Yondu AI - **Company:** Yondu AI - **Location:** Gardena, CA - **Compensation:** $120k–$200k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-02-27 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05 - **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/yondu-ai/am9icG9zdDrtjWykow0xDS4Bebk19rKi ## Job description We’re looking for an experienced roboticist to work with our team in maintaining, improving, and battle-readying our our end-to-end robotic workforce solution. You’ll possibly work or lead various different projects such as robot and teleoperation design, control systems, or fleet control and navigation optimization. - Qualifications/Requirements- 5+ years software engineering experience, including 3+ in robotics, aerospace, or other physical domains. - Proven experience leading software teams and delivering production systems for real hardware. - Strong C++ and Python skills - Familiarity with Docker deployment - Experience with real-time or near-real-time control systems and hardware–software integration. - Strong understanding of modern software practices including: Git, code review, automated testing, CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, etc.) - Experience managing sensor data pipelines (stereo/RGB cameras, Lidar, IMUs, force/torque). - Experience with ROS/ROS 2 - Linux - Nice To Haves- Proficiency in profiling and optimizing C++/Python code for systems with limited compute and memory resources. - Experience with simulation environments (Gazebo, Isaac Sim, etc.). - Experience building low-latency networking and communication systems for teleoperation. - Background in computer vision, perception, ML-based detection/pose estimation, or SLAM. - Experience in startup or fast-paced R&D environments, including hiring and mentoring teams. - Things that make you an ideal fit:- You are excited to remain hands-on in the code while unblocking your team and facilitating technical decisions rather than dictating them. ## About Yondu AI ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Yondu provides drop-in, general-purpose humanoid robots for 3PL warehouses to automate high-turnover labor with a fast, ROI-positive, brownfield deployment. - **Entity Type**: Private (seed stage, Y Combinator W24) - **Headquarters**: Gardena, California, USA - **Founded**: 2023 (Dec 2023 founded at MIT, operational by 2024) - **Founders**: Michael Chen (CEO) and Tahmid Jamal (CTO) ## Core Business - Primary industry: Warehouse automation, logistics robotics, embodied AI. - Target customers: Mid-sized 3PL (third-party logistics) warehouses (B2B, SMB to enterprise). - Mission: Revolutionizing physical labor by building the robot workforce of the future, empowering businesses to lower operating costs, eliminate turnover, and increase efficiency. ## Products & Services - **Humanoid Robots + Teleoperation System (ULTRON)**: A low-latency remote teleoperation system that puts robots to work immediately in customer operations, collecting data for autonomy. - **Warehouse Management Software (WMS) Integration**: Routes orders from the warehouse WMS to Yondu’s platform, instructing robots where to go and what to pick. - **Autonomy Stack (YGM – Yondu General Manipulation)**: A manipulation policy that gradually takes over picking and placing tasks, learning from teleoperation data to drive toward full autonomy. - **Brownfield Bin-Picking Solution**: The first fully automated brownfield bin-picking system that works within existing warehouse layouts without costly infrastructure changes. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed. - **Key Metric**: Total funding raised – seed round closed in May 2024 after YC W24 cohort; amount undisclosed. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Y Combinator; design partnership and pilot contract with Shipbots (a major West Coast 3PL). - **Growth Signals**: Founded Dec 2023 at MIT; participated in PROD 3.0 and YC W24 cohorts; opened HQ in Gardena, CA (June 2025); demonstrated comprehensive teleoperated bin-picking system (Sep 2025); landed first pilot contract; headcount growing with multiple founding engineers and robot operators. ## Competitive Advantages - **Brownfield-first approach**: No need for new infrastructure or retrofits – robots adapt to existing warehouse layouts and processes. - **Affordable price point**: Mid-sized warehouses can afford automation; claims to cut labor costs by up to 75%. - **Data flywheel**: Teleoperation (ULTRON) enables immediate value while collecting real-world data to train autonomy (YGM), creating a self-improving system. - **Full-stack robotics**: In-house teleoperation, WMS integration, and manipulation stack – a platform-application model scalable to other tasks (decanting, replenishment, packing). ## Strategic Focus - Current priorities include scaling the Shipbots partnership, proving ROI in live warehouse operations, expanding the robot’s task repertoire beyond bin-picking, and building a foundation model for general-purpose manipulation. - Long-term vision: Become the platform for any brownfield robotics automation, enabling other companies to automate any task with any robot. ## Why Work Here - **Team & Culture**: Led by two MIT co-founders; strong research talent (MIT CSAIL Postdoc, Georgia Tech PhD, industry veterans in RL/teleoperation). Culture emphasizes continuous learning, keeping up with SOTA research, and tackling one of the hardest problems in robot learning. - **Compensation & Benefits**: 401(k) matching (100% of first 3%, 50% of next 2%); comprehensive medical/dental (100% premiums covered for employee and dependents); unlimited PTO plus dedicated sick leave. - **Work Environment**: Based in Los Angeles (Gardena) – hands-on, in-person collaboration with local customers; roles include robotics software, mechatronics, and business development. - **Growth Opportunity**: Early-stage startup with a chance to shape the product and technology from the ground up, working on real-world embodied AI deployments. ## Sources 1. [yondu.ai](https://www.yondu.ai/) 2. [yondu.ai/about](https://www.yondu.ai/about) 3. [yondu.ai/careers](https://www.yondu.ai/careers) 4. [ycombinator.com/companies/yondu](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/yondu) 5. [ycombinator.com/companies/yondu/jobs](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/yondu/jobs) ## Other roles at Yondu AI - [Summer Robotics Hardware Intern (Copy)](https://feeny.ai/job/summer-robotics-hardware-intern-copy-yondu-ai-gardena-rtmmqv94a38g) — Gardena, CA - [Summer Robotics Hardware Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/summer-robotics-hardware-intern-yondu-ai-gardena-xym7b8rebrb4) — Gardena, CA - [Founding Business Development Representative, Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-business-development-representative-robotics-yondu-ai-gardena-nn7kxtde6ef8) — Gardena, CA - [Senior Robotics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-engineer-sereact-zurich-5jzpaam41rrk) — Zurich, Switzerland - [Senior Robotics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-engineer-molg-sterling-k3dnb1nmsnyq) — Sterling - [Senior Robotics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-engineer-halobraid-bristol-gtq053rkzfad) — Bristol, United Kingdom - [Senior Robotics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-engineer-halobraid-cambridge-3g9502k8qewx) — Cambridge, MA - [Senior Robotics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-engineer-lightspeed-northbrook-4zwg9dftn47c) — Northbrook, IL - [Senior Robotics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-engineer-mimic-robotics-zurich-axr8h8hjj1cz) — Zurich, Switzerland - [Senior Robotics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-engineer-anduril-industries-melbourne-nqdsbqf9yamw) — Melbourne, Australia