---
title: 'State Estimation Engineer - Data Collection Systems at Figure'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/state-estimation-engineer-data-collection-systems-figure-san-jose-k6mqbj3tsxwh'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-05'
---

# State Estimation Engineer - Data Collection Systems at Figure

- **Company:** Figure
- **Location:** San Jose, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-08-18
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/figureai/jobs/4706280006

## Job description

Figure is an AI Robotics company autonomous general-purpose humanoid robots. The goal of the company is to ship humanoid robots with human level intelligence. Its robots are engineered to perform a variety of tasks in the home and commercial markets. We are based in North San Jose, CA and require 5 days/week in-office collaboration. It’s time to build.

We are looking for a State Estimation Engineer to own the architecture, algorithm development, and calibration workflows for a next-generation data collection system. This system powers two core capabilities: low-latency real-time teleoperation of our humanoid robots and ultra-high-precision offline trajectory reconstruction for data collection and policy training. You will build and deploy dual-tier estimation pipelines and user-onboarding calibration routines that fuse heterogeneous sensor modalities to track full-body human kinematics and floating-base motion across dynamic tasks.

Key Responsibilities:

- Design and implement dual-tier state estimation algorithms in modern C++: low-latency, real-time filters for streaming teleoperation and batch optimization/smoothing routines for high-accuracy offline dataset generation.
- Own and develop subject-calibration procedures, designing rapid, intuitive routines to estimate individual body segment dimensions, joint offsets, and sensor-to-body extrinsics whenever a user equips the system.
- Develop robust sensor fusion architectures combining spatial transforms, visual-inertial data, and inertial signals into full-body kinematic pose estimates.
- Address spatiotemporal sensor calibration, dynamic environmental interference, and kinematic constraint enforcement on human skeletal models.
- Develop techniques to extract useful information from compliant tactile sensing in the presence of large sensor deformation, stretching or folding.
- Diagnose and understand limitations of existing hardware or designs and inform future design requirements.
- Evaluate novel sensing modalities to inform future hardware designs.
- Build diagnostic tooling, validation pipelines, and error analysis workflows to evaluate accuracy for both online and offline algorithms.

Requirements:

- 4+ years of experience building multi-sensor fusion and state estimation solutions for dynamic hardware systems.
- Hands-on expertise with both real-time filtering techniques ((E)KFs, sliding-window estimators) and offline batch optimization tools (Factor Graphs, GTSAM, Ceres, Non-Linear Least Squares).
- Proven capability to design fast, reliable calibration, zeroing, and alignment workflows for multi-sensor suites and kinematic models.
- Deep mathematical foundation in 3D spatial kinematics, Lie groups (SE(3), SO(3)), forward/inverse kinematics, and constrained optimization.
- Proven ability to write high-performance, modular C++ for embedded or edge computing platforms alongside Python for data analysis and visualization.

Bonus Qualifications:

- Experience with low-latency streaming pipelines for teleoperation, haptics, or human-in-the-loop control systems.
- Background in human biomechanics, skeletal tracking, or body-mounted telemetry systems.
- Prior experience applying Machine Learning (ML) techniques to motion priors, trajectory smoothing, or learned state estimation/calibration.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is between $150,000 and $300,000 annually.

The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package may also include additional components/benefits depending on the specific role. This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.

## About Figure

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Figure is an AI robotics company building the world's first commercially viable autonomous general-purpose humanoid robot.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, $1.9B total funding)
- **Headquarters**: San Jose, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Brett Adcock

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: AI Robotics / Humanoid Robotics / Machinery Manufacturing
- **Target customers**: Enterprise (manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, retail) and, in future iterations, consumer/home markets.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To bring a commercially viable general-purpose humanoid to market, making humans capable of more and addressing labor shortages.

## Products & Services
- **Figure 03**: The latest generation humanoid robot, designed for the home and the world at scale. Features a softer look and feel, advanced hand dexterity, and an integrated battery in the torso. It is powered by the company's AI model, Helix.
- **Helix / Helix 02**: Figure's in-house AI model for humanoid control. Helix 02 is described as their most powerful model to date, enabling the robot to perform complex tasks autonomously (e.g., using the whole body to do dishes end-to-end).
- **F.02 Fleet**: The previous generation robot used in a real-world deployment with BMW, where it contributed to the production of 30,000 cars over 11 months, running 10 hours per day.
- **BotQ**: Figure's manufacturing division, responsible for building the robots at scale.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (private company). Total funding is $1.9B.
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of $1,854,000,000.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Parkway Venture Capital (led Series A and Series C), Intel Capital (led Venture Round), Brett Adcock (led Seed Round). Key partner: BMW (11-month deployment).
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 128.8% YoY to 442 employees. Active job postings increased 223.5% YoY. The company is actively scaling its manufacturing arm (BotQ) and commercial operations. It operates in 12 countries.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-Mover in Commercial Humanoids**: Figure has a significant head start with a real-world, 11-month deployment at a major automaker (BMW), proving the technology's viability.
- **Vertically Integrated AI & Hardware**: Unlike many competitors, Figure builds both the robot hardware and the AI software (Helix) in-house, creating a tightly integrated system.
- **Massive Data Advantage**: Through its "Project Go-Big" and partnership with BMW, Figure is building the world's largest humanoid pretraining dataset, a critical moat in AI.
- **Aggressive Talent Acquisition**: Has hired top talent from Tesla (60), Apple (34), Boston Dynamics (12), SpaceX (9), and others, concentrating deep expertise.

## Strategic Focus
- **Commercial Deployment**: Scaling from pilot programs (BMW) to widespread commercial deployment across logistics, warehousing, and manufacturing.
- **Home Market Entry**: The design of Figure 03 signals a clear strategic pivot toward the consumer/home market as the next major growth vector.
- **AI Leadership**: Continued investment in the Helix AI model to achieve full autonomy and general-purpose capability.
- **Manufacturing Scale**: Building out BotQ to mass-produce humanoid robots.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven & High Impact**: The company is laser-focused on a singular, ambitious mission: "to build the most groundbreaking company on the planet." Work is described as being "in the trenches together."
- **Culture of Speed & Fearlessness**: Core values include "Move Fast & Be Technically Fearless" and "Aggressively Optimistic." The environment is described as high-performance, with a "championship mindset."
- **On-Site, Collaborative Environment**: Employees work from physical offices in San Jose, CA (HQ) and a secondary location in Sunnyvale. The culture emphasizes in-person collaboration.
- **Generous Benefits**: Offers health insurance, generous parental leave, and family/childcare benefits.
- **Massive Growth Trajectory**: With 110 open roles, explosive headcount growth, and a clear path to market, employees have significant opportunity for career growth and impact.
- **Technical Challenges**: Work spans cutting-edge AI (reinforcement learning, perception, pretraining), hardware engineering (actuators, electrical, mechanical), and manufacturing at scale.

## Sources
1. [figure.ai](https://www.figure.ai/company)
2. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/figure-ai)
3. [Greenhouse Jobs](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/figureai)
4. [Built In](https://builtin.com/company/figureai)

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