Staff Robotics Engineer / Tech Lead – Whole-Body Control & Robot Learning

The role

This role leads and contributes to control and learning-based algorithms for humanoid robots, including locomotion, whole-body control, motion generation and sim-to-real transfer. The person will also help set the robotics team's technical direction and mentor other engineers.

What you will do

• Develop control and learning-based algorithms for humanoid robot locomotion, whole-body control, motion generation and sim-to-real transfer.
• Contribute to the robotics team's technical direction by identifying key problems, proposing practical solutions and helping prioritize engineering efforts.
• Work with simulation, software, hardware, AI, data and China-based engineering teams to turn robot performance goals into executable plans.
• Mentor other engineers through design reviews, code reviews, experiments and technical discussions.

Required qualifications

• Master's or Ph.D. in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science or a related field.
• 5+ years of relevant experience in reinforcement learning, robotics, robot learning, control systems or related areas.
• Strong background in robot dynamics, control, motion planning, reinforcement learning, imitation learning or whole-body control.
• Familiarity with modern robot learning methods such as PPO, SAC, behavior cloning, diffusion policies and imitation learning.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to work across disciplines, locations and organizational boundaries.
• Strong ownership mindset and ability to work effectively in a fast-moving, ambiguous, research-to-product environment.

Nice to have

• Publications or strong project experience in robotics, reinforcement learning, legged locomotion, humanoid control or embodied AI.
• Experience technically leading projects or mentoring other engineers.
• Hands-on experience with legged robot control, testing or operation.

Benefits

• A supportive, engaging environment with opportunities to make a significant impact on the future of robotics.
• Opportunities to work on cutting-edge technologies with top talent in the field.
• Competitive compensation, equity and benefits.
• Lunches, snacks and team activities.

Before you apply

• Pay within the range is set by work location and factors such as skills, experience and education.

About the company

XPENG is a smart technology company that integrates AI and autonomous driving into electric vehicles, eVTOL aircraft and robotics. It is now expanding into general-purpose humanoid robots for automating repetitive tasks and assisting people in daily life.