Duration: 6+ months
Typical Day in the Role
Purpose of the Team: This team is under Strategic Missions and Technologies (SMT). The team focuses on leveraging AI models for scientific discovery in areas such as material science, robotics, and chemistry. Part of the team is dedicated to scientific discovery, while another part focuses exclusively on robotics. They work on the physical embodiment of robotics and AI models.
Key projects: please reference the job description at the bottom!
Typical task breakdown and operating rhythm: The role will consist of 20%: Meetings and planning, including daily stand-ups and interactions with the broader global team at Microsoft. 80%: Heads-down work in the lab, which includes tasking within the lab environment, participating in ad hoc focused engineering calls, and advancing lab projects
Compelling Story & Candidate Value Proposition
What makes this role interesting? - The role offers the opportunity to work directly with physical robots.
Unique Selling Points: Candidates will gain experience with foundational AI models from Microsoft, OpenAI, and emerging models in robotics. This exposure is valuable and transferable to other organizations.
Candidate Requirements
Years of Experience Required: 10+ overall years of experience in the field.
Degrees or certifications required: Bachelor’s, Master’s, PHD degree in Robotics, Computer/Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, or related technical field.
Best vs. Average: The ideal resume would contain: Please review the preferred qualifications in the job description! Along with those preferred qualifications, candidates with hobbies related to robotics, such as outreach with high schools or personal projects and volunteering, are considered valuable. These activities demonstrate a strong interest and practical experience in robotics beyond formal work or academic settings.
Top 3 Hard Skills Required + Years of Experience
1. Minimum 2+ years experience in a robotics lab, R&D lab, or engineering prototyping environment.
2. Minimum 2+ years experience with simulation environment knowledge. Understanding and experience with software-based simulation environments to safely simulate robotic actions before physical deployment.
3. Minimum 2+ years experience with cloud computing or other software developments.
Hard Skills Assessments
Expected Dates that Hard Skills Assessments will be scheduled: first week of June. They’d like to fill asap.
Hard Skills Assessment Process: The assessment process will include 3 rounds. On with a GM, a PM, an an Engineer FTE.
Required Candidate Preparation: Candidates should review the attached job description to be prepared prior to the assessment & be prepared to talk about their experience on their resume and their previous work/projects.
Robotics Lab Technician (Vendor Role)
Role overview
We are seeking a hands-on Robotics Lab Technician to support the daily operations, safety, and technical workflows of the B25 Robotics Lab, a central facility for Microsoft’s Physical AI and Robotics initiatives. This position plays a critical role in enabling hardware readiness, safe experimentation, and engineering velocity for cutting-edge robotics research and development. As robotics activity expands across autonomy, sensing, and integration workflows, this role will ensure the lab can scale safely and efficiently to support an increasing number of platforms and field-deployable systems.
Key Responsibilities
- Maintain day-to-day lab operations, ensuring organization, cleanliness, and safety compliance in accordance with Microsoft standards.
- Perform robot fleet maintenance and readiness checks, including battery conditioning, software provisioning, and sensor diagnostics.
- Execute sensor calibration procedures (camera, IMU, LiDAR, etc.) and support testbed reconfiguration for various research experiments.
- Manage testbed scheduling and equipment reservations to ensure optimal use of shared resources across teams.
- Assist in setting up and tearing down hardware-in-the-loop tests, mock environments, and motion capture configurations.
- Monitor safety protocols during physical testing (e.g., isolation zones, emergency stops) and serve as the on-site contact for safety audits.
- Support prototype integration, including mechanical assembly, wiring, firmware flashing, and bring-up of new robotic platforms.
- Track and manage lab consumables, hardware inventory, and repair logs for shared robotic assets.
- Collaborate with research engineers to provide technical assistance during experiments and rapid troubleshooting during live tests.
- Support integration of cloud-connected robotics systems, AI workloads, and simulation tools to accelerate validation cycles across lab and field sites.
- Assist with deploying and monitoring data-driven experiments involving real-time robotic perception, control, and navigation stacks.
- Contribute to technical execution of robotics systems that span software, algorithms, networking, and embedded systems.
- Collecting, curating, and managing robotic datasets.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Robotics, Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, or related technical field.
- 2+ years of hands-on experience in a robotics lab, R&D lab, or engineering prototyping environment.
- Familiarity with robotic hardware systems, including mobile robots, manipulators, and perception sensors.
- Working knowledge of safety best practices in physical lab environments.
- Basic proficiency with mechanical tools, soldering, and electronics troubleshooting.
- Ability to read and follow mechanical/electrical schematics and assembly diagrams.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with ROS or similar robotics middleware.
- Exposure to AI-based robotic systems, data collection for algorithm development, and field deployment logistics.
- Experience with robotics simulations (e.g., Gazebo, Isaac Sim, MuJoCo) and integrating simulated agents into cloud workflows.
- Familiarity with testbed calibration tools.
- Experience supporting ML/AI or autonomy test cycles in simulation or physical hardware.
- Proficiency in cloud computing technologies and Azure services.
- Ability to manage concurrent priorities across a high-throughput lab environment.
- Strong interpersonal skills; able to collaborate with cross-functional engineering and research teams.
