Senior Manager, Software Engineering - Robotics Manipulation

Details

NVIDIA is the engine of modern AI, and robotics is where AI meets the physical world. The Isaac robotics platform — spanning Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, Isaac ROS, the foundation models behind Isaac GR00T, and the accelerated libraries that run on Jetson and in the data center — is how developers and industrial leaders build intelligent robots.

This role leads Isaac for Manipulation: giving robotic arms and dexterous systems the perception, grasping, motion, and learned skills they need to do real, impactful work. You will own strategy, roadmap, and execution for manipulation capabilities — translating contact-rich problems in manufacturing, logistics, and industrial automation into shipping platform features, growing and mentoring a team of robotics and ML engineers, and partnering with ecosystem vendors and developers to make NVIDIA the default platform for robotic manipulation.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Isaac Manipulation team: recruit, grow, and mentor a high-performing team of robotics software engineers; set direction, raise the technical bar, and manage team health, velocity, and delivery.
• Shape the roadmap in collaboration with Product Management for grasping, motion planning and control, perception-for-manipulation, and learned manipulation policies, driving research into productized, supported platform capabilities.
• Translate hard contact-rich manipulation tasks in manufacturing, logistics, assembly, and machine tending into robust real-world capabilities.
• Bridge research and product by partnering with NVIDIA Research, Isaac Sim/Lab teams, and foundation-model teams (e.g., Isaac GR00T, Cosmos) to bring sim-to-real, imitation, and reinforcement learning approaches into the platform and onto physical arms.
• Serve as a technical face of Isaac Manipulation to robot-arm OEMs, system integrators, and the developer community — gathering requirements, running joint engineering, and ensuring APIs and tools meet real workflows.
• Drive architecture and execution that fully leverages NVIDIA GPUs, CUDA, and the accelerated-computing stack across simulation, training, and on-robot inference on Jetson and edge platforms.
• Plan and execute complex, multi-functional programs; own quality, performance, and real-world deployment of learned policies and manipulation stacks on physical robots.
• Represent manipulation in platform-level technical and business decisions and influence where NVIDIA invests across the robotics stack.

Requirements

• BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 12+ total years of relevant industry experience building robotics or robotics-adjacent systems, including 3+ years leading, mentoring, and managing engineering teams.
• Hands-on expertise with robotic arms, manipulation, and physics: grasping, motion planning (numerical optimization and sampling-based approaches), control (including force/impedance and contact-rich control), and perception-guided manipulation.
• Working understanding of GPU-accelerated computing and modern ML infrastructure, and how to architect robotics software to take advantage of it (CUDA, PyTorch, GPU-accelerated simulation, edge inference).
• Demonstrated ability to work directly with external partners, customers, and developer communities and translate needs into roadmap and shipping product.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals (modern C++ and Python) and ability to engage in technical and architectural decisions with your team.

Ways to stand out

• Experience building manipulation or industrial automation products at an established robot-arm company or manipulation startup, and familiarity with the product landscape, integrators, and leading platforms.
• Track record building developer-facing or low-code platforms and tooling that abstract across multiple robot-arm brands.
• Deep experience with imitation learning, reinforcement learning, sim-to-real transfer, or manipulation foundation models, and shipping learned policies onto real hardware.
• Contributions to ROS 2, ros2_control, MoveIt, or the broader robotics open-source and standards community.
• Founder / 0-to-1 experience building or scaling products or teams.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base salary range: 272,000 USD - 431,250 USD for Level 4; 320,000 USD - 488,750 USD for Level 5. Base salary will be determined based on location, experience, and comparable employees.
• Eligible for equity and company benefits (see NVIDIA benefits).

Additional information

• Applications accepted at least until July 13, 2026.
• This posting is for an existing vacancy.
• NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.
• NVIDIA is an equal opportunity employer and committed to fostering an inclusive work environment.