2022-03-23T12:35:00-04:00 X, The Moonshot Factory
Software and Machine Learning Lead (Wearable Robotics Project)
Software Engineering
Mountain View, CA

X is Alphabet’s moonshot factory. We are a diverse group of inventors and entrepreneurs who build and launch technologies that aim to improve the lives of millions, even billions, of people. Our goal: 10x impact on the world’s most intractable problems, not just 10% improvement. We approach projects that have the aspiration and riskiness of research with the speed and ambition of a startup.

 

About the team:

You will join an early stage team exploring how a mix of new fabrics, robotics and AI/ML might help people with mobility challenges and improve quality of life for hundreds of millions of people. For example, imagine the functionality of exoskeletons in a form-factor closer to clothing. The project will be in a prototyping phase, rapidly iterating and implementing ideas to progressively de-risk the idea from a technical perspective.

The team is multi-disciplinary, bringing together expertise in machine learning, biomechanics, robotics and soft goods. What unites us is a drive for impact and willingness to look ridiculous. We celebrate spectacular failures.

 

About the role:

You will be the project’s technical lead for software, machine learning, high level controls, data insights and simulation. You’ll work cross-functionally with the Hardware and Embedded Systems lead, Product Management, and other teams. Our team is small, scrappy and constantly evolving, as such, you should enjoy contributing high impact code as well as guiding and mentoring others.

This is an incredibly dynamic role and requires high interdisciplinary communication, organization, and planning. The ideal candidate is a self-starter and has a track record of effectively operating in a dynamic loosely-structured environment (e.g. startup, new product within Google). You should be comfortable with uncertainty and constantly figuring out what to do next.  If you like to know exactly what you’ll be working on tomorrow/next quarter, it’s probably not for you. If you flourish in creative chaos and can gently introduce a bit of rigor but not too much to kill the spirit of innovation, if you are motivated by making the world a better place through technology, and want to be part of an inclusive team with diverse mindsets and backgrounds that makes this happen - then this might just be the role for you. 

 

How you’ll make 10X impact:

  • Be an active engineer and technical lead on the project. You must be willing to get your hands dirty! We operate Python, C++ and bash code in several distinct environments
  • Own the technical roadmap for software, ML and controls and drive the team to meet the milestones. Balance longevity and broad exploration with rapid execution. Work with the engineering team across SWE, Machine Learning, and statistical problems
  • Drive key decisions on software architecture. Produce technical and design documents. Lead design reviews and provide feedback to the team members.
  • You will be a key stakeholder for the product and hardware roadmap as well. Work to bring prototype to product. Work with UX, HW/SW, and PM to rapidly prototype features to speed up innovation.
  • Assess and scope technical feasibility of possible new products, prototypes, and research explorations
  • Work with internal and external partners to scope and execute data collection and testing as needed
  • Provide mentorship to the team members
  • Provide a sounding board of advice, assumption questioning, and puns to the project lead and other senior team members..

 

What you should have: 

Having as many of these specific qualifications is a plus, but transferable skills/experiences from other adjacent domains may be equally valuable, we care more about who you are than what you’ve done.

  • Passion for impact, drive to help us achieve it and enough objectivity to tell us what’s not possible
  • Technical leadership experience of successfully building and scaling teams and large scale software systems, ideally in a consumer product context. Experience of launching products interfacing multiple crossfunctions.
  • A  visionary and audacious streak - we’d rather explore high-risk, high-reward ideas than build a functional, yet incremental, platform.
  • 5 years of technical leadership experience (TL/TLM) in algorithm development  (AI/ML/Signal processing), software engineering, statistical analysis, and/or robotics controls
  • Ability to reduce ambiguity in a problem and make it tracktable, including vaguely posed ideas such as “can we use RL to learn better robotics control?”
  • Strong leadership skills, including written and verbal communication skills
  • Experience with, exposure to, or interest in robotics, controls, HW/SW integration, mobility, wearables is nice-to-have, but you’ll be working with a strong robotics lead and in a team with many content experts - we can teach you robotics easier than we can teach an robotics expert leadership and cultural attributes.

 

At X, we don't just accept difference - we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.

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