Helix AI Engineer, Localization and Mapping at Figure
San Jose, CA
$200,000–$400,000from the description
Jul 13, 2026
San Jose, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This role focuses on building real-time localization, state estimation, and mapping systems for humanoid robots operating in real-world environments. The work spans sensor fusion across cameras, IMUs, and other modalities, multi-sensor calibration, and offline pose-tracking pipelines for large-scale training data. It suits engineers with strong foundations in visual-inertial SLAM, nonlinear optimization, 3D geometry, and performant C++.
Senior level · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Full-time
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 730 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 150–1,100
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
What the occupation pays Median $217,796 (middle half $177,469–$231,052). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (6)
The role is titled 'Localization and Mapping Engineer' with no explicit seniority level in the title, but the required qualifications (deep technical expertise in complex estimation and nonlinear optimization, visual-inertial SLAM, performant C++) and the $200K–$400K salary band strongly support a Senior classification.
Sensor calibration is listed in the required section with 'e.g., multi-camera and IMU intrinsics/extrinsics' — the named examples (multi-camera, IMU) are illustrative of the calibration requirement, not separate standalone gates; IMU is also called out as a sensor modality in the responsibilities section.
The alt SOC 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is noted as a runner-up because robotics localization/SLAM engineering sits at the intersection of software development and specialized robotics research, though the primary day-to-day work of architecting and implementing software systems aligns most closely with 15-1252.
Bonus qualifications (legged robotics SLAM, motion capture/AR/VR estimation, deep learning applied to SLAM or pose estimation) are listed under an explicit 'Bonus Qualifications' heading and are treated as preferred.
The posting requires 5 days/week in-office in Sunnyvale, CA — this is strictly an on-site role.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): nonlinear optimization.
Read the full posting
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