Software Engineer Intern - ML Systems

JOB SUMMARY
Apptronik is seeking a Software Engineering Intern to join our ML Ops team for a 12-week fall project. In this role you will work at the intersection of robotics and applied machine learning — building data annotation tooling and optimizing ML models that run on humanoid hardware. You
will help close the loop between raw robot experience data and deployable hardware-ready models for Apollo Apptronik’s humanoid robot.

You will take ownership of two interconnected workstreams: (1) building or extending data annotation tools that let the team efficiently label and curate robot experience data and (2) applying ML model optimization techniques — quantization distillation and inference profiling — to improve the throughput and efficiency of models deployed on physical systems. You will work alongside the simulation engineering data platform and learning teams and contribute directly to how Apptronik turns ML research into production robot behavior.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Data Annotation Tooling: Design and implement tooling for efficient annotation and curation of robot experience data — including sensor observations trajectories and task outcomes — in formats compatible with the team’s data lake (MCAP S3/MinIO).
• ML Model Optimization: Profile quantize and/or distill ML models (RL policies VLA controllers or action heads) to reduce inference latency and memory footprint for deployment on robot hardware.
• Hardware-Aware Evaluation: Build evaluation harnesses that benchmark optimized model performance against baseline tracking metrics relevant to physical deployment (latency memory task success rate).
• Integration with Existing Infra: Connect annotation outputs and optimized model artifacts with the team’s existing artifact storage (S3/MinIO) training pipelines and Kubernetes-based execution environment.
• Documentation & Handoff: Produce design docs runbooks and example configurations so tooling can be adopted by controls learning and data platform teams after the internship.

SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS

• Python Proficiency: Demonstrated ability to write clean tested maintainable code for ML tooling data pipelines and automation.
• Linux & Development Tools: Comfortable in a Linux environment; competence with Git Docker and modern Python tooling (pytest uv/poetry type hints).
• ML Framework Experience: Hands-on experience with PyTorch or similar; familiarity with model quantization (INT8/FP16) ONNX export or TensorRT is a plus.
• Robotics Background: Coursework or project experience with robotic systems — kinematics control sensors or simulation (ROS MuJoCo Isaac Sim Gazebo or comparable).
• Data Pipeline Exposure: Experience moving data between annotation training evaluation and storage stages.
• Annotation Tooling (preferred): Prior experience with data annotation workflows labeling interfaces (Label Studio CVAT custom tooling) or human-in-the-loop data pipelines.
• Reinforcement Learning or VLA Exposure (preferred): Familiarity with RL training loops policy rollouts or vision-language-action (VLA) models.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE

• Current enrollment in a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree program in Computer Science Electrical Engineering Robotics or a related field.
• Experience with projects involving robotics ML model deployment data annotation or
  developer tooling is ideal.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times.
• Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen.
• Hearing and speech to communicate.

What We Do

Apptronik is building robots for the real world to improve human quality of life and to help solve the ever-increasing labor shortage problem. Our team has been building some of the most advanced robots on the planet for years dating back to the DARPA Robotics Challenge. We apply our expertise across the full robotics stack to some of the most important and impactful problems our society faces and expect our products and technology to change the world for the better. We value passion creativity and collaboration to help us overcome existing technological barriers in the industry to create truly innovative products.

Why Work With Us

At Apptronik we don't see a future where man competes against machine. Instead we envision a harmonious world where man and machine coexist. Our mission statement "It is not Man vs. Machine but Man + Machine" encapsulates our belief that the synergy between humans and robots will pave the way for a brighter more advanced future.

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