Senior Application Engineer

About the role

The is entrusted with defining and owning the complete end-to-end experience of demonstrating the Apollo robot. This role holds accountability for every interaction between executives, customers, partners, and the technology they encounter, ensuring each live demonstration meets the highest standards of engineering rigor, safety, and narrative clarity. The position operates with significant autonomy at the California satellite office, serving as the primary technical representative for critical audiences and bridging customer feedback directly to product and engineering teams. Success in this role demands a high degree of ownership and the capability to solve complex, real-time problems within a dynamic and fast-paced environment. The engineer will translate abstract business objectives into concrete, credible, and engaging robot behaviors that resonate with stakeholders. Ultimately, this position is responsible for ensuring that every demonstration reinforces trust in the technology and clearly communicates the practical value of Apollo.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Translate ambiguous executive and customer visit goals into concrete, technically feasible robot scenarios that respect both technical limits and business constraints.
• Serve as the definitive technical voice for Apollo's capabilities, assessing what can be demonstrated credibly and reliably for any specific audience or use case.
• Design structured demonstration scenarios that mirror real customer field deployments, including clear requirements, success criteria, and risk assessments.
• Develop documented architectures and detailed runbooks that are robust enough to be handed off and reproduced by other engineers without ambiguity.
• Build and maintain simulation environments to validate robot behaviors prior to live deployment, optimizing demonstration-specific behaviors to reduce integration risk and rehearsal time.
• Define comprehensive fallback architectures and failure-mode mitigation strategies, creating detailed recovery steps that are integrated directly into the run-of-show.
• Ship and execute reliable run-of-show sequences that maintain demonstration integrity across global venues, ensuring live demos begin on schedule and proceed without avoidable interruptions.
• Partner closely with Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success to define objectives and success metrics for high-priority visits, aligning all internal stakeholders before any work begins.
• Champion safety and reliability by ensuring every demonstration aligns with Apptronik standards, delivering consistent quality for critical stakeholders and reinforcing long-term trust.
• Document all architectures, decisions, and configurations in durable artifacts that enable new engineers to quickly understand, reproduce, and maintain setups over time.
• Conduct on-site logistics refinement, including network configuration, power requirements, and safety checks, to guarantee seamless execution during live demonstrations.
• Anticipate potential failure paths and build recovery steps directly into the run-of-show, minimizing disruption and maintaining credibility during high-stakes engagements.
• Create checklists and rehearsal plans tailored to each specific audience, ensuring that every team member understands their role and responsibilities.
• Translate complex robotics concepts into clear, actionable narratives that non-technical audiences can easily understand, making technical details accessible and compelling.

Requirements

• Must hold at least 1.00 years of experience deploying robotics systems in demanding environments, with a verifiable track record of safe operations.
• Must possess a Bachelor degree in a relevant discipline, with hands-on familiarity with control stacks, sensors, and compute platforms.
• Must be capable of translating ambiguous visit goals into concrete, technically feasible scenarios that respect both technical limits and customer constraints.
• Must be able to communicate confidently with executives and partners, maintaining professionalism under high-pressure conditions.
• Must translate complex robotics concepts into clear, actionable narratives that non-technical audiences can easily understand.
• Must demonstrate a strong commitment to safety and reliability, ensuring every demonstration aligns with Apptronik standards.
• Must be able to design detailed requirements, success criteria, and risk assessments for demonstration scenarios.
• Must have the ability to create durable documentation and runbooks that allow other engineers to reproduce complex setups.

Nice to have

Experience with human-centered robotics demonstrations in controlled production or field settings is valued.

Practical notes

This role requires 1.00 years of relevant experience. The position is based in Sunnyvale, California, and requires onsite engagement in the California office with global partners.