Engineer II/ Senior Engineer, Robotics Platform Evaluation

Your Impact at LILA

Lila is building a dedicated platform evaluation function within our robotics organization. The team tests and benchmarks alternative robotics platforms, including mobile manipulators, AMRs and AGVs, and other form factors, against our current production baseline. Consistent methodology across platforms is the point: results have to be directly comparable to be useful.

As a Robotics Platform Evaluation Engineer, you own robots end to end. You unbox and commission new hardware, integrate it with our software stack and infrastructure, execute the full test program, and turn the results into decision-ready comparisons that inform which platforms we adopt.

This is a hands-on, systems-level role. You will be in the lab working directly with hardware, not reviewing spec sheets. You will also shape the evaluation methodology and the tooling behind it, so each platform assessment runs faster and more consistently than the last.

What You'll Be Building

• Commission new robotics platforms from unboxing through integration with our stack
• Own end-to-end evaluation of assigned platforms, from test plan to benchmark report
• Run test suites spanning navigation, manipulation, perception, and controls
• Integrate platforms with ROS2 and Nav2, adapting drivers, configurations, and interfaces
• Characterize manipulator, gripper, and AMR/AGV performance against comparable baselines
• Extend the shared evaluation framework and tooling for future platform assessments
• Flag integration issues, safety concerns, and platform limitations early and clearly

What You'll Need to Succeed

• Professional experience deploying robotics platforms in production, commercial, or applied R&D settings
• Hands-on ROS2 and Nav2 experience in real deployments, not simulation alone
• Experience with manipulation and pick-and-place, including motion planning and grasp execution
• Experience with controls for robot arms or mobile bases
• Experience integrating and calibrating camera or lidar perception pipelines
• Direct experience with AMRs/AGVs or 6 to 7 DoF arms, including grippers and end effectors
• Track record turning test results into clear, decision-ready comparisons

Bonus Points For

• Evaluated or compared multiple robotics platforms or vendors head to head
• Experience with mobile manipulators, meaning an arm mounted on a mobile base
• Experience with robotics simulation tools (Isaac Sim, Gazebo, or similar) for platform validation
• Built internal tooling or frameworks for standardized robot testing
• Background in industrial, warehouse, logistics, or manufacturing automation