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Re: What's the honest career ceiling if you stay purely on the hardware/mechanical side?

Posted: Tue May 20, 2025 4:14 am
by sarah.santos3
@mia_lars Not sure I fully agree here. RSS (Robotics: Science and Systems), ICRA, and the IEEE-RAS Humanoids conference are commonly cited as the most directly relevant venues for someone specifically interested in legged locomotion and humanoid control research, as opposed to broader AI/ML conferences.

Re: What's the honest career ceiling if you stay purely on the hardware/mechanical side?

Posted: Wed May 21, 2025 8:20 am
by rossi30
@sarah.santos3 Genuinely curious - Robotics engineers in the US were reportedly seeing $150k-$205k total comp at mid-level and $205k-$300k at senior level in 2026, with humanoid- and foundation-model-specialist roles clearing $280k-$475k - a meaningful premium over general robotics/automation roles. A strong, well-documented personal project (even a modest DIY build or a solid simulation-based RL project) reportedly carries real weight in hiring for this field, partly because the field is young enough that a demonstrated hands-on track record can meaningfully substitute for a less-relevant formal credential.

Re: What's the honest career ceiling if you stay purely on the hardware/mechanical side?

Posted: Sat May 24, 2025 6:43 am
by benjaminsanchez
Slight correction, though the overall point stands: Companies like Figure, 1X, Apptronik, and Agility Robotics are reportedly pulling senior ROS, controls, and learning engineers directly out of warehouse-automation and industrial-robotics roles - a sign of real talent competition between adjacent industries, not just fresh grads entering the field.

Re: What's the honest career ceiling if you stay purely on the hardware/mechanical side?

Posted: Wed May 28, 2025 11:13 am
by ethan17
I don't think that's quite right, for what it's worth. Transitioning from industrial automation into humanoid-specific roles is a increasingly common and viable path, since a lot of the underlying skills (motion control, safety systems, real-time software) transfer directly, even though the specific dynamics and learned-control components are new.

Re: What's the honest career ceiling if you stay purely on the hardware/mechanical side?

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2025 3:01 am
by carol.robinson
I see it a little differently. RSS (Robotics: Science and Systems), ICRA, and the IEEE-RAS Humanoids conference are commonly cited as the most directly relevant venues for someone specifically interested in legged locomotion and humanoid control research, as opposed to broader AI/ML conferences. Companies like Figure, 1X, Apptronik, and Agility Robotics are reportedly pulling senior ROS, controls, and learning engineers directly out of warehouse-automation and industrial-robotics roles - a sign of real talent competition between adjacent industries, not just fresh grads entering the field.

Re: What's the honest career ceiling if you stay purely on the hardware/mechanical side?

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2025 6:36 am
by jhansen
Worth being a little skeptical of the marketing angle here. Robotics engineers in the US were reportedly seeing $150k-$205k total comp at mid-level and $205k-$300k at senior level in 2026, with humanoid- and foundation-model-specialist roles clearing $280k-$475k - a meaningful premium over general robotics/automation roles.

Re: What's the honest career ceiling if you stay purely on the hardware/mechanical side?

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2025 6:53 am
by olga_lind
@jhansen I'd take that specific number with a grain of salt, honestly. Remote work remains genuinely limited for most hands-on humanoid hardware roles, given the need for physical access to robots and test environments, though software-only roles (simulation, perception algorithms, offline learning) increasingly do offer remote or hybrid arrangements.

Re: What's the honest career ceiling if you stay purely on the hardware/mechanical side?

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2025 8:05 pm
by mia.weber
@olga_lind Agreed, and I'd add: RSS (Robotics: Science and Systems), ICRA, and the IEEE-RAS Humanoids conference are commonly cited as the most directly relevant venues for someone specifically interested in legged locomotion and humanoid control research, as opposed to broader AI/ML conferences. In the UK, base salaries for robotics roles reportedly range from around £50,000 for new graduates up to roughly £200,000 for senior whole-body-control or reinforcement-learning specialists - a notably wide band reflecting how specialized the top end of the field has become.

Re: What's the honest career ceiling if you stay purely on the hardware/mechanical side?

Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2025 8:52 am
by jwang
Speaking from personal experience here, Robotics engineers in the US were reportedly seeing $150k-$205k total comp at mid-level and $205k-$300k at senior level in 2026, with humanoid- and foundation-model-specialist roles clearing $280k-$475k - a meaningful premium over general robotics/automation roles.

Re: What's the honest career ceiling if you stay purely on the hardware/mechanical side?

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2025 7:14 am
by nicole57
One nitpick - Robotics engineers in the US were reportedly seeing $150k-$205k total comp at mid-level and $205k-$300k at senior level in 2026, with humanoid- and foundation-model-specialist roles clearing $280k-$475k - a meaningful premium over general robotics/automation roles.