Robotics Engineer

Help shape the future of robotics in construction.

ABOUT XYZ REALITY

XYZ Reality created the world’s first and only engineering-grade augmented reality solution, purpose-built for the construction industry. Our holographic technology sits within The Atom, a smart, site-safe headset and hardhat, and is used on live projects to ensure schemes are delivered on time and on budget.

XYZ has grown to over 150 staff across the UK, US and Europe, and works with mission-critical organisations and construction companies to deliver major projects.

THE ROLE

Construction sites are some of the hardest environments for robot autonomy: they change every day and are full of clutter, obstacles and people. XYZ Reality’s robotics programme is extending our technology toward robots that can operate reliably in them, from autonomous data collection and construction progress capture through to executing construction tasks.

We’re looking for a Robotics Engineer to make that real. You’ll work hands-on with robot hardware in our London office, using a modern stack (ROS 2, NVIDIA Isaac Lab, learning-based control), and see your work tested in real construction environments, not just in simulation.

This is a hands-on, individual contributor role focused on robot software and algorithmic control, backed by a good working knowledge of robot hardware. If you have strong robotics fundamentals from an MSc, PhD or applied research group, love making systems work on real robots, and want your ideas to shape the direction of a programme, we want to hear from you.

This is an office-based role at our London site in Angel, Islington.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Integrate robots with XYZ’s software, bringing up ROS / ROS 2 interfaces, robot control, sensors, compute and data flows, and building repeatable tools for bring-up, configuration, logging and monitoring.

• Establish reliable baseline control and develop task-specific behaviours for navigation, positioning and capture, training and tuning control policies in simulation and validating them on hardware.

• Develop localisation-aware path planning, waypoint execution and obstacle handling, working with project and site teams to turn work plans and BIM-derived locations into robot missions.

• Integrate capture payloads so images, pose, timing and mission status flow reliably into XYZ’s construction progress workflows, working with navigation, SLAM and perception colleagues.

• Design test scenarios and measure mission completion, coverage, localisation quality, intervention, recovery and repeatability, improving the system through measured iterations.

• Bring technical expertise and new ideas to the programme, comparing scripted, motion-planning and learning-based approaches and helping shape what comes next.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• MSc or PhD in Robotics, Controls, Computer Science, Mechatronics or a related discipline, or equivalent applied robotics experience. Industry experience is not required.

• Hands-on experience building, programming or directly controlling a physical robot, from an academic project, research lab or industry.

• Strong Python and C++, practical ROS experience (ideally ROS 2) and working knowledge of kinematics, coordinate frames, feedback control, state estimation, path planning and robot hardware.

• Experience training or tuning robot control policies (e.g. reinforcement or imitation learning) using NVIDIA Isaac Lab / Isaac Sim or similar tools, with a rigorous experimental approach.

• The right to work in the UK. We’re unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.

KEY EXPERIENCE & SKILLS

• ROS / ROS 2, Python & C++

• Robot control, kinematics, state estimation & path planning

• NVIDIA Isaac Lab / Isaac Sim, reinforcement or imitation learning

• Sim-to-real transfer on physical hardware (desirable)

• Navigation, SLAM, perception & sensor fusion (desirable)

• Mobile or field robotics, BIM/CAD or construction technology (desirable)

BENEFITS

🏝️ 25 days annual leave + public holidays
🩺 Private healthcare with Vitality
🎄 Christmas shutdown days on top of leave allowance (2–4 per year usually)
🚇 Office located within a 5-minute walk from Angel station
🪙 Annual salary reviews
🥳 Summer & Christmas staff parties
🍣 Free lunch on Thursdays, followed by after-work drinks
💰 Employee referral scheme
🚀 Make a real-world impact by helping transform the construction industry