Senior Robotics Engineer — Manipulation

ABOUT DATAMENTORS

Datamentors is a robotics start-up building an agnostic orchestration platform and a family of proprietary robots — quadruped, mobile upper-body and humanoid — assembled at our own factory in Caniçal, Madeira. We also develop custom Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models that give our robots natural-language reasoning and autonomy, deployable across sectors from hospitality and healthcare to defence and logistics. With prototypes running and a clear path to 600 units per year, the engineers joining now will shape both the hardware and the intelligence behind Ardia for years to come.

ROLE OVERVIEW

Own how robots on the platform grasp, manipulate and interact with objects — from dexterous multi-finger hands to whole-arm motion — across humanoid and mobile upper-body embodiments. You develop manipulation policies, bridge them to safe on-robot execution and work with real hardware daily.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Develop manipulation policies and integration pipelines for dexterous and gripper-based hands across multiple embodiments
• Bridge learned manipulation policies to safe, reliable on-robot execution in real deployment environments
• Tune grasping, in-hand manipulation and bimanual coordination for the platform robot types
• Drive sim-to-real methodology for manipulation: identify gaps, measure them and close them systematically
• Work daily with real hardware and the manipulation calibration cell at the Madeira factory

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• 5+ years robotics with a manipulation focus — grasp planning, dexterous hands or learned manipulation
• Expert ROS 2 and motion planning (MoveIt 2 or equivalent); experience with Isaac Sim, MuJoCo or RoboCasa
• Demonstrated real-world results: robots reliably picking up objects in uncontrolled environments
• Hands-on experience with dexterous hand or gripper hardware integration
• Ability to work across the full stack from policy training to safe robot deployment

Nice to have

• Experience with dexterous hand hardware (INSPIRE RH56, Schunk SVH, Allegro)
• Bimanual manipulation or humanoid-specific manipulation research

WHY JOIN US

• This is a rare opportunity to help design and build the foundational technology for a robotics platform from the ground up
• Competitive salary
• Relocation support and housing assistance for Madeira-based roles; CINM free-zone benefits
• Small, senior, hands-on team — everyone owns a meaningful slice of the product from day one