Life at Dubai Future Foundation
Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) aims to realize the wise vision of Dubai’s leadership to institutionalize the envisioned future and forward-thinking methodologies, while positioning Dubai as the leading city of the future. In partnership with its local and global partners from governments, companies, startups, and entrepreneurs, DFF drives joint efforts to collectively imagine, design, and execute the best possible future for humanity.
Under the supervision of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of DFF, the DFF runs and oversees many futureproofing projects and initiatives, such as the Museum of the Future, Area 2071, The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution UAE, Dubai Future Accelerators, One Million Arab Coders, Dubai Future Academy, Dubai Future Solutions, Dubai Future Labs, Dubai Future Forum, etc. DFF’s efforts to share knowledge, adopt innovation, support entrepreneurs and innovative startups, build capacity, and promote forward-thinking and foresight principles contribute to Dubai’s ambitions to be a role model for the cities of the future through the power of unlimited imagination, innovation, foresight and disruptive mindset.
For more information on the initiatives, projects, and programs of Dubai Future Foundation, please visit the website: www.dubaifuture.ae
Where does this role fit into the bigger picture?
The Senior Robotics Engineer- Robot Manipulation reports directly to the Research and Development Director and is part of the R&D Department within the Dubai Future Labs structure.
The Dubai Future Labs are focused on driving innovative ideas through rigorous scientific testing to push the existing boundaries of research applications. The Research and Development department is an open-innovation research concept integrating concurrent research with innovative processes and both private and public partnerships. The department is focused on co-creation experimentation, and evaluation of innovative ideas and technology in real-life test cases as well as applied research in the fields of robotics.
Senior Robotics Engineer- Robot Manipulation
As a senior robotics engineer, you will work with a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team to implement state of the art algorithms derived from world-class research. You will be part of a team working on the design and develop the next generation autonomous robots for indoor and outdoor applications. The ideal candidate should have experience in applied robotics research and expertise in various robotic components and systems. The candidate is expected to have fundamental understanding of robotic systems and how to develop and integrate various robotic components to be deployed in real world applications.
Your Responsibilities
• Design and implement innovative robotic systems and payloads to be employed autonomously in real-world applications
• Designing, planning and conducting real-world experiments
• Develop practical high-performance robotic systems that can operate in extreme and challenging environments
• Interface with multi-disciplinary teams in order to develop per-specifications autonomous robotic systems
• Follow software practices that produce maintainable code, including automated testing, continuous integration, code style conformity, and code review
• Engage with external stakeholder(s) and sponsors on a regular basis to disseminate results and receive end-user feedback.
Why this role is important?
This role makes the biggest impact by being organized, able to research, design and develop new innovative robotic systems, as well as identifying the strategic goals of the department. You will be a key member of the technical team to assist in creating successful partnerships, which is instrumental in successful robotic research projects. Your role in the organization will help create a positive reputation for the Dubai Future Foundation as a world-class robotic lab in the Middle East and help bring the UAE into the future.
What Dubai Future Foundation offers?
We will offer you a unique opportunity to work with people who are passionate about the future and establishing Dubai as one of the leading cities of the world. You will have the chance to work on exciting and new projects, work in a highly diverse and fast paced environment that fosters creativity, disruptive ideas, and innovation.
• You will have a MSc. or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering or a closely related field
• You will have a minimum of 5 years of experience in robotic systems
• You will have commercial experience contributing to novel solution ideation and implementation
• You will have experience in designing and implementing solutions for manipulation related problems on real robotic systems
• You will have expertise in motion planning as applied to robotic manipulation
• You will have an understanding of numerous manipulation related areas of expertise, e.g. motion planning, perception, simulation, controls, machine learning
• You will have experience in areas related to grasp selection, object pose estimation and the execution of a grasping pipeline
• You will have the ability to synthesize approaches to problems from new or existing techniques
• You will have the knowledge of robot modelling and control, forward/inverse kinematics and dynamics, spatial transformations, trajectory design and path/motion planning
• You will have experience with Moveit, OpenRave and OMPL
• You will have experience in developing robust, safety-critical and efficient code
• You will experience with a distributed version control system such as git
• You will experience in ROS (ROS Industrial) and its development environment in C/C++ and Python
• You will be a collaborative team player with strong communication skills, with a willingness to learn from others and contribute back to the robotics community with publications or open-source code. You will be comfortable working independently and as part of an interdisciplinary team
• You will have experience working in a collaborative development environment, including paradigms such as continuous integration & delivery, V&V, design of experiments (DOEs) etc.
• Passionate about seeing robotics have a real-world, large-scale practical impact
• You will have strong organization and project management capabilities
• You will be passionate about seeing robotics have a real-world, large-scale practical impact.
Please note that this is a full time role that will be based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Skills that are nice to have
• Experience in deep learning will be a plus
• Experience with agile software development processes using Docker system
• Experience with decentralized visual SLAM and 3D mapping
• Experience using issue tracking systems (Jira)
