Autonomy Intern (Spring 2027)

About Strata Heavy infrastructure cannot be built fast enough to fulfill the promises of reindustrialization. With labor availability tightening and the workforce aging, construction faces a multi-trillion-dollar execution gap over the next decade. We’re building a construction robotics platform designed for outdoor environments, heavy payloads, and immediate deployment. We’re partnering with the largest heavy construction firms to put robots on sites for material handling now, building hardware, data, and commercial moats to bring end-to-end autonomy to construction. Robots are folding clothes and washing dishes, while dangerous and heavy work in remote environments remain manual. Furthermore, construction firms cannot physically fulfill their contracts — they should not have to choose between building a hospital or a data center. Join us to build a robotics platform that delivers real value immediately, saving lives and bringing abundance to construction. Backed by a $5.2 million seed round led by Founders Fund, the team is developing robots for outdoor, high-payload job site work with a focus on immediate deployment and autonomy that delivers value immediately. We’re partnering with the largest heavy construction firms to put robots on sites to handle material now, building hardware, data, and commercial moats to bring end-to-end autonomy to construction. Who We're Looking For We're looking for an Autonomy Engineering Intern to help build and validate the autonomy stack for our construction robots. This is a hands-on role. You'll write robotics software, test it on real hardware, and help build the tools and processes that make autonomy reliable in tough field environments. Your work will span the autonomy stack, and where you spend most of your time will depend on team needs and your interests and experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop, integrate, and test ROS 2 autonomy software on real robots.
• Work on areas such as perception, mapping, localization, manipulation, simulation, and testing infrastructure.
• Help build automated regression tests using NVIDIA Isaac Sim and real-world data to catch failures as the stack evolves.
• Design and run field tests, including scenarios, metrics, and success criteria.
• Analyze failures using logs and field data, find root causes, and iterate.
• Help build tools and evaluation pipelines that make development and testing more repeatable.
• Work closely with autonomy, mechanical, electrical, and firmware engineers during bring-up, integration, and field testing. What You Bring
• Pursuing a BS or MS in Robotics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong programming experience in C++ and/or Python.
• Experience with ROS or ROS 2 and familiarity with core robotics concepts.
• Hands-on experience with real-world autonomous robots through research, internships, personal projects, or student teams.
• Comfortable working in Linux and debugging ROS-based systems on real robots.
• Familiarity with Isaac Sim, Foxglove, Docker, CI/CD, or automated testing infrastructure is a plus.
• Experience with LiDAR, SLAM, or GNSS/RTK localization is a plus.
• Experience in build-focused teams such as autonomous vehicles, Formula SAE, RoboCup, rocketry, or similar is strongly preferred.