Robotics Planning & Controls Engineer Intern

Department: R&D - Software

Location: South San Francisco

Employment Type: Intern

Gritt is an intelligent system that combines robotics and AI to build the infrastructure that pulls society forward. Gritt deploys via simple attachments to common equipment found on construction sites and autonomously performs labor-intensive tasks, verification, and planning. Gritt systems are already building critical infrastructure in the harshest outdoor environments, starting with large-scale solar. The founding team includes experts in robotics and AI from Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and MIT. Gritt is backed by Obvious Ventures, Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and other leading firms.

Role: Robotics Planning & Controls Intern

Location: SF Bay Area (in-person)

About Internships at Gritt
Our internships are scoped projects: you own a defined deliverable end-to-end, work with a dedicated mentor, and demo your work to the whole team. Many interns receive return or full-time offers. This will be an internship for one of two durations: 3 months, or 6 months.

We offer competitive salaries, and the opportunity to work on a mission with tremendous climate impact.

What you'll get to work on

• Develop motion planning or control algorithms and take them to hardware.

• Benchmark against baselines; tune for robustness in real-world conditions.

• Integrate with perception and learning components in the full stack.

What we look for

• Pursuing MS/PhD in Robotics, ME, EE, or related field (strong BS welcome).

• Solid foundations in dynamics, optimization, and control theory; strong C++ or Python.

• Hands-on evidence: robot hardware experience, competition teams, or research projects.

• Should be comfortable taking ownership of tasks with light supervision.

• Must have excellent problem-solving skills.

• Legally authorized to do an internship in the United States for either 3 months or 6 months.

Nice to have

• Experience with MPC, whole-body control, sampling/optimization-based planners or similar.

An example project could be could be anything from safe-stop and human-avoidance behaviors around live crews, to manipulation from a moving base on rough terrain.