Apera is an innovative, Vancouver-based company at the forefront of robotics, AI, and machine vision — recognized with the 2025 Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Leadership Award and the 2024 BC Tech "Company of the Year, Growth" award. We're on a mission to redefine AI-driven robotic vision. Apera AI helps manufacturers make their factories more flexible and productive. Robots enhanced with Apera's software have 4D Vision — the ability to see and grasp objects with human-like capability. Challenging applications such as bin picking, sorting, packaging, and assembly are now open to fast, precise, and reliable automation. We work with the world's leading automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. Our portfolio spans Vue (our 4D Vision software), Forge (a no-code simulation and AI training studio where customers build, validate, and de-risk robotic cells before any hardware is bought), and VuePod, our new turnkey, productized bin-picking cell.
Role Overview
We're looking for a Software Developer, Cloud Infrastructure (Co-Op) who is excited to learn how modern cloud platforms support AI-driven robotics systems. In this role, you'll work alongside experienced engineers to help build and improve the cloud services that power our vision-guided robots, gaining hands-on experience with real production systems in a supportive, fast-learning environment. This co-op role requires 8 months term commitment (Jan 2027 - August 2027). This is an opportunity to apply what you've learned in school to real-world infrastructure challenges, while developing practical skills in cloud engineering, DevOps, and distributed systems. This role is based in person at our Vancouver office and is an 8-month co-op term.
What You'll Do
- Build and improve cloud services: Contribute to scalable cloud services running on AWS or GCP. Learn how infrastructure is defined using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and help implement improvements to existing systems.
- Work with data and telemetry: Help develop or maintain systems that ingest, store, and expose telemetry from robotic and vision systems, enabling teams to monitor performance and diagnose issues.
- Learn reliability and observability practices: Support efforts to instrument services with logging and metrics. Learn how teams think about uptime, monitoring, and safe system changes.
- Apply secure engineering principles: Work with senior engineers to understand access control, secrets management, and secure-by-design cloud infrastructure.
- Collaborate across teams: Partner with Robotics, Vision, and Software teams to understand how cloud systems support real-world robot deployments.
What You'll Learn
- How production cloud infrastructure supports AI and robotics systems
- Practical use of Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CDK, or similar)
- Observability, reliability, and secure system design
- How cross-functional teams ship and operate complex systems
Why This Co-Op Is a Great Experience
- Real impact, real systems: Your work will support systems used in real factories and not toy projects or internal demos.
- Strong mentorship: You'll work closely with experienced engineers who provide guidance, feedback, and learning opportunities.
- Exposure to cutting-edge technology: Robotics, AI, computer vision, and cloud infrastructure all intersect here.
- Growth-focused environment: We value curiosity, learning, and thoughtful problem solving over knowing everything on day one.
What We're Looking For
- Currently enrolled in a Bachelor's or Master's program in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field
- Coursework or project experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or similar)
- Programming experience in at least one language (e.g., Python, Go, JavaScript/TypeScript)
- Familiarity with Git and basic software development workflows
- Interest in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps.
- Strong communication skills and willingness to learn
Nice to Have (Not Required)
- Exposure to Docker, containers, or Kubernetes
- Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code tools (Terraform, CDK, CloudFormation)
- Experience with CI/CD tools through coursework or personal projects
- Interest in robotics, AI, or large-scale systems
Why You'll Love It Here
- Purpose with impact: Help enable smarter, safer automation in real industries
- Learning by doing: Apply academic knowledge to real production systems
- Supportive culture: Collaborative, curious, and people-first
- Great location: Gastown office with transit access and a vibrant tech community
The compensation for this co-op role is CAD $3,600 to $4,500 per month. This is your opportunity to gain hands-on learning experience in one of the fastest-growing industries at the intersection of robotics, AI, and industrial automation. Note: Please ensure you upload both your resume and transcript, either combined into a single file or as separate files.