Applied Scientist – AI & Robotics (PhD) – Early Career

Job Description

Summary

Our client is seeking an Applied Scientist specializing in AI and Robotics to design, prototype, and deploy advanced embodied AI models for real-world robotic systems. This role focuses on developing next-generation manipulation, perception, and autonomous behavior solutions for large-scale industrial robotics applications.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement advanced robot learning architectures supporting manipulation, planning, and autonomous behaviors.
• Build end-to-end training pipelines integrating multimodal sensor data including RGB, depth, force/torque, and LiDAR.
• Develop policy inference and control systems that bridge high-level perception with robotic execution.
• Apply large-scale AI architectures including LLMs, VLMs, VLAs, and diffusion models to embodied tasks and sim-to-real adaptation.
• Collaborate with robotics and infrastructure teams to transition research prototypes into production-ready robotic systems.
• Design data-collection strategies and simulation workflows to support model development and evaluation.
• Present research insights and maintain awareness of state-of-the-art advancements in embodied AI and robot learning.

Required Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, or related field; or Master’s with equivalent robotics/AI industry experience.
• Proven experience training, evaluating, and deploying ML models on robotic systems.
• Strong understanding of modern AI architectures including Transformers, VLMs/VLAs, diffusion models, and CNNs.
• Hands-on experience with PyTorch for large-scale model development.
• Practical experience with ROS/ROS2 and integrating learned models into robot control frameworks.
• Demonstrated research impact through publications or production robotics applications.
• Ability to scope experiments, evaluate performance rigorously, and manage complex model development pipelines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with robot learning systems for manipulation, motion planning, or autonomous skills.
• Expertise in robotics perception including 3D vision, multimodal fusion, and force/torque sensing.
• Experience with simulation platforms such as Isaac Sim, Mujoco, Gazebo, or PyBullet.
• Familiarity with sim-to-real transfer strategies.
• Experience applying foundation models to robotics tasks.
• Track record of production-grade robotics development or open-source contributions.

Tech Stack

• PyTorch
• ROS / ROS2
• Simulation frameworks (Isaac Sim, Mujoco, Gazebo, PyBullet)
• Multimodal sensor pipelines (RGB, depth, LiDAR, force/torque)
• Transformer-based architectures, diffusion models, VLMs/VLAs

Compensation & Benefits

Competitive compensation aligned with market standards.
Health benefits, PTO, remote flexibility (varies by client).

Work Schedule

Monday–Friday, flexible hours, occasional on-call (if applicable).

About the Client

Our client is a growing technology-focused organization committed to building scalable digital solutions.

Why Join the Team?

• Work on cutting-edge embodied AI research with real-world robotic deployment.
• Collaborate with top experts across robotics, AI, and engineering disciplines.
• Shape next-generation robotic intelligence within a mission-driven environment.

How to Apply

Submit your resume to people@ignitetalentpartners.com. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted.