Robotics Technical Lead for AI & Manipulation

About Multiply LabsMultiply Labs is an innovative startup located in San Francisco, California, backed by leading investors in technology and life sciences, including Casdin Capital, Lux Capital, and Y Combinator. Our vision is to create the finest robots globally and leverage them to make groundbreaking life-saving therapies widely accessible.We are transfo…

About the RoleAs a Research Scientist focused on Pretraining, you will develop the foundational intelligence layer for robotics. Our mission involves training expansive robot foundation models utilizing vast multimodal datasets that encompass video, proprioception, action traces, language, and beyond. You will lead and execute large-scale training initiatives that imbue our models with groundbreaking general capabilities applicable across various embodiments, tasks, and environments. Your work will involve deeply engaging with all facets of robotic data.Key Responsibilities:Design and conduct extensive pretraining efforts for robot foundation models, employing transformer and diffusion architectures.Establish model architectures, objectives, and training curricula that leverage multimodal robotic data, including vision, action, state, and language inputs.Create scalable data mixtures and sampling strategies to effectively utilize petabyte-scale datasets.Direct data collection operations and explore new avenues for dataset sourcing.Conduct ablation studies to uncover insights regarding scaling laws, data quality impacts, and architectural trade-offs.Collaborate closely with ML Infrastructure and Systems teams to enhance cluster utilization, throughput, and reliability.Transform raw robotic interaction data into versatile model capabilities.Ideal Candidate Profile:Extensive experience in training large transformer or diffusion models at scale, particularly in generative tasks such as language, audio, or video modeling.Proven leadership or significant contribution to multi-node, multi-GPU distributed training initiatives.Experience with scaling laws, optimization dynamics, and understanding large-model failure modes.Strong foundation in PyTorch and comfort in debugging across all layers of the computational stack.Appreciation for empirical rigor paired with rapid iteration speed.Enthusiasm for building general-purpose robot intelligence from foundational principles.About GeneralistAt Generalist, we are dedicated to realizing the potential of general-purpose robots. We envision a future where industries and households thrive through innovative collaborations between humans and machines. Our robots are designed to enhance productivity and facilitate the achievement of more ambitious goals.

Join Flexion Robotics as an AI Research Scientist, where you will play a pivotal role in advancing our innovative robotics technology. We are looking for passionate individuals who are eager to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence and robotics. In this role, you will lead research initiatives, develop algorithms, and collaborate with a talented team to create cutting-edge solutions.

Founding Robotics Research EngineerAbout UsAt Foundry Robotics, we are revolutionizing the manufacturing landscape with cutting-edge robotic technology. Our mission is to rejuvenate the American manufacturing sector by becoming an AI-driven, assembly-oriented, dual-use contract manufacturer. We are dedicated to equipping manufacturers with advanced, intelligent, and versatile robotic systems that enhance productivity and ensure superior quality. As a pivotal member of our engineering team, your contributions will profoundly influence our products, corporate culture, and overall success. This position requires you to be present 100% in-person at our Mission District office in San Francisco.The RoleWe are on the lookout for a Founding Robotics Research Engineer to conceptualize, execute, and launch smart robotic systems tailored for manufacturing environments.This is a hands-on role that transcends typical academic or generic software development tasks. You will engage in a variety of areas including:Architecting systems based on ROS2Robotic manipulation and navigationImplementing perception and VLA-based control mechanismsIntegrating traditional controls with innovative learning methodologiesOverseeing on-site deployments in manufacturing workcellsYour skill set should encompass reading and analyzing robotics research papers, fine-tuning controllers, calibrating sensors, and deploying production-ready code to robots operating on factory floors.Key ResponsibilitiesRobotics Systems & ArchitectureDesign and develop distributed robotic systems utilizing ROS2Create modular autonomy frameworks for manipulation and mobile roboticsTake ownership of system-level performance, latency, and reliabilityRobotics Foundation Models (VLA)Develop and integrate Vision–Language–Action models for robotic operationsDesign data collection frameworks and refine foundational models for assembly tasksBenchmark and assess real-world effectivenessControls + LearningIntegrate traditional control methods with learned policiesImplement hybrid perception-planning-control architecturesEnhance robustness, repeatability, and safety in physical systems

Join us at Physical Intelligence as a Research Scientist, where you will be at the forefront of innovation in machine learning and robotics. We are in search of exceptional researchers across all experience levels who demonstrate a strong track record of impactful research results. Ideal candidates will possess a solid foundation in both practical implementation and theoretical frameworks, showcasing a blend of system-building capabilities and significant conceptual, algorithmic, or theoretical advancements. We value diverse backgrounds and encourage applications from both traditional academic researchers and those with unique, unconventional experiences.We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. In accordance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we welcome applications from qualified individuals with arrest and conviction records.

About the RoleIn the realm of machine learning, pretraining lays the foundation for a general model, while post-training refines that model, enhancing its utility, controllability, safety, and performance in real-world applications. As a Post-Training Research Scientist, you will transform large pretrained robot models into production-ready systems through methodologies such as fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, steering, human feedback, task specialization, evaluation, and on-robot validation at scale. This position offers a unique opportunity for individuals from diverse backgrounds to evolve into full-stack ML roboticists, adept at swiftly identifying challenges across machine learning and control domains. This is where innovative research converges with practical implementation.Your Responsibilities Include:Crafting fine-tuning and adaptation strategies tailored for specific robotic tasks and embodiments.Developing methodologies to enhance reliability, robustness, and controllability of robotic systems.Establishing evaluation frameworks to assess real-world robot performance beyond just offline metrics.Collaborating with ML infrastructure teams to optimize inference-time performance, including latency, stability, and memory usage.Utilizing advanced techniques such as imitation learning, reinforcement learning, distillation, synthetic data, and curriculum learning.Bridging the gap between model outputs and tangible outcomes in the physical world.You Might Excel in This Role If You:Possess experience in fine-tuning large models for downstream applications, including RLHF, imitation learning, reinforcement learning, distillation, and domain adaptation.Have a background in embodied AI, robotics, or real-world machine learning systems.Demonstrate a strong commitment to evaluation, benchmarking, and failure analysis.Are comfortable troubleshooting and debugging across the entire ML stack, from analyzing loss curves to understanding robot behavior.Enjoy rapid iteration and thrive on real-world feedback loops.Aspire to connect foundational models with practical deployment scenarios.About GeneralistAt Generalist, we are dedicated to realizing the vision of general-purpose robots. We envision a future where industries and homes benefit from collaborative interactions between humans and machines, enabling us to achieve more than ever before. Our focus is on building embodied foundation models, starting with dexterity, and advancing the frontiers of data, models, and hardware to empower robots to intelligently engage with their environments.

Join the Center for AI Safety (CAIS), a premier research and advocacy organization dedicated to addressing the complex societal challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI). Our mission focuses on mitigating large-scale risks associated with AI through groundbreaking technical research, strategic initiatives, and proactive policy engagement, in collaboration with our sister organization, the Center for AI Safety Action Fund. As a Senior Research Scientist at CAIS, you will spearhead and execute transformative research aimed at enhancing the safety and reliability of advanced AI systems. You will take ownership of significant open challenges, driving them to successful publication. We seek individuals who set a high standard for research excellence and contribute innovative ideas to elevate our collective understanding. Your role will involve designing and conducting experiments on large language models, developing the necessary tools for large-scale model training and evaluation, and translating findings into publishable research. Close collaboration with CAIS researchers and external academic and industry partners will be essential, utilizing our compute cluster for extensive training and evaluation projects. Research areas include AI honesty, robustness, transparency, and mitigating trojan/backdoor behaviors, all geared towards reducing real-world risks from sophisticated AI systems.

Join OpenAI as a Research Scientist and explore cutting-edge machine learning innovations. In this role, you will be at the forefront of developing groundbreaking techniques while advancing our team's research initiatives. Collaborate with talented peers across various teams to discover transformative ideas that scale effectively. We seek individuals who are passionate about pushing the boundaries of AI and want to contribute to our unified research vision.

About EliseAIEliseAI is at the forefront of revolutionizing critical sectors like housing and healthcare. Everyone deserves a secure place to live and access to high-quality medical care, yet these essentials can often be difficult to obtain. By seamlessly integrating AI agents into existing workflows, we enhance efficiency, lower costs, and elevate the overall user experience.Housing: We simplify the rental process, enabling users to tour apartments, sign leases, submit maintenance requests, and maintain communication with property management—all within one convenient platform.Healthcare: Our solutions streamline appointment scheduling, intake form completion, and patient-provider communications, allowing individuals to prioritize their health over administrative tasks.At EliseAI, we empower organizations to minimize manual labor, enhance accessibility, and provide a cohesive experience in vital services. We recently secured a $250 million Series E funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz to further accelerate our mission.About The RoleWe are looking for exceptional Machine Learning experts to join our expansive research team. Ideal candidates will possess remarkable mathematical and quantitative abilities, strong programming skills, and impressive academic backgrounds—such as mathematicians, theoretical physicists, or computer scientists—who are eager to apply their knowledge to tackle real-world problems.In this role, you will engage with advanced topics in machine learning and large language models, develop predictive algorithms to enhance our AI functionalities, and conduct systematic analyses on substantial datasets. As a Senior Research Scientist, you will lead comprehensive research projects that drive the evolution of EliseAI’s core models, and we expect you to influence the company's research direction. If you are passionate about utilizing your academic expertise in a vibrant startup culture, we would love to hear from you.Key ResponsibilitiesIdentify critical questions in tenant engagement, conversational AI, and LLM safety, transforming them into structured projects.Design and execute experiments, develop prototypes, and implement large-scale studies to validate hypotheses.

Merge Labs is an innovative research facility dedicated to merging biological sciences and artificial intelligence to enhance human capability, autonomy, and experience. Our mission is to pioneer revolutionary methodologies in brain-computer interfaces that facilitate high-bandwidth interactions with the brain, seamlessly integrate advanced AI, and maintain safety and accessibility for all users.About the TeamAt Merge, we are addressing some of the most ambitious challenges in molecular engineering, synthetic biology, and neuroscience. Our Research Platform Team is responsible for creating the experimental frameworks necessary to tackle these challenges with exceptional speed and precision. The tools and methodologies developed by our team significantly enhance molecular assembly, protein expression, mammalian cell culture, advanced microscopy, sequencing, and unique custom techniques. We collaborate with program teams to establish and optimize these capabilities, implement automation where beneficial, and integrate with our data science and machine learning pipelines, continuously pushing the boundaries of throughput and innovation.About the RoleAs a Platform Scientist, you will be instrumental in developing high-efficiency and high-throughput experimental pipelines that accelerate research initiatives. You will work closely with program leads, project scientists, data scientists, and engineers, leading your work and potentially recruiting additional team members as necessary.Key Responsibilities:Collaborate with program leads and scientists to identify critical experimental requirements and workflows.Develop processes to facilitate high-throughput and/or high-efficiency experiments, including reagent production and analysis.Scope, procure, construct, program, and validate instruments to support experimental workflows.Ensure the quality, reliability, and integrity of data generated from automated pipelines, including defining and implementing suitable quality control checkpoints.Work alongside data science and machine learning engineers to incorporate metadata tracking, computational design, and analysis into experimental pipelines.Partner with electrical, mechanical, and software engineers to create custom setups.Innovate and validate concepts to enhance experimental throughput.

OverviewBecome an integral part of our dynamic R&D team dedicated to developing fully automated research systems that push the boundaries of AI. Zochi has achieved a milestone by publishing the first entirely AI-generated A* conference paper. Locus has set a new industry standard as the first AI system to surpass human experts in AI R&D.Key ResponsibilitiesConceptualize and develop innovative architectures for automated research.Work collaboratively within a specialized team of researchers addressing cutting-edge challenges in long-horizon agentic capabilities, post-training for open-ended objectives, and environment crafting.Document and publish key internal findings alongside success stories from external collaborations.QualificationsPhD or equivalent research experience in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a related discipline. Outstanding candidates with significant research contributions are encouraged to apply, regardless of formal qualifications.Demonstrated history of impactful AI/ML research contributions in academic or corporate environments.Expertise in developing long-horizon, multi-agent systems and/or model post-training, especially in scientific domains or for open-ended discovery objectives.A strong passion for advancing problem-solving processes and scientific discovery, thriving in high-autonomy roles and environments.Our CultureCompetitive compensation and equity options.Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO), emphasizing team collaboration and a community-focused workplace.Opportunities for conference participation and engagement in community initiatives.Empowered roles with high levels of responsibility.#1: We are a small, passionate team of leading investors, researchers, and industry experts committed to the mission of accelerating discovery. Join us.

About the TeamJoin the innovative Post-Training team at OpenAI, where we focus on refining and elevating pre-trained models for deployment in ChatGPT, our API, and future products. Collaborating closely with various research and product teams, we conduct crucial research that prepares our models for real-world deployment to millions of users, ensuring they are safe, efficient, and reliable.About the RoleAs a Research Engineer / Scientist, you will spearhead the research and development of enhancements to our models. Our work intersects reinforcement learning and product development, aiming to create cutting-edge solutions.We seek passionate individuals with robust machine learning engineering skills and research experience, particularly with innovative and powerful models. The ideal candidate will be driven by a commitment to product-oriented research.This position is located in San Francisco, CA, and follows a hybrid work model requiring three days in the office each week. Relocation assistance is available for new employees.In this role, you will:Lead and execute a research agenda aimed at enhancing model capabilities and performance.Work collaboratively with research and product teams to empower customers to optimize their models.Develop robust evaluation frameworks to monitor and assess modeling advancements.Design, implement, test, and debug code across our research stack.You may excel in this role if you:Possess a deep understanding of machine learning and its applications.Have experience with relevant models and methodologies for evaluating model improvements.Are adept at navigating large ML codebases for debugging purposes.Thrive in a fast-paced and technically intricate environment.About OpenAIOpenAI is a pioneering AI research and deployment organization dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We are committed to pushing the boundaries of AI capabilities while prioritizing safety and human-centric values in our products. Our mission is to embrace diverse perspectives, voices, and experiences that represent the full spectrum of humanity, as we strive for a future where AI is a powerful ally for everyone.

About Our TeamJoin the forefront of AI innovation with the RL and Reasoning team at OpenAI. Our team is dedicated to advancing reinforcement learning research and has pioneered transformative projects, including o1 and o3. We are committed to pushing the limits of generative models while ensuring their scalable deployment.About the RoleAs a Research Engineer/Research Scientist at OpenAI, you will play a pivotal role in enhancing AI alignment and capabilities through state-of-the-art reinforcement learning techniques. Your contributions will be essential in training intelligent, aligned, and versatile agents that power various AI models.We seek individuals with a solid foundation in reinforcement learning research, agile coding skills, and a passion for rapid iteration.This position is located in San Francisco, CA, and follows a hybrid work model of three days in the office per week. We also provide relocation assistance for new hires.You may excel in this role if:You are enthusiastic about being at the cutting edge of RL and language model research.You take initiative, owning ideas and driving them to fruition.You value principled methodologies, conducting simple experiments in controlled environments to draw trustworthy conclusions.You thrive in a fast-paced, complex technical environment where rapid iteration is essential.You are adept at navigating extensive ML codebases to troubleshoot and enhance them.You possess a profound understanding of machine learning and its applications.About OpenAIOpenAI is a pioneering AI research and deployment organization committed to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence serves the greater good for humanity. We strive to push the boundaries of AI system capabilities while prioritizing safe deployment through our innovative products. We recognize AI as a powerful tool that must be developed with safety and human-centric principles, embracing diverse perspectives to reflect the full spectrum of humanity.We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, welcoming applicants from all backgrounds without discrimination based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Join Our Team as a Research ScientistAt Parallel, we are at the forefront of web infrastructure innovation, enabling businesses across sectors such as sales, marketing, insurance, and technology to harness the power of AI. Our state-of-the-art products empower users to develop superior AI agents with seamless and flexible access to the web.With significant backing of $130 million from prominent investors like Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures, and Spark Capital, we are dedicated to redefining the web for artificial intelligence. As we expand, we're assembling a top-tier team of engineers, designers, marketers, sales experts, researchers, and operational specialists committed to our vision.Your Role: As a Research Scientist, you will tackle the challenge of training and scaling models designed to enhance web indexing capabilities.About You: You possess a profound understanding of contemporary models and training methodologies. You enjoy engaging in discussions about the convergence of search, recommendations, and transformer models, and are passionate about translating your research into impactful products and systems utilized by millions.

At Sciforium, we are at the forefront of AI infrastructure, creating next-generation multimodal AI models and a proprietary high-efficiency serving platform. With substantial backing from AMD, our team is rapidly expanding to develop the complete stack necessary for cutting-edge AI models and real-time applications.About the RoleWe are on the lookout for a talented Senior Research Scientist with expertise in advanced AI and machine learning. This role entails spearheading innovative research projects focusing on large language models, generative media, model architecture, optimization, and scalable training systems. You will engage directly with contemporary ML frameworks, publish original research, and collaborate closely with engineering teams to transition impactful models into production. This position is perfect for a driven researcher excited about pioneering breakthroughs in AI.What You'll DoLead research initiatives in advanced machine learning topics such as LLMs, generative AI, foundational modeling, optimization strategies, diffusion models, and novel Transformer architectures.Design, implement, and assess new ML algorithms using frameworks like PyTorch and JAX.Conduct large-scale distributed training experiments utilizing multi-GPU/TPU systems and cutting-edge compute infrastructure.Enhance performance through debugging frameworks, optimizing speed, and refining training pipelines.Generate high-quality research outputs including academic papers, internal reports, patents, and reproducible code.Work collaboratively with engineering and product teams to convert research prototypes into robust production systems.Stay updated with the latest research advancements to incorporate state-of-the-art techniques into Sciforium's AI roadmap.Mentor junior researchers and actively contribute to fostering a world-class AI research culture.

About Physical Intelligence Physical Intelligence is building general-purpose AI for the physical world. The team brings together engineers, scientists, roboticists, and entrepreneurs focused on foundational models and learning algorithms for robots and interactive devices. Role Overview The Robotics Research Engineer works at the intersection of hardware, software, and large-scale model training. The goal: develop efficient autonomous robot policies that move the field forward. What You Will Do Design robotic systems and data collection pipelines to generate high-quality training data Develop learning algorithms that turn collected data into reliable, effective robot policies Contribute to vision-language-action models, from concept through implementation Help shape datasets, research infrastructure, and the direction of robotics research at Physical Intelligence Location San Francisco

Zyphra is a pioneering artificial intelligence firm located in the vibrant city of San Francisco, California.About the Role:We are seeking a passionate Research Scientist to join our dynamic Agency and Reasoning Team at Zyphra. In this role, you will conduct cutting-edge research in reinforcement learning, post-training methodologies, and human preference learning. Your innovative ideas will be instrumental in shaping our next-generation language models, enabling their application on a large scale.What We Desire:A strong sense of research intuition and tasteCapability to navigate a research project from initial concept to execution and documentationProficiency in implementation and prototypingA quick thinker who can rapidly transform ideas into experimental frameworksAbility to collaborate effectively in a fast-paced research environmentAn insatiable curiosity and enthusiasm for the study of intelligence.Qualifications:Proven experience and skill in reinforcement learning, particularly in the context of language model reasoning or classical RL tasksFamiliarity with language-model-supervised fine-tuning and preference-learning techniques, such as DPO and simPO.Experience with methods for context-length extensionStrong intuitive understanding of model behaviors, with the ability to refine them through iterative fine-tuningInterest in engaging deeply with data and dedicating time to data engineering and synthetic data generationA postgraduate degree in a scientific discipline (Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics)Published research in reputable machine learning venuesExpertise in PyTorch and PythonEagerness and aptitude for rapidly acquiring new knowledge and implementing innovative conceptsExceptional communication and teamwork abilities, capable of contributing to both research and large-scale engineering effortsWhy Join Zyphra?We champion creative and unconventional ideas and are prepared to invest significantly in innovative concepts.Our culture fosters collaboration, curiosity, and intellectual growth.

Zyphra is a cutting-edge artificial intelligence firm headquartered in the vibrant city of San Francisco, California.Position Overview:As a Research Scientist specializing in Model Architectures, you will play a pivotal role in Zyphra’s AI Architecture Research Team. Your responsibilities will include the design and thorough evaluation of innovative model architectures and training methodologies aimed at enhancing essential modeling capabilities (e.g., loss per flop or loss per parameter) and tackling core limitations inherent in current models. You will collaborate closely with our pre-training team to ensure that your findings are seamlessly integrated into our next-generation models.Qualifications:A strong research acumen and intuition.Proven ability to navigate research projects from initial conception to execution and final write-up.Exceptional implementation and prototyping skills, with the capability to swiftly transform ideas into experimental outcomes.A collaborative spirit and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced research environment.A deep curiosity and enthusiasm for understanding intelligence.Requirements:Experience with long-term memory, RAG/retrieval systems, dynamic/adaptive computation, and alternative credit assignment strategies.Knowledge of reinforcement learning, control theory, and signal processing techniques.A passion for exploring and critically evaluating unconventional ideas, with the ability to maintain a unique perspective.Familiarity with modern training pipelines and the hardware necessities for designing efficient architectures compatible with GPU hardware.Strong understanding of experimental methodologies for conducting rigorous ablations and hypothesis testing.High proficiency in PyTorch and Python programming.Ability to quickly assimilate into large pre-existing codebases and contribute effectively.Prior publication of machine learning research in reputable venues.Postgraduate degree in a scientific discipline (e.g., Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics).Why Join Zyphra?We emphasize a structured research methodology that systematically addresses ambitious challenges in AI.

Join xdof at a pivotal moment as we lead the charge in the development of general-purpose robotics. With frontier labs racing to create advanced robotic systems, high-quality training data is a critical challenge. Our mission is to build the essential infrastructure that supports foundational models – from data collection systems and operational capabilities to an exabyte-scale data warehouse and innovative software toolchains. This will empower our partners to advance the field of robotics.As a Research Engineer, you will be at the forefront of designing, constructing, and deploying real-world robotic learning systems. Your work will encompass manipulation, locomotion, and control, transitioning robots from raw hardware to fully operational systems.This hands-on position requires you to take ownership of systems from inception to deployment on actual robots. You will play a crucial role in establishing the technical foundations that facilitate large-scale robotic learning.