Research Engineer, Robotics

Who You Are:

You are a hands-on robotics engineer who thrives at the intersection of theory and system-building, equally comfortable developing low-level controllers as you are deploying learned policies on real hardware. You have experience working across the full robotics stack, from reasoning and perception to control and physical execution, and you take a systems-oriented view of complex robotic platforms. Whether working with real robots or high-fidelity simulators, you bring strong debugging instincts, fluency in Python, and a practical understanding of modern robotics and simulation ecosystems. You care about making systems actually work, not just in isolation, but end-to-end under real-world constraints.

In this role, you will collaborate closely with researchers on high-impact robot learning projects, translating cutting-edge algorithms into robust, deployable behavior. You will help build and iterate on sim-to-real pipelines, develop control and experimentation infrastructure, and enable large-scale learning through GPU-accelerated simulation. This is an environment where engineering rigor meets research ambition: you'll have the opportunity to shape core system capabilities, influence experimental design, and contribute to projects that push the boundaries of what robots can learn and do in the real world.

Who We Are:

Ai2's Robotics team is led by Dieter Fox. We aim to develop and leverage scalable simulation domains to scientifically investigate the scaling and generalization capabilities of foundation models for robotics, and use these insights to develop broadly competent robots. Following a longstanding tradition at Ai2, we are committed to fully open-source research and work toward application domains with a positive impact on society.

We are looking for applicants interested in robotics, with a focus on core techniques in robot manipulation, large scale training in simulated environments, sim-to-real transfer, robot foundation models, and skill learning.

We regularly publish in high-profile conferences and journals in robotics (CoRL, ICRA, RSS), computer vision (CVPR, ICCV, ECCV), and machine learning (e.g., NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML).

We collaborate frequently with researchers on other Ai2 teams focused on computer vision, large language models, and others. Our main office has close ties and unique access to researchers at the University of Washington, only 1.5 miles away. Researchers excited about such internal and external collaborations are encouraged to apply.

Your Next Challenge:

Our needs include the following competencies. If your experience and interests are a match for some but not all of these areas, we still encourage you to apply.

• Develop and maintain complete control stacks for robotic systems, including low level control, motion planning, and integration of learned policies.
• Develop and maintain the sim-to-real pipeline, including system identification, understanding simulation models, and deploying learned policies from simulation to real hardware.
• Lead robot set-up across manipulation and mobile hardware platforms, including integration, calibration, and system tuning.
• Diagnose and resolve complex system behaviors across hardware, software, and runtime.
• Collaborate closely with researchers to translate algorithms into reliable, real-world robotic behavior.
• Work with modern GPU-accelerated simulation frameworks to enable large-scale experimentation.

What You'll Need:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Masters + 3 years experience or PhD in robotics or relevant field. Exceptional candidates with a bachelor's degree and 3+ years of industry experience are also welcome to apply.
• Proficiency in Python and modern robotics / simulation ecosystems.
• Strong depth of experience working with either physical robots or robotic simulation.
• Strong development and debugging skills across the full robotics stack (perception planning or inference control hardware).
• Clear communication and ability to collaborate effectively with research teams.
• A structured, systems-oriented approach to building and improving complex robotic infrastructure.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience implementing and tuning real-time control systems along with a strong foundation in control, dynamics, and system identification.
• Experience translating control and learning-based methods from simulation to real robotic systems.
• Familiarity with large-scale simulation and reinforcement learning pipelines.

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time.
• The ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations.
• The ability to observe details at close range.
• Can work under deadlines.

A Little More About Ai2:

Ai2 is a Seattle based non-profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. Our mission is building breakthrough AI to solve the world's biggest problems. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond.

In addition to Ai2's core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the Ai2 Team. Some highlights are:

• We are a learning organization - because everything Ai2 does is ground-breaking, we are learning every day. Similarly, through weekly Ai2 Academy lectures, a wide variety of world-class AI experts as guest speakers, and our commitment to your personal on-going education, Ai2 is a place where you will have opportunities to continue learning alongside your coworkers.
• We value diversity - We seek to hire, support, and promote people from all genders, ethnicities, and all levels of experience regardless of age. We particularly encourage applications from women, non-binary individuals, people of color, members of the LGBTQA+ community, and people with disabilities of any kind.
• We value inclusion - We understand the value that people's individual experiences and perspectives can bring to an organization, and we are building a culture in which all voices are heard, respected and considered.
• We emphasize a healthy work/life balance - we believe our team members are happiest and most productive when their work/life balance is optimized. While we value powerful research results which drive our mission forward, we also value dinner with family, weekend time, and vacation time. We offer generous paid vacation and sick leave as well as family leave.
• We are collaborative and transparent - we consider ourselves a team, all moving with a common purpose. We are quick to cheer our successes, and even quicker to share and jointly problem solve our failures.
• We are in Seattle - and our office is on the water! We have mountains, we have lakes, we have four seasons, we bike to work, we have a vibrant theater scene, and we have so much else. We even have kayaks for you to paddle right outside our front door. We welcome interest from applicants from outside of the United States.
• We are friendly- chances are you will like every one of the 200+ (and growing) people who work here. We do.

Ai2 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. You may view the related Know Your Rights compliance poster and the Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision by clicking on their corresponding links.

This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to employees and applicants with disabilities to the full extent required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you feel you need a reasonable accommodation pursuant to the ADA, you are encouraged to contact us at recruiting@allenai.org.

Benefits:

• Team members and their families are covered by medical, dental, vision, basic life insurance, basic accidental death and dismemberment insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, and an employee assistance program.
• Team members are able to enroll in our voluntary life insurance program, our voluntary accidental death and dismemberment program, our health savings account plan, our healthcare reimbursement arrangement plan, and our health care and dependent care flexible spending account plans.
• Team members are able to enroll in our company's 401k plan.
• Team members will receive $125 per month to assist with commuting or internet expenses and will also receive $200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses.
• Team members will also receive up to ten sick days per year, up to seven personal days per year, up to 20 vacation days per year and twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year.
• Team members will be able to receive annual bonuses and can participate in the long-term incentive plan.

Note: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the team members(s) of this position. Team members will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the team member(s) will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an at will relationship.