PhD Research Intern, Autonomous Systems and Physical AI Research - 2027

We Love AI Jobs; Zürich; Hybrid; CHF 20,000 - 33,000; Full time

Job summary

NVIDIA's Autonomous Systems and Physical AI Research (ASPIRE) group invites PhD students for a research internship in Zurich, focusing on autonomy and physical AI for vehicles and robots, with safe interaction with people and unfamiliar environments. You will conduct original research, publish results, and collaborate with NVIDIA teams to transfer techniques into products, using PyTorch, C++, CUDA.

This role requires pursuing a PhD in Robotics or related field and strong programming and research

Qualifications

• Enrolled in a PhD program in Robotics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• Strong research record in autonomous vehicles, robotics, embodied AI, or autonomous systems.
• Experience with vehicle/robot autonomy theory and practice; interest in applying work to autonomous systems.
• Publications at leading conferences/journals (e.g., RSS, ICRA, NeurIPS, CVPR).
• Excellent Python programming; experience with C++ and parallel programming (CUDA) is a plus.
• Familiarity with PyTorch and ability to communicate effectively in a team.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement cutting-edge techniques for autonomous vehicles, robotics and physical AI.
• Conduct original research and publish results.
• Collaborate with research colleagues, internal product teams and external researchers.
• Transfer developed technology to relevant product groups.

Skills

Robotics

Autonomous systems

Python

Machine learning

Deep learning

Reinforcement learning

C++

CUDA

Education

PhD in progress

Tools

PyTorch

CUDA

Job description

# PhD Research Intern, Autonomous Systems and Physical AI Research - 2027NVIDIASwitzerland, ZurichInternshipAI tools:PyTorchCUDAUpload your resume once and Scout applies for youApply with ScoutShare this job:LinkedInXSave imageThis PhD research internship explores autonomy and physical AI for vehicles and robots, including safe interaction with people and unfamiliar environments. The intern will conduct original research, publish results, and collaborate with NVIDIA teams to transfer techniques into products.* Internship* PhD student* PhD in progress### Skills and expertiseRoboticsAutonomous systemsPythonMachine learningDeep learningReinforcement learningC++CUDA### Key responsibilities* Design and implement techniques for autonomous vehicles, robotics, and physical AI.* Conduct original research and publish results.* Collaborate with research and product teams to transfer developed technology.## How this job comparesCompared with 20 open intern research jobs on October 10, 2026.Similar open jobs: We Love AI Jobs lists 20 open intern research jobs at 15 companies.Remote work: This job is on site. 1 of the 20 intern research jobs (5%) are remote.AI in this role: High. AI is the core of the work: building, training or deploying AI systems. The internship centers on fundamental AI research for autonomous systems, including foundation models, deep learning, and reinforcement learning. Developing and evaluating these techniques is core to the role.## Full descriptionWe are recruiting outstanding Research Interns to work on autonomous vehicles, robotics, and physical AI!Intelligent machines that can perceive, reason, and safely interact with people and the physical world are rapidly becoming a reality. Self-driving cars, autonomous delivery and construction vehicles, mobile manipulators, and other robotic systems are moving closer to widespread deployment. However, fundamental research challenges remain before these systems can operate safely, reliably, and autonomously in complex, unfamiliar environments.For example, how can we:• Develop new training paradigms that use perception and interaction to train autonomous vehicle and robot policies in closed loop?• Equip autonomous systems with online and offline assurances that meet the requirements of safety-critical applications?• Enable vehicles and robots to navigate across new environments, tasks, and embodiments?• Build systems that reason under uncertainty and interact safely and naturally with people and other agents?These are some of the exciting questions being explored by NVIDIA’s Autonomous Systems and Physical AI Research (ASPIRE) group. Our diverse, interdisciplinary team conducts foundational research spanning foundation model design, embodied reasoning, safety, closed-loop training and evaluation, and agentic workflows for Physical AI development. We also investigate related areas including decision-making under uncertainty, deep learning, reinforcement learning, simulation, and the verification and validation of safety-critical AI systems.Our focus is on fundamental research, and lab members are encouraged to publish their work and open-source their code. NVIDIA is known for its collaborative culture, and our researchers work closely with experts across the company in autonomous vehicles, robotics, perception, simulation, and machine learning. This creates opportunities to influence real-world products while retaining the freedom and bandwidth to conduct groundbreaking, publishable research.What you’ll be doing:• Designing and implementing cutting-edge techniques for autonomous vehicles, robotics, and physical AI.• Conducting original research and publishing your results.• Collaborating with research colleagues, internal product teams, and external researchers.• Transferring technology you’ve developed to relevant product groups.What we need to see:• Currently pursuing a PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field.• Relevant research experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, embodied AI, or autonomous systems.• Strong knowledge of the theory and practice of vehicle or robot autonomy—or expertise in a related area, with a strong interest in applying your work to autonomous systems.• A track record of research excellence, demonstrated through publications at leading conferences and journals—such as RSS, ICRA, CoRL, IJRR, NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, TAC, etc.—and through other research artifacts such as open-source software.• Exceptional Python programming skills; experience with C++ and parallel programming, such as CUDA, is a plus.• Experience with machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch.• Strong communication and interpersonal skills are required, along with the ability to thrive in a dynamic, research-focused team.Are you intellectually curious, collaborative, and motivated to solve complex problems at the intersection of AI and the physical world? If so, you may be a great fit for NVIDIA.