Head of Vision – Language – Action (VLA) Development – Manipulation

Shaw Daniels Solutions; Greater London; On-site; GBP 190,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Stock options

Paid vacation

Office perks including meals and snacks

Collaborative team environment

Job summary

A pioneering AI and robotics company in Greater London is seeking a Head of Vision – Language – Action (VLA) Development. The successful candidate will lead the strategy for advanced AI systems, focusing on humanoid robotics and deep learning. This role requires a strong technical leader with over 6 years in the field, hands-on experience with LLM architecture, and a proven track record in robotics applications. Competitive compensation and perks including remote work flexibility and a collaborative environment are offered.

Qualifications

• 6+ years developing deep learning systems, with 2+ years in technical leadership.
• Hands-on experience with LLM/VLM architecture design and large-scale training.
• Experience deploying to humanoid or legged robots.
• Experience deploying to humanoid or legged robots and hardware-in-the-loop workflows.
• Track record shipping to real hardware and refining via data flywheels.
• Background in autonomous control and planning, with bridging sim-to-real.
• Contributions to research or open-source in multi-modal transformers or world models.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategy and execution of representation learning programs.
• Drive large-scale post-training for multi-modal LLM/VLM/VLA systems.
• Grow, mentor, and unblock a team of researchers and engineers.
• Collaborate with MLOps and platform teams to scale distributed training and edge inference.
• Grow, mentor, and unblock a high-performing team of researchers and engineers.

Skills

Deep learning systems development

Technical leadership

LLM/VLM architecture design

Robotics expertise

Data-driven refinement

Autonomous control

Multi-modal transformers

OpenVLA familiarity

Cross-team collaboration

Job description

Head of Vision – Language – Action (VLA) Development – Manipulation

Location: London – 5 days in the office

Our Clients

They are the UK’s first AI and robotics company dedicated to building advanced, reliable, and commercially scalable humanoid robots. Their flagship platform, HMND-01, is a next-generation labour automation system designed to deliver efficient, adaptable performance across real-world environments, beginning with industrial applications.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategy and execution of representation learning, behaviour cloning, and reinforcement learning programs.
• Drive large-scale post-training for multi-modal LLM / VLM / VLA systems, integrating vision, audio, proprioception, LiDAR, and point cloud data.
• Build pipelines to continuously collect, version, label, and evaluate simulation and tele-operation data.
• Partner with MLOps and platform teams to scale distributed training and optimise models for real-time edge inference.
• Grow, mentor, and unblock a high-performing team of researchers and engineers.

Requirements

• 6+ years developing deep learning systems, with 2+ years in technical leadership.
• Hands‑on experience with LLM/VLM architecture design and large‑scale training.
• Proven expertise in robotics or autonomous systems (behaviour cloning, actor‑critic, offline RL).
• Experience deploying to humanoid or legged robots.
• Track record of shipping to real hardware and refining via data flywheels.
• Background in autonomous control and planning.
• Contributions to research or open‑source in multi‑modal transformers, diffusion control, or world models.
• Familiarity with OpenVLA, π models, or other VLA frameworks.
• Competitive compensation and stock options.
• Paid vacation (aligned with local labour regulations).
• Opportunities to collaborate across our teams in Vancouver and Boston.
• Office perks including meals, snacks, and team events.
• High autonomy and direct ownership of impactful initiatives.
• Work with leading experts across AI, robotics, and engineering.
• A fast‑moving, transparent, low‑bureaucracy startup environment.

Seniority Level

• Associate

Employment Type

• Full‑time

Job Function

• Information Technology

Industries

• Robotics Engineering and Robot Manufacturing