Senior Research Engineer II (Robot Learning & Manipulation)

Nanyang Technological University; Singapore; On-site; SGD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) invites applications for a Senior Research Engineer to lead robotics learning projects focused on visuomotor manipulation for humanoid robots and real-robot deployment.

Responsibilities include defining research directions, advancing RL and cloning techniques, and mentoring researchers while collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams to integrate learned policies into the autonomy stack.

Qualifications

• PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• Strong publication record in robot learning, manipulation, embodied AI, or related areas.
• Experience developing and deploying robot learning systems on physical robotic platforms.
• Expertise in robot manipulation and visuomotor control.
• Proficiency in Python and modern deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
• Ability to independently define research problems, design experiments, analyse results, and drive projects.
• Experience leading or mentoring researchers, engineers, students, or project team members.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across multidisciplinary teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead research and development of learning-based visuomotor policies for humanoid robot manipulation.
• Define research directions and roadmaps for manipulation capabilities.
• Advance techniques including behavior cloning, RL, and hybrid reasoning.
• Develop approaches to robustness against sensor noise and partial observability.
• Oversee data collection, model training, evaluation, and deployment.
• Manage milestones, deliverables, and timelines; report progress to PI.
• Supervise and mentor researchers, engineers, and PhD students.
• Collaborate with perception, controls, systems, and hardware teams to integrate policies.
• Evaluate tradeoffs between learning-based and classical approaches and make design decisions.
• Lead preparation of publications, reports, and grant documentation.

Skills

Robot learning

Robot manipulation

Python

PyTorch

Research leadership

Communication

Experiment design

Education

PhD in Robotics/CS/EE

Tools

PyTorch

Job description

We are seeking a Senior Research Engineer with a strong robotics learning background to lead research on visuomotor manipulation policies for humanoid robots, with an emphasis on advancing the state of the art while ensuring real-robot deployment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the research and development of learning-based visuomotor policies for humanoid robot manipulation, from problem formulation to real-robot deployment.
• Define research directions and technical roadmaps for manipulation capabilities such as grasping, object reorientation, bimanual manipulation, and assembly.
• Advance techniques including behavior cloning, reinforcement learning, and VLA-based reasoning, with a focus on novel contributions and publishable outcomes.
• Develop principled approaches to robustness challenges such as sensor noise, partial observability, contact dynamics, and environment variability.
• Oversee the research pipeline from data collection strategy and model training to evaluation methodology and deployment.
• Manage project milestones, deliverables, and timelines; coordinate with collaborators and stakeholders, and report progress to the PI.
• Supervise and mentor research associates, engineers, and PhD students working on the project.
• Collaborate with perception, controls, systems, and hardware teams to guide integration of learned policies into the full autonomy stack.
• Evaluate tradeoffs between learning-based and classical approaches and make principled architectural and design decisions.
• Lead the preparation of publications, technical reports, and grant/project documentation.

Job Requirements

• PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong publication record in robot learning, manipulation, embodied AI, or related areas, demonstrated through publications in internationally recognised peer-reviewed conferences and journals (e.g., CoRL, RSS, ICRA, IROS, NeurIPS, CVPR, or equivalent venues).
• Demonstrated experience developing and deploying robot learning systems on physical robotic platforms.
• Demonstrated expertise in robot manipulation and visuomotor control.
• Strong knowledge of behaviour cloning, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, or other learning-based manipulation methods.
• Proficiency in Python and modern deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or equivalent.
• Proven ability to independently define research problems, design experiments, analyse results, and drive projects to completion.
• Experience leading, supervising, or mentoring researchers, engineers, students, or project team members.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with humanoid or highly dexterous robotic platforms.
• Experience translating research outcomes into deployed, operational, or commercial robotic systems.
• Track record of successful collaboration with industry or research partners.
• Demonstrated interest in advancing autonomous humanoid robotics through research and real-world deployment.

We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Hiring Institution

NTU A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has 33,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Engineering, Business, Science, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, and Graduate colleges. It also has a medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, established jointly with Imperial College London. NTU is also home to world-class autonomous institutes – the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering – and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N). Ranked amongst the world’s top universities by QS, NTU has also been named the world’s top young university for the past seven years. The University’s main campus is frequently listed among the Top 15 most beautiful university campuses in the world and has 57 Green Mark-certified (equivalent to LEED-certified) buildings, of which 95% are certified Green Mark Platinum. Apart from its main campus, NTU also has a campus in Novena, Singapore’s healthcare district. Under the NTU Smart Campus vision, the University harnesses the power of digital technology and tech-enabled solutions to support better learning and living experiences, the discovery of new knowledge, and the sustainability of resources. For more information, visit www.ntu.edu.sg About NIE About RSIS About LKCMedicine About NTUItive