AI Engineer - Robotics

Harrison Clarke; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Harrison Clarke in the Bay Area (CA) is hiring for an applied AI/ML engineer to build vision-language-action models that fuse perception, reasoning and control for real-time robotics. You will join a small team focused on onboard edge inference and embodied autonomy, bringing research into deployed systems.

Requirements include 2+ years of hands-on AI/ML, strong Python/PyTorch skills, and a background in RL or multimodal architectures. MS/ PhD preferred; U.S.

Qualifications

• 2+ years hands-on AI/ML modeling experience.
• Senior candidates: 5+ years with leadership.
• Strong background in RL, imitation learning, transformers, or multimodal models.
• Experience translating research into production-grade code.

Responsibilities

• Building vision-language-action models that fuse perception, reasoning, and control
• Multimodal model fusion, continual learning, and domain adaptation
• Real-time inference on embedded / edge systems (GPU, sub-200ms latency)
• Dynamic memory systems and multi-agent coordination
• Long-horizon autonomy and chain-of-thought reasoning for multi-step missions
• Taking research concepts through to production-grade, deployed systems

Skills

Python

PyTorch

Reinforcement learning

Imitation learning

Transformers

Multimodal architectures

Production-grade coding

Education

MS or PhD preferred

Tools

JAX

TensorFlow

CUDA

Job description

Location: On-site, Bay Area (CA)

About the role

A well-funded, early-stage physical AI company is building a vision-language-action (VLA) foundation model that turns real-world robots into intelligent, autonomous agents. Think of it as a large multimodal model that outputs motor control instead of text - perceiving the environment, reasoning about it, and acting on it in real time.

The model runs onboard, at the edge, in real time, even in GPS- and comms-denied environments. Prototypes across ground and air platforms are already operational in the field today. You'd be joining a small, hand-picked founding team drawn from leading robotics, autonomous-vehicle, and foundation-model backgrounds - solving genuinely unsolved problems in embodied intelligence, and shipping them onto real hardware rather than benchmarks.

This is applied AI, not pure research. If you want your models controlling physical machines in the real world, this is that role.

What you'll work on

• Building vision-language-action models that fuse perception, reasoning, and control
• Multimodal model fusion, continual learning, and domain adaptation
• Real-time inference on embedded / edge systems (GPU, sub-200ms latency)
• Dynamic memory systems and multi-agent coordination (formations, convoys, swarms)
• Long-horizon autonomy and chain-of-thought reasoning for multi-step missions
• Taking research concepts through to production-grade, deployed systems

What we're looking for

• 2+ years hands-on AI/ML modeling experience (senior candidates: 5+ with demonstrated leadership)
• Strong background in one or more of: reinforcement learning, imitation learning, transformers, multimodal architectures
• Exposure to embodied AI or robotics is a major plus
• Proficiency in Python and PyTorch (JAX, TensorFlow, CUDA a bonus)
• Proven ability to translate research into robust, production-level code
• MS or PhD preferred, ideally from a strong program; side projects and portfolios welcomed
• Must be eligible for U.S. export-controlled work (U.S. person status - citizen or green card - required)

Who thrives here

• Comfortable in a fast-moving, high-autonomy startup environment
• Deeply curious - keeps current with the latest VLM / RL / CV literature
• Biased toward execution, but grounded in strong research fundamentals
• Motivated by hard real-world problems and hands-on work close to the hardware