Applied Researcher

Aurora Innovation; Mountain View (WY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Aurora Innovation seeks a PhD-level specialist to advance Vision-Language-Action models and tackle jagged edges in current architectures. You will guide an exceptionally capable engineering team and translate academic insights into production-ready code.

In this role, you will explore architectures, mentor peers, and design scalable solutions for large-scale compute environments, reinforcing Aurora’s mission in safe, efficient mobility technologies.

Qualifications

• PhD in AI, CS, or Robotics from a top-tier lab.
• Deep expertise in Vision-Language Models (VLM) and Vision-Language-Action (VLA).
• Hands-on with identifying model failure points and debugging.
• Translate complex papers into production-ready code.
• Mentor teammates and bridge knowledge gaps.
• Experience with large-scale infrastructure and supercomputing.
• Ability to redesign architectures beyond fine-tuning.
• Strong Python programming skills.
• Preference for deep C++ programming.

Responsibilities

• Architectural exploration of VLM/VLA architectures for problem sets.
• Provide technical mentorship to an engineering team.
• Bridge theory and practical, scalable implementations.
• Redesign and optimize model architectures for high-performance environments like Aurora.

Skills

VLM/VLA expertise

Jagged edges troubleshooting

Production-grade coding

Mentorship

HPC familiarity

Python

C++

Education

PhD in AI/CS/Robotics

Tools

Python tooling

C++

HPC environments

Job description

Who we are

Aurora’s mission is to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly.

The Aurora Driver will create a new era in mobility and logistics, one that will bring a safer, more efficient, and more accessible future to everyone.

At Aurora, you will tackle massively complex problems alongside other passionate, intelligent individuals, growing as an expert while expanding your knowledge. For the latest news from Aurora, visit aurora.tech or follow us on LinkedIn.

Aurora hires talented people with diverse backgrounds who are ready to help build a transportation ecosystem that will make our roads safer, get crucial goods where they need to go, and make mobility more efficient and accessible for all. We’re searching for a a PhD to serve as our technical pathfinder in the realm of Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models. You won’t just be applying existing tech; you will be identifying the ‘jagged edges’—the points of failure in current state-of-the-art models—and helping us rediscover and rebuild our architecture from the ground up.

In this role, you will focus on

• Architectural Exploration: Deep dive into VLM/VLA architectures to determine their viability for our specific problem sets.
• Technical Mentorship: Act as the subject matter expert and guide for an exceptionally capable engineering team eager to move into this space.
• Practical Implementation: Bridge the gap between high-level academic theory and practical, scalable applications.
• Innovation: Redesign and optimize model architectures to leverage high-performance computing environments like Aurora.

Required Qualifications

• PhD Graduate in AI, Computer Science, or Robotics (Top-tier research lab background)
• Deep expertise in Vision-Language Models (VLM) and Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models
• Hands-on experience with ‘jagged edges’—knowing where current architectures fail and how to troubleshoot them
• Practical researcher: Ability to translate complex papers into production-ready code
• Collaborative Guide: Willingness to mentor existing team members and bridge the knowledge gap
• Excitement for large-scale infrastructure and supercomputing environments (e.g., Aurora)
• Architectural Creativity: Ability to rethink and redo entire model architectures rather than just fine-tuning
• Strong programming skills in Python
• Preference for a strong depth programming in modern C++

#LI

#Mid-Senior

Working at Aurora
At Aurora, we bring together extraordinarily talented and experienced people united by the strength of our values. We operate with integrity, set outrageous goals, and build a culture where we win together — all without any jerks.

We believe in-person work increases collaboration, empathy and our ability to lead effectively. As a result, we operate in a hybrid work environment where Aurorans are in office at least 3 days per week.

Our Careers page provides insight into what it is like to work at Aurora, and you can find all the latest updates in our Newsroom.

Our commitment to safety

At the core of everything we do is our commitment to safety. Building best-in-class self-driving technology will take time, and we believe that each employee at Aurora has a role in contributing to safety, every step of the way. Aurora expects commitment to our safety policies from every employee, and seeks candidates who take an active responsibility, can contribute to building an atmosphere of trust, and invest in the organization’s long-term success by prioritizing working safely, no matter what.

Our commitment to inclusion

Aurora considers candidates without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy status, parent or caregiver status, ancestry, political affiliation, veteran and/or military status, physical or mental disability, or any other status protected by federal or state law. Aurora considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law. We are also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [e-mail].

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