Postdoctoral Fellowship - Robotics and AI

Ludo Robotics; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Access to leading robotics platforms

Mentorship from industry experts

Job summary

Ludo Robotics, based in San Francisco, is looking for a Postdoctoral Fellow in Robotics and AI starting September 2026. This one-year fellowship involves independent and collaborative research in robotics, access to advanced robot platforms, and mentorship from experienced research teams.

Ideal candidates will have a PhD or expected by the start date in relevant fields and a track record of research contributions. The fellowship offers competitive compensation and the potential to transition into a full-time role.

Qualifications

• PhD (completed or expected by start date) in a relevant field.
• Strong research contributions with publications.
• Experience designing user studies and interpreting results.

Responsibilities

• Design and lead independent research agendas.
• Conduct experiments and user studies.
• Develop frameworks for robot behaviors.

Skills

Research contributions

Conducting experiments

Independent work

Collaborative communication

Prototyping experience

ROS, Python familiarity

Education

PhD in Human-Robot Interaction or related field

Tools

Robotics software tools

Job description

Postdoctoral Fellowship - Robotics and AI

START DATE: September 2026 (start date flexible; open to discussion)

COMPENSATION: Competitive, commensurate with experience

THE COMPANY: Ludo Robotics is dedicated to building general‑purpose robotic intelligence systems that are robust, adaptive, and capable of handling real‑world scenarios. We believe that data‑driven machine learning at massive scale is the key to unlocking these capabilities and enabling the widespread deployment of robots across society. We are a new startup headquartered in the Bay Area, California, with an office in Seoul, Korea.

We are supported by a highly advanced AI Center within KRAFTON, a leading global video game company best known for PUBG: Battlegrounds. This partnership provides strong long‑term backing and access to world‑class infrastructure.

About the Fellowship: The Ludo Robotics Research Fellows Program is a one‑year, post‑doctoral‑level appointment. Fellows pursue independent and collaborative research in Robotics, AI, and Human‑Robot Interaction, with full access to robot platforms, datasets, compute infrastructure, and mentorship from the core research team. Fellows are expected to drive meaningful research that advances the state of the art and feeds directly into Ludo’s technical roadmap. Business travel to Seoul may be required.

Research Areas

• Robot learning from demonstration, reinforcement learning, and imitation learning
• Perception, scene understanding, and semantic mapping
• Manipulation, dexterous grasping, and tool use
• Navigation, mobility, and multi‑robot coordination
• Foundation models and large‑scale data pipelines for robot training
• Safety, robustness, and sim‑to‑real transfer
• Trust, transparency, and long‑term user studies
• Social intelligence and human‑aware robot learning
• Socially aware planning, adaptation, and interaction‑aware control

Responsibilities

• Design and lead an independent research agenda in collaboration with the research team.
• Conduct experiments, user studies, and field deployments to evaluate hypotheses on real hardware.
• Develop theoretical frameworks and translate them into prototype robot behaviors bridging research and real‑world implementation.
• Synthesize findings from academic literature to inform research direction.
• Integrate developed models and algorithms into robot control pipelines and evaluate real‑world performance.
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with engineers, designers, and product teams to deliver deployable systems.
• Contribute to establishing metrics and evaluation frameworks for robot behavior and system performance.
• Publicize research findings through publications, preprints, talks, and open‑source releases.
• Actively participate in team seminars, design reviews, and knowledge‑sharing sessions.

Qualifications

Required:

• PhD (completed or expected by start date) in Human‑Robot Interaction, Human‑Computer Interaction, Robotics, Computer Science, Cognitive Science, or a closely related field.
• Strong record of research contributions demonstrated through publications, preprints, or equivalent technical output.
• Experience conducting rigorous experiments—user studies, ablations, or system evaluations—and interpreting results clearly.
• Ability to work independently and drive a research agenda with minimal supervision while remaining collaborative and communicative.

Preferred:

• Hands‑on prototyping experience with physical robots or virtual agents.
• Experience designing and running controlled user studies and participatory design sessions.
• Comfort working across disciplines, translating between user insights, theoretical models, and engineering constraints.
• Familiarity with ROS, Python, or related robotics software tools.
• Experience with large language models, particularly building conversational AI, dialog systems, or applying LLMs to robot behavior.
• Genuine curiosity about people and what makes interactions feel natural, safe, and engaging.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation commensurate with post‑doctoral research experience.
• Full access to state‑of‑the‑art robot platforms, compute infrastructure, and real‑world deployment environments.
• Direct mentorship from Ludo's founding research team and access to KRAFTON's AI Center network.
• A collaborative, fast‑moving research culture that values independent thinking and high‑quality work.
• Opportunity for the fellowship to convert to a full‑time research role based on mutual interest and fit.

Reasonable Accommodation: Ludo Robotics is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. Please contact our Operations Team to discuss accommodations during the application process.

EEOC Statement: Ludo Robotics provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type.

Application: Submit your CV, a brief research statement (1–2 pages), and up to three representative publications or preprints. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. The anticipated start date is September 2026, but alternative start dates may be discussed.