Research Engineer

VinMotion

Cypress, Northern (CA, KY)

Hybrid

USD 120,000 - 170,000

Full time

3 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Job summary

VinMotion is seeking a Research Engineer, Robotics & Embodied AI to bridge cutting-edge AI research with reliable, real-world robotic systems. You will work closely with Research Scientists and robotics engineers to implement, optimize, integrate, test, and deploy state-of-the-art algorithms on humanoid robots.

The ideal candidate combines strong software engineering with a solid understanding of modern AI, robotics, control, or perception.

Qualifications

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Robotics, CS, AI, EE, Mechatronics, or related field.
Strong programming ability in Python and C++.
Experience with PyTorch and/or TensorFlow.
Solid understanding of robotics, ML, control, or computer vision.
Hands-on experience implementing and debugging complex systems.

Responsibilities

Implement state-of-the-art algorithms and research prototypes in robot learning, RL, imitation learning, motion control, perception, and embodied AI.
Reproduce and evaluate recent research from leading robotics and AI conferences.
Build training and evaluation pipelines for robot learning models.
Develop reusable software infrastructure to accelerate experimentation.
Translate novel research ideas into reliable and maintainable implementations.
Integrate AI algorithms into real-time humanoid robotic systems.
Work on motion control, manipulation, locomotion, perception, navigation, and multimodal interaction.
Develop interfaces between AI models and existing robotics software.
Support deployment and validation on physical humanoid robot platforms.
Build and maintain simulation environments and data pipelines; support Sim2Real.

Skills

Python

C++

Education

Bachelor's/Master's degree in related field

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Job description

10741 Walker Street, Suite 500, Cypress, CA 90630

About VinMotion

VinMotion is developing general-purpose humanoid robots powered by advanced AI and robotics technologies. We are building intelligent systems capable of operating autonomously, safely, and naturally in dynamic real-world environments.

Job Overview

We are seeking a Research Engineer, Robotics & Embodied AI to bridge cutting-edge AI research with reliable, real-world robotic systems.

You will work closely with Research Scientists and robotics engineers to implement, optimize, integrate, test, and deploy state-of-the-art algorithms on humanoid robots.

The ideal candidate combines strong software engineering skills with a solid understanding of modern AI, robotics, control, or perception.

Key Responsibilities

Research Engineering

Implement state-of-the-art algorithms and research prototypes in robot learning, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, motion control, perception, and embodied AI.

Reproduce and evaluate recent research from leading robotics and AI conferences.

Build training and evaluation pipelines for robot learning models.

Develop reusable software infrastructure that accelerates experimentation by research teams.

Translate novel research ideas into reliable and maintainable implementations.

Robotics Integration

Integrate AI algorithms into real-time humanoid robotic systems.

Work on motion control, manipulation, locomotion, perception, navigation, and multimodal interaction, depending on project requirements.

Integrate models with robot sensors, actuators, control stacks, and computing hardware.

Develop interfaces between AI models and existing robotics software.

Support deployment and validation on physical humanoid robot platforms.

This closely reflects the current AI Motion Engineer role, where the focus is implementation of RL, imitation learning, WBC, MPC and motion planning in real-time robotic systems, alongside integration with hardware, software, and control teams.

Simulation & Sim2Real

Build and maintain simulation environments using tools such as MuJoCo, Isaac Sim/Isaac Gym, Gazebo, or related platforms.

Develop data collection, training, testing, and benchmarking pipelines.

Support large-scale reinforcement learning and imitation learning experiments.

Improve Sim2Real transfer and identify performance gaps between simulation and physical robots.

Develop automated evaluation tools for robot behaviors and AI models.

Simulation, Sim2Real and real-world testing are explicitly central to VinMotion's existing US Motion Scientist and Engineer positions.

Performance Optimization

Profile and optimize AI models for low-latency, real-time robotic execution.

Improve runtime efficiency, stability, robustness, and resource utilization.

Support deployment on GPU and edge-computing platforms.

Diagnose failures through logs, sensor data, visualization, and systematic experimentation.

Improve engineering quality through testing, documentation, version control, and reproducible workflows.

The current VinMotion US AI Motion Engineer role specifically emphasizes low-latency edge execution, iterative testing, model efficiency, robustness, and energy-efficient real-time performance.

Qualifications

Required

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Robotics, Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related field.

Strong programming ability in Python and C++.

Experience with PyTorch and/or TensorFlow.

Solid understanding of robotics, machine learning, control, or computer vision.

Hands-on experience implementing and debugging complex systems.

Ability to quickly prototype ideas and turn them into robust software.

Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.

VinMotion's existing US Engineer positions require Bachelor's/Master's-level backgrounds, approximately 2+ years of relevant experience, Python and C++, deep-learning frameworks, and practical AI/robotics implementation ability.

Preferred

Experience in one or more of:

Robot manipulation

Whole-Body Control / Model Predictive Control

Motion planning

CUDA / GPU optimization

Real-time robotics

Sim2Real

Deployment of learning algorithms on physical robots

Competitive compensation package with performance-based bonuses.

Opportunity to work with leading AI and robotics researchers and engineers.

Access to cutting-edge humanoid robotic platforms and AI infrastructure.