Research Engineer, Autonomy

1X Technologies; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking company at the forefront of robotics innovation. As a Research Engineer in Autonomy, you will engage in exciting projects that push the boundaries of technology. Your role will involve training advanced humanoid robots, integrating cutting-edge techniques, and collaborating with diverse teams to deliver impactful solutions. This position offers a unique opportunity to tackle unsolved challenges in robotics, with a focus on developing intelligent systems capable of performing complex tasks in unstructured environments. If you are passionate about robotics and eager to make a difference, this role is for you.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of Python experience and strong research skills are essential.
• Experience with robotics and data quality assessment is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Full-stack engineering from data engineering to model design.
• Train robots for manipulation and navigation in new environments.

Skills

Python programming

Empirical research abilities

Data engineering

Robot data quality assessment

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Master's or PhD in Computer Science

Job description

Target start date: Immediately. Relocation provided.

Since its founding in 2015, 1X has been at the forefront of developing advanced humanoid robots designed for household use. Our mission is to create an abundant supply of labor via safe, intelligent humanoids. At 1X, you’ll own critical projects, tackle unsolved research problems, deliver great products to customers, and be rewarded based on merit and achievement.

We are looking for a Research Engineer in Autonomy. In this role, you will train NEO to do autonomous, long-horizon tasks in unstructured environments.

Responsibilities

1. Full-stack engineering, from data engineering to model architecture design to shipping and monitoring models running across the fleet.
2. Train NEO to do whole body manipulation and navigation tasks in unseen environments.
3. Integrate frontier techniques in VLMs and generative models to predict actions.
4. Work with controls, QA, and data collection teams to ship RL policies to the production fleet.

Requirements

We are looking for people with the courage to tackle unsolved technical challenges with an intense work ethic.

1. 4+ years of Python programming experience.
2. Strong empirical research abilities and a sense for what makes for high quality robot data.
3. In your cover letter, please tell us about an ambitious idea that you tried to get working but didn’t manage to.

Nice to have

1. Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science or related field.
2. Published robot learning research in top ML conferences (NeurIPS, CoRL, RSS, ICML, etc.).
3. Experience writing testing infrastructure for data loaders and robotics datasets.

Sample Projects

We encourage you to apply even if you do not meet every single qualification. Here are some example projects you might work on at 1X. If you have direct experience in solving one of the “sample projects” listed below, please let us know in your cover letter.

1. Teaching virtual or physical agents to adapt in-context and retry tasks.
2. Using VLMs to automate large scale robotic dataset curation.
3. Teaching robots to learn from suboptimal episodes.

Compensation

At 1X your work and results will be rewarded with a total rewards package consisting of a base salary, stock options and benefits. Base salary range is $130,000 to $250,000. Your actual salary will be based on your knowledge, skills and experience.

Location Policy
We believe the best work is done when collaborating and therefore require in-person presence in our office locations.