Research Engineer, Autonomy

1X Technologies AS; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Research Engineer in Autonomy to drive the development of advanced humanoid robots. This role involves tackling complex challenges in robotic autonomy, including training robots for manipulation and navigation in unstructured environments. You'll engage in full-stack engineering, from data engineering to model architecture design, and collaborate with various teams to implement reinforcement learning policies. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to groundbreaking projects in robotics, where your skills and creativity will directly impact the future of household automation. Join a team that values innovation and rewards merit-based achievements.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of Python programming experience required.
• Strong empirical research skills and high-quality robot data sense.

Responsibilities

• Full-stack engineering from data engineering to model design.
• Train NEO for whole body manipulation in unseen environments.
• Integrate techniques in VLMs and generative models.

Skills

Python programming

Empirical research abilities

Problem-solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Advanced degree (MS or PhD)

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

• Full-stack engineering, from data engineering to model architecture design to shipping and monitoring models running across the fleet.

• Train NEO to do whole body manipulation and navigation tasks in unseen environments.

• Integrate frontier techniques in VLMs and generative models to predict actions.

• Work with controls, QA, and data collection teams to ship RL policies to the production fleet.

Minimum Qualifications

• Getting general-purpose robots to work in the home is just about the hardest problem one can work on. We are looking for people with the courage to tackle unsolved technical challenges with an intense work ethic.

• 4+ years of Python programming experience.

• Strong empirical research abilities and a sense for what makes for high quality robot data.

Nice to have

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science or related field.

• Published robot learning research in top ML conferences (NeurIPS, CoRL, RSS, ICML, etc.).

• 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.

• Teaching virtual or physical agents to adapt in-context and retry tasks.

• Using VLMs to automate large scale robotic dataset curation.

• 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.