Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Robotics and Physical AI

Clera; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity participation

Job summary

Clera, a small, early-stage AI company, seeks a hands-on research and engineering contributor to push robotics from simulation to real hardware. You will work across learning algorithms, perception, and embedded systems to expand capabilities in real-world deployments.

You’ll build and evaluate learning systems, simulation environments, and robotics pipelines, collaborating with external labs. On-site in San Francisco with equity participation and a competitive salary.

Qualifications

• Experience with C++ and Python in robotics or AI projects.
• Hands-on experience with RL/Imitation learning for manipulation, locomotion, or mobile platforms.
• Proficiency in computer vision and perception for autonomous robots.
• Experience developing and maintaining robotics simulation environments (MuJoCo, Isaac Lab, Genesis, MJX).
• Familiarity with modern ML tools (LLMs, Transformers, diffusion models).
• Hands-on with robot hardware, sensors, actuators, CAD or Blender, and embedded systems.

Responsibilities

• Develop learning systems for robots, including policies and world models.
• Build and maintain simulation environments and evaluation frameworks for robotic tasks.
• Apply and advance computer vision and perception algorithms for autonomous robots.
• Create pipelines linking simulation and real hardware (real-to-sim and sim-to-real).
• Collaborate with external robotics companies and labs on technical problems.
• Train and evaluate RL and imitation-learning systems for manipulation and locomotion.

Skills

C++

Python

Deep learning

Reinforcement learning

Computer vision

Hardware integration

Robotics systems

Tools

MuJoCo

Isaac Lab

MJX

Genesis

CAD

Blender

Job description

About the Role

This is a hands-on research and engineering role at a small, early-stage AI company focused on generating high-quality, verifier-grounded training data for robotics and frontier AI models. You will work across the full stack, from learning algorithms and simulation to real hardware, helping push robot capabilities from synthetic environments into reliable real-world deployment.

What You'll Do

• Develop learning systems for robots, including policies, world models, and vision-language-action models.

• Build and maintain simulation environments and evaluation frameworks for robotic tasks.

• Apply and advance computer vision and perception algorithms for autonomous robots.

• Build pipelines connecting simulation and real-world robot deployment, covering both real-to-sim and sim-to-real workflows.

• Work with robot hardware, sensors, actuators, and embedded systems to prototype and test capabilities.

• Train and evaluate reinforcement-learning and imitation-learning systems for manipulation, locomotion, or mobile platforms.

• Integrate robot platforms to validate algorithms in the physical world.

• Create tools and infrastructure that accelerate robotics research and development.

• Collaborate with external robotics companies and research labs on technical problems.

What We're Looking For

• Open to all experience levels, including new graduates and seasoned researchers or engineers.

• Strong software skills in C++ and Python.

• Practical experience with deep learning, reinforcement learning, and computer vision.

• Experience developing and maintaining robotics simulation environments and evaluation frameworks (e.g., Isaac Lab, MuJoCo, MJX, Genesis).

• Experience training and evaluating RL and imitation-learning systems for manipulation, locomotion, or mobile platforms.

• Hands-on experience with robot hardware, sensors, actuators, CAD or Blender, and embedded systems.

• Familiarity with modern ML tools such as LLMs, Transformers, multimodal AI, diffusion models, or AI agents is a plus.

• Comfortable moving fluidly between research, engineering, experimentation, and product development in a small team.

• US work authorization required; visa sponsorship is not available.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary range: $100,000 to $300,000 USD annually, depending on experience. Equity participation is expected at this stage. Visa sponsorship is not available.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, California, United States. This role is not eligible for remote work.