Robotics Research Intern, Embodied AI

FieldAI; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

FieldAI in Irvine is building risk-aware, field-ready AI systems that solve complex robotics problems on real hardware and sensors. You will join a world-class team focused on embodied AI, with a track record of real-world deployments and DARPA performance.

The role spans robot learning, active perception, and human-robot interaction, with opportunities to publish at top AI and robotics venues while shaping systems that ship in the field.

Qualifications

• Pursuing or recently completed a PhD in Robotics, CS, Aerospace, Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong research foundation in robot learning, planning and decision-making, embodied AI, perception, active perception, or human-robot interaction.
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or C++.

Responsibilities

• Robot Behavior & Learning: research methods for learning, adapting, and generating robot behaviors from demonstrations and real-world data.
• Active Perception & Embodied Reasoning: enable robots to actively reason about what to inspect, observe, and which actions to take next based on context and objectives.
• Human-Robot Interaction: develop intuitive collaboration approaches, including natural task specification and user intent adaptation.
• Embodied AI Models: adapt foundation models for reasoning, planning, interaction, and decision-making on physical robots.
• Real-Robot Experimentation: implement and evaluate algorithms on robotic platforms in realistic environments.
• Research & Publication: design rigorous experiments and contribute to publications at leading robotics/AI venues.

Skills

Python

C++

Machine learning

Research mindset

Communication skills

Education

PhD in Robotics, CS, Aerospace, EE, ME, or related field

Tools

ROS/ROS2

Job description

FieldAI’s Irvine team is where embodied AI meets real robots, real sensors, and real field deployments. Based in the heart of Southern California’s robotics ecosystem, we build risk-aware, reliable, field-ready AI systems that solve the hardest problems in robotics and unlock the full potential of embodied intelligence. If you want your work to ship, get tested on hardware, and improve through real deployments, Irvine is the place. We go beyond typical data-driven approaches or pure transformer-only architectures, combining rigorous engineering with learning systems proven in globally deployed solutions that deliver results today and get better every time our robots run in the field.

Why Join FieldAI?

FieldAI is tackling one of robotics’ hardest problems: deploying robots in unstructured, previously unknown environments. We are solving one of robotics' hardest challenges: reliable deployment outside the lab. Our Field Foundational Models™ raise the bar for perception, planning, localization, and manipulation, with an emphasis on explainability and safety for real-world use.

You will work alongside a world-class team that values creativity, resilience, and bold thinking. We bring a decade-long track record of real-world deployments, strong performance in DARPA challenges, and experience from organizations such as DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA, Amazon, Tesla Autopilot, Cruise, Zoox, Toyota Research Institute, and SpaceX.

What You’ll Do

Depending on your research background and interests, you may work on one or more of the following areas:

• Robot Behavior & Learning: Research methods for learning, adapting, and generating robot behaviors from demonstrations, interaction, experience, and real-world data, enabling robots to perform long-horizon tasks in dynamic and unstructured environments.
• Active Perception & Embodied Reasoning: Develop methods that enable robots to actively reason about what to inspect, where to observe, and what actions to take next based on task objectives, observations, uncertainty, and environmental context.
• Human-Robot Interaction: Develop approaches for intuitive human-robot collaboration, including natural task specification, interactive robot behaviors, human-in-the-loop reasoning, and adaptation to user intent and feedback.
• Embodied AI Models: Investigate and adapt foundation models, including vision-language models, vision-language-action models, and world models, for reasoning, planning, interaction, and decision-making on physical robots.
• Real-Robot Experimentation: Implement and evaluate research algorithms on robotic platforms operating in realistic, unstructured environments, and use deployment data to iteratively improve the underlying methods.
• Research & Publication: Conduct cutting-edge research in embodied AI and robotics, design rigorous experiments and evaluations, and contribute to publications at leading robotics and AI conferences and journals.

What You Bring

• Currently pursuing or recently completed a PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Aerospace, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong research foundation in one or more areas such as robot learning, planning and decision-making, embodied AI, perception, active perception, or human-robot interaction.
• Familiarity with state-of-the‑art research in embodied AI and robotics.
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or C++.
• Experience with modern machine learning frameworks.
• Experience developing and evaluating algorithms for robotic or embodied systems.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, with the ability to formulate research questions and design rigorous experiments.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to collaborate across research and engineering teams.

What Will Set You Apart

• Hands‑on robotics experience, including testing and deploying autonomous systems on physical robots. Experience with ROS or ROS2 and real robotic systems.
• Publications at leading AI and robotics venues such as CoRL, ICRA, IROS, RSS, NeurIPS, CVPR, or similar.
• Research experience in robot behavior and learning, such as imitation learning, reinforcement learning, learning from demonstrations, or learning from interaction and real‑world experience.
• Research experience in active perception or active inspection, including task‑driven perception, information‑gathering behaviors, viewpoint selection, or reasoning under uncertainty.
• Experience in human‑robot interaction, language‑conditioned robotics, shared autonomy, or interactive robot learningExperience fine‑tuning or deploying large multimodal models, particularly vision‑language, vision‑language‑action, open‑vocabulary, or related foundation models.

Our salary range is generous and we consider each individual’s background and experience when determining final compensation. Base pay may vary based on role scope, job‑related knowledge, skills, experience, and the Irvine, California market.

Why Join FieldAI in Irvine?

In Irvine, you will work where the robots are. Our local team builds and tests systems on real hardware with real sensors, then ships them to operate in unstructured, previously unknown environments around the world. We are solving one of robotics’ hardest challenges: reliable deployment outside the lab. Our Field Foundational Models™ raise the bar for perception, planning, localization, and manipulation, with an emphasis on explainability and safety for real‑world use.

You will collaborate with a world‑class team that thrives on creativity, resilience, and bold thinking. We bring deep experience from organizations such as DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA, Amazon, Tesla Autopilot, Cruise, Zoox, Toyota Research Institute, and SpaceX, along with a track record of field deployments and strong performance in DARPA challenge segments.

Be Part of the Next Robotics Revolution

We are looking for builders who want their work to leave the whiteboard and show up on robots. If you enjoy tackling tough, uncharted questions and working across disciplines, you will find your people here. Our teams span AI, software, robotics engineering, product, field deployment, and technical communication, all focused on shipping systems that perform in the real world.

Our headquarters is in Irvine, and we partner closely with teams there as well as colleagues across the US and around the world. Join us in Southern California and help define what dependable, field‑ready autonomy looks like.

We value diverse perspectives and are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace. We evaluate candidates and employees based on merit, qualifications, and performance, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or any other legally protected status.