Scene Understanding for Autonomous Mobility

Honda Research Institute USA, Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Honda Research Institute USA, Inc. is seeking a highly motivated Research Scientist in San Jose, CA to contribute to autonomous mobility technologies.

The role involves research and development of algorithms for scene understanding, including model deployment and collaboration with a dynamic team. Candidates should have a PhD and extensive experience in machine learning and deep learning.

The desired start date for the position is 10/5/2026, which indicates an immediate need for qualified applicants.

Qualifications

• PhD in computer science, robotics, or a related field.
• 2+ years of experience with machine learning and deep learning.
• Strong programming skills in Python or C++.

Responsibilities

• Research on cutting‑edge scene understanding algorithms using multimodal sensor data.
• Develop and implement machine learning and deep learning models.
• Publish scholarly articles in robotics, computer vision, and machine learning.

Skills

Machine Learning

Deep Learning

Python

C++

SLAM

Semantic Segmentation

Social Cue Recognition

Education

PhD in computer science or related field

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

ROS

Job description

Job Number: P25F08

Honda Research Institute USA (HRI‑US) is seeking a highly motivated Research Scientist to contribute scene understanding technologies for autonomous mobility. A successful candidate will focus on the research and development of scene understanding and perception algorithms and will have experience with one or more of the following: social cue recognition, semantic segmentation, action recognition, and SLAM. The ideal candidate combines strong research capabilities with practical experience deploying models in real‑world systems.

Location: Mountain View, CA

Key Responsibilities

• Research on cutting‑edge scene understanding algorithms using multimodal sensor data (e.g., camera, LiDAR).
• Develop and implement machine learning and deep learning models for behavior and intent prediction, social interaction understanding, and important agent identification.
• Design and implement deep learning algorithms to represent semantic information as quantitative information and vice versa.
• Publish scholarly articles to top‑tier conferences and journals in robotics, computer vision, and machine learning.
• Analyze existing perception software stack and implement improvements on physical systems.
• Collaborate with a dynamic team of researchers and engineers to integrate the algorithms with motion planning and controls.

Minimum Qualifications

• PhD in computer science, robotics, or a related field
• 2+ years of experience with machine learning and deep learning
• Experience with frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow
• Strong programming skills in Python or C++
• Experience with training, testing and fine tuning machine learning algorithms
• Experience with quantization, distillation, and other methods for improving runtime performance

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience with LLMs and Foundation models
• Experience in autonomous driving, robotics, or intelligent systems
• Familiarity with ROS and traffic simulators (e.g., Carla, Carmaker)
• Experience with developing end‑to‑end systems
• Experience with deploying models on a physical (robotic) platform
• Experience with optimization solvers

Desired Start Date: 10/5/2026

Position Keywords: Perception/Scene understanding, Action recognition, SLAM