Senior / Staff AI Research Scientist, Foundation Models

RoboForce; Milpitas (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) plan

Visa sponsorship

Green card support

Lunches and dinners

Fully stocked kitchen

Team-building events

Job summary

RoboForce is seeking a Senior / Staff AI Research Scientist, Foundation Models to advance embodied intelligence in robotic systems. You will design and train world models, develop VLM/VLA capabilities, and integrate multi-modal data to enable natural human-robot collaboration.

The role requires a PhD (or Master’s with 4+ years) and strong skills in Python, PyTorch/JAX, and large foundation models. Office-based collaboration five days a week in Milpitas, CA, with competitive equity and visa

Qualifications

• PhD in ML, Robotics or related field, or Master's with 4+ years experience.
• Proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, JAX).
• Expertise in large foundation models (VLM, VLA).
• Strong understanding of world model architectures and action-conditioned generative modeling for robot learning.
• Understanding of multimodal models and modern ML architectures (transformers, diffusion models).

Responsibilities

• Design and deploy vision-language(-action) models for contextual understanding and generalized robot action policies.
• Develop and train world models for action-conditioned prediction and long-horizon planning.
• Research approaches to improve world model fidelity with multi-modal inputs.
• Develop foundation models with spatial reasoning for high-precision robotic actions.
• Integrate multi-modal data to enable natural human-robot communication.
• Optimize and deploy models as production-grade solutions on RoboForce robotic platforms.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

JAX

Foundation models

VLM/VLA

World models

Action-conditioned

Transformers

Diffusion models

Multimodal

Education

PhD in ML/Robotics

Master's + 4+ years

Job description

Why RoboForce

RoboForce is an AI robotics company developing Physical AI-powered Robo-Labor for dull, dirty, and dangerous work. The company's robots are engineered for demanding industrial environments, with a focus on real-world deployment and scalability.

We are looking for a Senior / Staff AI Research Scientist, Foundation Models to advance robotic embodied intelligence. In this role, you will develop algorithms that enable robots to understand their environment, interpret and execute tasks, and communicate seamlessly with humans - with a particular focus on building and training world models that allow robots to predict, plan, and generalize across complex physical tasks.

Responsibilities

Design and deploy vision-language(-action) models (VLM/VLA) for contextual understanding and generalized robot action policies.

Develop and train world models for action-conditioned prediction, long-horizon planning, and environment simulation - enabling robots to reason about the consequences of their actions before execution.

Research approaches to improve world model fidelity using multi-modal inputs including vision, language, proprioception, and spatial representations.

Develop foundation models with spatial reasoning capabilities to achieve high-precision robotic actions.

Integrate multi-modal data sources (vision, language, speech, etc.) to enable natural human-robot communication.

Optimize and deploy models as production-grade solutions on RoboForce robotic platforms.

Requirements

PhD degree in Machine Learning, Robotics, or related field, or Master's degree with 4+ years of relevant experience.

Proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, JAX).

Expertise in large foundation models (VLM, VLA, etc.).

Strong understanding of world model architectures and action-conditioned generative modeling for robot learning.

Decent understanding of multimodal models, modern ML architectures (transformers, diffusion models, etc.).

Requires 5 days/week in-office collaboration with the teams.

Bonus Qualifications

Experience with video generation or prediction models (e.g., diffusion-based video models, autoregressive video transformers) and their application to world modeling or synthetic data generation for robot learning.

Strong publication record at top conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, ICCV, CoRL, ICRA, or equivalent).

Expertise in neural network deployment (e.g., TensorRT) and GPU programming with CUDA.

Proven ability to design scalable experimentation and data pipelines.

Benefits

Competitive stock options/equity programs.

Health, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) plan.

Visa sponsorship and green card support for qualified candidates.

Lunches and dinners, a fully stocked kitchen, and regular team-building events.