Staff/Principal AI Robotics Engineer

Industrial Next; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a pioneering company redefining robotics with cutting-edge AI. As a Senior/Staff AI Engineer, you'll lead the development of advanced factory robots, driving significant production gains. Your expertise will shape the technical culture and ensure rapid deployment of innovative solutions. Engage in a fast-paced environment where your contributions directly impact the future of manufacturing in the US. If you're passionate about tackling complex challenges and making a tangible difference, this role is a perfect fit for you.

Benefits

Stock options

401k

Health Insurance

Vision insurance

Qualifications

• 6+ years in ML-powered robots or complex real-time systems.
• Experience with adapting open-weight LLMs for embodied control.

Responsibilities

• Set coding and research standards, mentor senior engineers.
• Co-design sensors and influence product road-maps.

Skills

Vision-Language-Action (VLA)

Deep Learning (PyTorch/TensorFlow)

C++

CUDA

Machine Learning

Robotics

Education

MS/PhD in Robotics, CS, EE, or Applied Math

Tools

ISO 10218

IEC 61508

MuJoCo

Isaac Gym

Job description

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This range is provided by Industrial Next. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

Base pay range

$210,000.00/yr - $300,000.00/yr

Additional compensation types

Stock options

About the Company - We’re a Series A rocket ship re‑imagining how physical products are built. By fusing large‑scale imitation learning, reinforcement learning, and vision‑language‑action (VLA) models, we give robots the judgment to tackle the messy edge‑cases of factory assembly. Our customers already rely on us to keep million‑dollar lines running—now we’re scaling from “cool demo” to industry standard.

About the Role - 2025 is the year autonomy jumps the lab wall. As our first Senior/Staff‑level AI hire after the Series A close, you’ll own the brains of a new generation of factory robots:

• Ship research, not slide decks. Your models go to production lines within weeks, not years.
• See impact at scale. Each model you deploy unlocks 10–40% production gains and gets us one step closer to reshoring manufacturing to the US.
• Shape the technical culture. You’ll set coding standards, review research directions, and mentor the next wave of roboticists.

Responsibilities

• Technical leadership - Set coding and research standards, unblock teams, and mentor senior+ engineers.
• Cross‑functional impact - Co‑design sensors with EE/ME, influence product road‑maps, and brief execs & customers on autonomy strategy.

Qualifications and Required Skills

• Hands‑on with vision‑language‑action (VLA) or diffusion‑policy models; experience adapting open‑weight LLMs for embodied control.
• Hold an MS/PhD—or equivalent scar tissue—in Robotics, CS, EE or Applied Math.
• Have 6+ yrs delivering ML‑powered robots, AVs, or complex real‑time systems—including at least one product that shipped.
• Architect deep‑learning stacks in PyTorch/TensorFlow; squeeze them into real‑time constraints with C++/CUDA.
• Thrive on high ownership and ambiguous, first‑of‑kind problems.
• Enjoy startup speed: light process and direct access to customers.

Preferred Skills

• ISO 10218, IEC 61508, functional‑safety tooling, and real‑time monitoring for collision/risk envelopes.
• Large‑scale Isaac Gym / MuJoCo farms, procedurally generated assets, and sim‑to‑real gap metrics.
• First‑author papers at CoRL / RSS / ICRA or maintainer status on a widely‑used robotics‑AI repo.

Pay range and compensation package

• $210k-$300k
• Meaningful equity
• 401k + Health Insurance

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Engineering and Information Technology

• Industries

  Robotics Engineering, Manufacturing, and Software Development

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Inferred from the description for this job

Vision insurance

401(k)

Medical insurance

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