Staff Robotics Research Engineer

Arm; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 198,000 - 268,000; Full time

Job summary

Arm is building a Robotics Research Lab in Austin and seeks a Staff Robotics Research Engineer with a strong research background across robotics domains. The role focuses on developing methods, evaluating prototypes on real robots and simulations, and shaping Arm’s research roadmap for Physical AI.

Responsibilities include leading original research, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and translating insights into future compute and software platforms.

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent research experience in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, Machine Learning, or related field.
• Strong research expertise in at least one area relevant to intelligent robotic systems.
• Demonstrated ability to formulate and solve open-ended research problems.
• Experience implementing and evaluating algorithms on robotic systems, or in high-fidelity simulation.

Responsibilities

• Conduct original research in robotics subfields such as machine learning, perception, planning, or control.
• Develop methods for intelligent robots to perceive, reason, plan, learn, and act in real-world environments.
• Explore how robotic capabilities can be composed into coherent, adaptive systems.
• Publish research and engage with the robotics and AI community.

Skills

PhD in Robotics or related field

C++

Python

Robotics research

Education

PhD in Robotics or related field

Tools

ROS

Job description

Job ID 2026-19438 Date posted 18/09/2026 Location Austin, Texas Category Architecture - Engineers

Arm is building a Robotics Research Lab in Austin to explore the technologies required to enable the next generation of intelligent, general-purpose robots!

We are looking for a Staff Robotics Research Engineer with a strong research background in one or more areas of robotics and an interest in working across traditional disciplinary boundaries. Relevant areas include robot learning and embodied AI, perception and sensor fusion, planning and decision making, control and optimization, safety and formal methods, robot systems, and mechatronics!

Our research is motivated by a fundamental question: what does it take to build robots that can act competently in the real world? Answering this requires advances within individual robotics capabilities, but also new ways of combining them into coherent intelligent systems. We are particularly interested in researchers who want to explore the interfaces between disciplines: learning and planning, perception and action, reasoning and control, safety and autonomy, software and hardware.

This is a hands-on research role. You will develop new methods, implement them on real robotic platforms, and work with researchers across disciplines to build and evaluate complete robotic systems. The results will both advance the state of the art in robotics and help shape future Arm technologies for Physical AI.

Responsibilities

• Conduct original research in one or more areas of robotics, such as machine learning and robot learning, perception, planning, control, optimization, safety, formal methods, robot systems, or mechatronics.
• Develop new methods for enabling intelligent robots to perceive, reason, plan, learn, and act in complex real-world environments.
• Explore how robotic capabilities can be composed and integrated into coherent, hierarchical and adaptive systems.
• Investigate new architectures and abstractions for combining classical robotics, learning-based methods, foundation models, and agentic AI.
• Build, integrate, and evaluate research prototypes on real robotic platforms and in simulation.
• Work across traditional research boundaries, collaborating with researchers in ML, perception, planning, control, systems, and compute architecture.
• Identify system-level bottlenecks and translate robotics research insights into requirements and opportunities for future compute and software platforms.
• Publish research at leading robotics, AI, and systems venues and engage with the broader research community.
• Help define new research directions and contribute to the technical roadmap of Arm’s Robotics Research Lab.
• Collaborate across Arm and with external research and industry partners.

Required Skills And Experience

• PhD or equivalent research experience in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Machine Learning, or a related field.
• Strong research expertise in at least one area relevant to intelligent robotic systems.
• Demonstrated ability to formulate and solve open-ended research problems.
• Experience implementing and evaluating algorithms on robotic systems, relevant physical systems, or high-fidelity simulation.
• Strong programming skills in C++ and/or Python.
• Ability and interest to work across disciplinary boundaries and integrate research into larger robotic systems.
• Strong publication record or equivalent evidence of research impact.
• Ability to independently drive research projects and influence technical direction across a multidisciplinary team.

Nice To Have Skills And Experience

Experience in multiple areas below is particularly valued:

• Robot learning, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, or embodied AI.
• Vision-language-action models (VLAs), vision-language models (VLMs), world models, diffusion models, or other foundation models for robotics.
• Task and motion planning, search, optimization, or decision making under uncertainty.
• Robot control, whole-body control, MPC, trajectory optimization, adaptive or learning-based control.
• Robotics perception, SLAM, sensor fusion, semantic mapping, spatial reasoning, or multi-modal sensing.
• Safety-critical robotics, runtime assurance, Control Barrier Functions, formal methods, verification, or specification-driven behavior.
• Robotics middleware, distributed systems, real-time systems, or end-to-end robot software architectures.
• Manipulation, locomotion, humanoid robotics, mobile robotics, or multi-robot systems.
• Mechatronics, sensing, actuation, hardware/software integration, or robot bring-up.
• Heterogeneous and embedded compute, including CPU/GPU/NPU/MCU platforms.
• Experience taking research from simulation to real robotic systems.
• Background spanning both research and production robotics.

In Return

You will help define how robotic systems are made safe, reliable, and controllable - shaping both Arm’s research direction and the architectures that will power robots at global scale.

#LS-KS1

Salary Range

$198,100-$268,000 per year

We value people as individuals and our dedication is to reward people competitively and equitably for the work they do and the skills and experience they bring to Arm. Salary is only one component of Arm's offering. The total reward package will be shared with candidates during the recruitment and selection process.

Accommodations at Arm

At Arm, we want to build extraordinary teams. If you need an adjustment or an accommodation during the recruitment process, please email

Hybrid Working at Arm

Arm’s approach to hybrid working is designed to create a working environment that supports both high performance and personal wellbeing. We believe in bringing people together face to face to enable us to work at pace, whilst recognizing the value of flexibility. Within that framework, we empower groups/teams to determine their own hybrid working patterns, depending on the work and the team’s needs. Details of what this means for each role will be shared upon application. In some cases, the flexibility we can offer is limited by local legal, regulatory, tax, or other considerations, and where this is the case, we will collaborate with you to find the best solution. Please talk to us to find out more about what this could look like for you.

Equal Opportunities at Arm

Arm is an equal opportunity employer, committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal opportunities are available to all applicants and colleagues. We are a diverse organization of dedicated and innovative individuals, and don’t discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.