VLA Robotics Research Intern: Deploy & Benchmark Hardware

Boston Dynamics; Waltham (MA); On-site; USD 41,000 - 96,000; Full time

Job summary

Atlas is seeking PhD-level interns to push the boundaries of Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models for humanoid robots. You will lead research projects and deploy ideas directly onto Atlas hardware, bridging simulation and real-world execution.

The role emphasizes strong experimental rigor, collaboration across teams, and hands-on coding in Python and C++ on real robots. You will work on scaling VLA models with diverse data and training recipes.

Qualifications

• Pursuing PhD or research-focused Master’s in CS/Robotics/ML.
• Experience with imitation learning models for robotics and strong experimental hygiene.
• Ability to deploy algorithms on mobile/humanoid robot platforms.

Responsibilities

• Lead a high-stakes research project establishing hypotheses and experiments for VLA/WAM performance.
• Prototype and deploy data collection, mixing, training recipes, and algorithms on Atlas hardware.
• Collaborate across teams to integrate learned policies with low-level robot control.
• Extend data pipelines to ingest diverse data sources for robustness.
• Write production-grade Python/C++ code that interfaces with existing systems.

Skills

Imitation learning for robotics

Experimentation hygiene

Python/C++ coding

Robotics research

Education

PhD (preferred) or research-focused Master’s in CS/Robotics/ML

Tools

Kubernetes

SLURM

Python

C++

Job description

Atlas is seeking PhD-level interns to push the boundaries of Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models for humanoid robots. You will lead research projects and deploy ideas directly onto Atlas hardware, bridging simulation and real-world execution.

The role emphasizes strong experimental rigor, collaboration across teams, and hands-on coding in Python and C++ on real robots. You will work on scaling VLA models with diverse data and training recipes.