Applied Researcher (Perception)

Join our team as an Applied Researcher specializing in Perception. In this role, you will conduct in-depth architectural exploration of Vision-Language Models (VLM) and Vision-Language-Action (VLA) architectures, providing technical mentorship to our engineering team and bridging the gap between academic theory and practical application. You will also have the opportunity to redesign and optimize model architectures for high-performance computing environments. A strong background in AI, computer science, or robotics is required, along with programming skills in Python and modern C++.

• Architectural Exploration: Conduct in-depth analysis of Vision-Language Models (VLM) and Vision-Language-Action (VLA) architectures to assess their applicability to specific problem sets.
• Technical Mentorship: Provide guidance and mentorship to a skilled engineering team, sharing expertise in the field and facilitating their transition into advanced areas of research.
• Practical Implementation: Translate high-level academic theories into practical, scalable applications, bridging the gap between research and real-world implementation.
• Strong programming skills in Python
• Preference for a strong depth programming in modern C++
• Practical researcher: Ability to translate complex papers into production-ready code
• Excitement for large-scale infrastructure and supercomputing environments (e.g., Aurora)
• Architectural Creativity: Ability to rethink and redo entire model architectures rather than just fine-tuning
• Collaborative Guide: Willingness to mentor existing team members and bridge the knowledge gap
• Deep expertise in Vision-Language Models (VLM) and Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models
• Hands-on experience with 'jagged edges'—knowing where current architectures fail and how to troubleshoot them
• PhD Graduate in AI, Computer Science, or Robotics (Top-tier research lab background)