Research Scientist, Robotics

Persons in these roles are expected to work from our offices in Seattle. On-site requirements vary based on position and team. If you have questions about on-site work arrangements for this role, please ask your recruiter.

Our base salary range is $167,030 - $260,570, and in addition we have generous bonus plans to provide a competitive compensation package.

Who You Are:

Research Scientists in the Ai2 Robotics Team will have the unique opportunity to develop and investigate core research problems in foundation models for robotics, and contribute to the development of completely open methods, data sets, benchmarks, and models. They will experiment with large-scale simulation tools and robots in the real world.

Research Scientists will work on multiple exciting research projects in the above areas but can also contribute and engage in a variety of other activities critical to our research and mission. These include opportunities to lead projects, mentor interns and pre-doctoral candidates, author and present scientific papers, and collaborate with researchers at other organizations including universities.

At Ai2, you will be working with world-class AI and robotics researchers and talented software engineers. You will perform team-based, ambitious research, with a mandate to strive for big breakthroughs, not just incremental progress, in an exciting and interactive workplace.

Who We Are:

Ai2’s Robotics team is led by Dieter Fox. We aim to develop and leverage scalable simulation domains to scientifically investigate the scaling and generalization capabilities of foundation models for robotics, and use these insights to develop broadly competent robots. Following a longstanding tradition at Ai2, we are committed to fully open-source research and work toward application domains with a positive impact on society.

We are looking for applicants interested in robotics, with a focus on core techniques in robot manipulation, large scale training in simulated environments, sim-to-real transfer, robot foundation models, and skill learning.

We regularly publish in high-profile conferences and journals in robotics (CoRL, ICRA, RSS), computer vision (CVPR, ICCV, ECCV), and machine learning (e.g., NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML).

We collaborate frequently with researchers on other Ai2 teams focused on computer vision, large language models, and others. Our main office has close ties and unique access to researchers at the University of Washington, only 1.5 miles away. Researchers excited about such internal and external collaborations are encouraged to apply.

Your Next Challenge:

At Ai2, you will be working with world-class AI researchers and talented software engineers. We perform team-based, ambitious research, with a mandate to strive for big breakthroughs, not just incremental progress, in an exciting and interactive workplace.

All scientists have the opportunity to mentor interns (and other students)and will participate directly in Ai2's groundbreaking work. There are no restrictions on publications.

What You’ll Need:

• A strong foundation (typically PhD level) in one or more of the following areas: robot manipulation, planning and control, RL and imitation learning, real world robot systems, simulation environments and sim2real, and world models and foundation models.

• A strong publication record in AI-related areas. Example venues include CoRL, ICRA, RSS, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, ICLR, etc. Contributions to research communities (e.g. workshop organization, tutorials) are a plus.

• Strong software engineering skills. Experience working with real robot systems and/or with deep learning frameworks.

• (Optional) Research experience in related areas like large-scale multi-node training, training dynamics, efficiency, data curation, and multimodal model debugging, post-training methods, among others.

• (Optional) Contributions to open-source research libraries.

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time.

• The ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations.

• The ability to observe details at close range.

• Can work under deadlines.

A Little More About Ai2:

Ai2 is a Seattle based non-profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. Our mission is building breakthrough AI to solve the world’s biggest problems. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond.

In addition to Ai2’s core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the Ai2 Team. Some highlights are:

• We are a learning organization – because everything Ai2 does is ground-breaking, we are learning every day. With a wide variety of world-class AI experts as guest speakers, and our commitment to your personal on-going education, Ai2 is a place where you will have opportunities to continue learning alongside your coworkers.

• We value diversity - We seek to hire, support, and promote people from all genders, ethnicities, and all levels of experience regardless of age. We particularly encourage applications from women, non-binary individuals, people of color, members of the LGBTQA+ community, and people with disabilities of any kind.

• We value inclusion - We understand the value that people's individual experiences and perspectives can bring to an organization, and we are building a culture in which all voices are heard, respected and considered.

• We emphasize a healthy work/life balance – we believe our team members are happiest and most productive when their work/life balance is optimized. While we value powerful research results which drive our mission forward, we also value dinner with family, weekend time, and vacation time. We offer generous paid vacation and sick leave as well as family leave.

• We are collaborative and transparent – we consider ourselves a team, all moving with a common purpose. We are quick to cheer our successes, and even quicker to share and jointly problem solve our failures.

• We are in Seattle – and our office is on the water! We have mountains, we have lakes, we have four seasons, we bike to work, we have a vibrant theater scene, and we have so much else. We welcome interest from applicants from outside of the United States.

• We are friendly – chances are you will like every one of the 200+ (and growing) people who work here. We do.

Ai2 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. You may view the related Know Your Rights compliance poster and the Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision by clicking on their corresponding links.

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