Applied Researcher

About Aurora

Aurora’s mission is to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly. The Aurora Driver will create a new era in mobility and logistics, bringing a safer, more efficient, and more accessible future to everyone. At Aurora, you will tackle massively complex problems alongside other passionate, intelligent individuals, growing as an expert while expanding your knowledge.

Aurora hires talented people with diverse backgrounds who are ready to help build a transportation ecosystem that will make our roads safer, get crucial goods where they need to go, and make mobility more efficient and accessible for all.

About the Role

We’re searching for a PhD to serve as our technical pathfinder in the realm of Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models. You won't just be applying existing tech; you will be identifying the 'jagged edges'—the points of failure in current state-of-the-art models—and helping us rediscover and rebuild our architecture from the ground up.

• Architectural Exploration: Deep dive into VLM/VLA architectures to determine their viability for our specific problem sets.
• Technical Mentorship: Act as the subject matter expert and guide for an exceptionally capable engineering team eager to move into this space.
• Practical Implementation: Bridge the gap between high-level academic theory and practical, scalable applications.
• Innovation: Redesign and optimize model architectures to leverage high-performance computing environments like Aurora.

Requirements

• PhD Graduate in AI, Computer Science, or Robotics (Top-tier research lab background)
• 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
• Practical researcher: Ability to translate complex papers into production-ready code
• Collaborative Guide: Willingness to mentor existing team members and bridge the knowledge gap
• 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
• Strong programming skills in Python
• Preference for a strong depth programming in modern C++

Pay

For roles based in San Francisco, CA, Mountain View, CA, and Seattle, WA: The salary range for this position is $247,000 - $396,000 per year.

For roles based in Pittsburgh, PA: The salary range for this position is $223,000 - $357,000 per year.

Aurora’s pay ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, the successful candidate’s starting base pay will be determined based on factors including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, relevant education or training, and market conditions. The successful candidate will also be eligible for an annual bonus, equity compensation, and benefits.

Schedule

Aurora operates in a hybrid work environment where employees are in the office at least 3 days per week.

Benefits

At Aurora, we bring together extraordinarily talented and experienced people united by the strength of our values. We operate with integrity, set outrageous goals, and build a culture where we win together. Our benefits include:

• Annual bonus
• Equity compensation
• Comprehensive benefits package

Our Commitment to Safety

At the core of everything we do is our commitment to safety. Building best-in-class self-driving technology will take time, and we believe that each employee at Aurora has a role in contributing to safety, every step of the way. Aurora expects commitment to our safety policies from every employee and seeks candidates who take an active responsibility, can contribute to building an atmosphere of trust, and invest in the organization’s long-term success by prioritizing working safely, no matter what.