Principal Applied Scientist - Robotics

About the Role

The IC4 Applied Scientist for Robotics, Perception, and Embodied AI will serve as a senior technical leader responsible for defining, prototyping, and delivering AI capabilities for commercially viable robotic systems. This role partners across science, software engineering, product, and hardware teams to identify high-impact opportunities, translate ambiguous product needs into research and engineering roadmaps, and guide end-to-end solution development from data collection and experimentation through production deployment.

The scientist will lead applied research in multi-sensor fusion, real-time signals, perception, multimodal reasoning, reinforcement learning, and action-conditioned planning, with a strong bias for hands-on execution and full-stack delivery.

Responsibilities

• Solution Identification:
  • Collaborate with science, engineering, and product teams to identify business and product needs, promote innovation, and drive model implementations.
  • Perform literature reviews and state-of-the-art analyses to understand problems.
  • Create a science plan to address product and/or business problems.
  • Serve as a leading contributor in identifying solutions based on the scientific process (e.g., modeling approaches, evaluation techniques, data collections).
• Solution Development – Applied Research:
  • Develop and pilot research proofs-of-concept (POCs) or experiments to demonstrate feasibility and gather supporting evidence.
  • Identify and prepare datasets for applied research, ensuring quality and identifying gaps.
  • Design and conduct research on new theories, tools, and methodologies to advance the field and apply state-of-the-art technologies to products.
• Solution Development:
  • Design, develop, and optimize ML and AI technologies, including model training, fine-tuning, and computation optimizations.
  • Design and review the architecture of ML/AI solutions (data, model, training, evaluation) using best practices.
• Solution Development – Articulating Research Insights:
  • Identify meaningful insights from data and metadata through analysis and experiments.
  • Interpret and communicate insights to cross-functional audiences.
  • Create patents, white papers, or other technical documentation related to applied research outcomes.
• Solution Delivery – Coding and Documentation:
  • Develop efficient, bug-free, medium-complexity code from scratch and maintain existing codebases.
  • Implement best practices for version control, code review, and deployment.
  • Build and maintain professional documentation for technical processes (experimentation, data collection, model building).
  • Test and review code for bugs.
• Solution Delivery:
  • Collaborate with technical teams to ensure timely delivery and integration of solutions.
  • Work with software and machine learning engineers to deploy solutions into production.
  • Participate in peer reviews of solutions prior to delivery.
  • Coordinate with team members for solution delivery.
  • Ensure delivered solutions successfully address product and/or business problems.
  • Collaborate with operational teams to evaluate and monitor solutions in production.
• Building Research Capability – Research Excellence:
  • Demonstrate advanced knowledge in at least one business-critical applied research technology area.
  • Apply advanced domain knowledge and industry best practices to applied research.
• Building Research Capability – Research Community Presence:
  • Lead the publication and presentation of research findings in conferences and industry outlets.
  • Participate in the scientific community by providing peer review and feedback.
  • Establish collaboration with internal research labs.
• Planning & Execution:
  • Manage and coordinate moderately complex tasks, monitoring timelines and deliverables.
  • Delegate, monitor, and prioritize work across multiple projects, providing technical oversight.
• Collaboration & Partnership:
  • Collaborate across the organization to align on expectations and achieve shared objectives.
  • Leverage understanding of business leaders, stakeholders, and customers to ensure solutions meet their needs.
  • Support inclusivity by actively seeking and listening to diverse perspectives.
• Problem Solving:
  • Identify and address moderately complex issues by analyzing data and information.
  • Proactively escalate unresolved or critical issues with thorough assessments and potential solutions.
  • Review, contribute to, and document problem-solving strategies.
• Continuous Learning:
  • Pursue learning opportunities to expand knowledge and skills in new areas.
  • Stay abreast of industry trends and best practices.
  • Proactively seek and leverage feedback and training to improve skills.
  • Coach and mentor junior team members to foster continuous learning.
• Continuous Improvement:
  • Develop and recommend updates to processes, protocols, and workflows to increase efficiency.
  • Solicit feedback on ideas for alternative approaches and methods.
• Performance and Development:
  • Contribute to the talent development pipeline by participating in candidate interviews and assessments.

Qualifications

Certain U.S.-based or U.S. customer/client-facing roles may require compliance with applicable requirements, such as immunization, occupational health mandates, and/or drug testing.

Pay

Hiring range in USD: $126,200 - $264,100 per year. May be eligible for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Life insurance and AD&D
• Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)
• Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits
• 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match
• Paid time off:
  • Flexible Vacation for salaried employees (13 days annually for the first three years, 18 days thereafter; accrual prorated for part-time employees working 20-34 hours per week)
  • 11 paid holidays
  • 72 hours of paid sick leave upon hire, refreshing annually with a maximum cap of 112 hours
  • Paid parental leave
• Adoption assistance
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Financial planning and group legal services
• Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner, and pet insurance