Principal Physical AI Distributed Systems Researcher

What You’ll Do / Responsibilities

• Innovate new solutions that will form the foundation of secure, adaptable, and fast distributed systems
• Work with the business-development team to define research areas of interest and define interesting research proposal topics
• Compose research proposals and report progress to research sponsors
• Execute and lead research contracts to push our technology forward
• Serve as Principal Investigator and/or Staff Member on externally-funded research contracts
• Actively interface with research project sponsors, customers, research partners, and prospects
• Develop expertise in emerging technology and share your insights across RTI
• Communicate technical innovations through papers and presentations
• Support the transition of promising technical innovations to product including customer trials, coordinating with product management, and working closely with the engineering team to design, develop, test and support this transition

What We’re Looking For / Requirements

• Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering or related field
• Appropriate research expertise includes electromechanical, intelligent or autonomous systems, distributed systems, physical agentic AI, or computer networking
• An experimental thesis or real-world experience with physical applications or distributed systems research
• Excellent written communications skills, and evidence of research publications
• Experience writing and winning proposals, and research project management
• Solid programming skills and experience with AI-assisted software development
• Ability to work successfully / actively engage with a highly distributed team

🌟 What We Offer You

• Flexible working schedule
• Hybrid working + Home Office Stipend
• Flexible Paid Time Off + “Real Vacation Bonus”
• Competitive compensation including annual bonus based on individual and company performance

🌍 What We Do / About RTI

Real-Time Innovations (RTI) is the data-streaming company for intelligent distributed systems. RTI Connext® software is the critical nervous system for over 2,000 designs across Aerospace and Defense, MedTech, Automotive, and Robotics. Connext is the only real-time data streaming platform that can both control demanding physical systems and integrate them with cloud applications.

RTI helps organizations develop, deploy, and scale intelligence and physical AI from edge to cloud, faster. RTI Runs a Smarter World™. Learn more at www.rti.com.

Our software runs the largest power plants on the continent, connects perception to control in over 300 autonomous vehicle designs, drives the new generation of medical robotics, coordinates teams of robots, runs in over 2 million cars, manages NASA’s launch control, and underlies Canada’s air traffic control.

RTI is a mid-sized company with outsized impact. What we do matters. We are the best-positioned company in the world to create the future of smart distributed systems. We are building an edge-to-cloud physical data streaming platform, capable of low-level machine control, AI-driven smart operation, modern agentic coding, and cloud orchestration. It must connect physical devices together, share data between machines and cloud infrastructure, and enable fast, reliable system development.

Our mission is to usher in the new intelligent world. RTI is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age status as a protected veteran, or status as a qualified individual with disability. We have a collaborative and inclusive environment where your talent, aptitude, and attitude determine opportunity to grow. Our culture embraces transparency, learning, and fun. We offer an attractive compensation package consisting of competitive salary, benefits, vacation bonuses, and equity participation.