Senior Robotics Research Scientist

About the role

The Seattle Robotics Lab is part of NVIDIA's mission to build the essential technology that enables any company to become a robotics company. We focus on fundamental and applied robotics research, including perception, planning, control, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, and simulation.

Responsibilities

• Developing algorithms, models, and methods for robotic manipulation and loco-manipulation, for both industrial and household applications;
• Integrating these methods into real-world robotic manipulation systems, including those consisting of collaborative robot arms, industrial robot arms, mobile manipulators, humanoids, and dexterous hands;
• Co-leading and contributing to multi-person research projects that require a diverse set of skills across the robotics and machine learning stack;
• Engaging with the academic community through high-impact publications, conferences, workshops, and code releases;
• Collaborating with product managers and engineering teams to transfer your research into NVIDIA products that will have real-world impact;
• Mentoring interns and more junior research scientists and engineers.

Requirements

• A PhD in Robotics, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience);
• At least 3 years of research experience after completing your PhD; 5+ years is preferred;
• Deep knowledge of both the theory and practice of robotics and AI, with a strong interest in connecting your work to real-world robotics applications;
• A proven track record of research excellence, with work published in top robotics and AI conferences and journals such as RSS, CoRL, ICRA, IROS, IJRR, T-RO, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, and EMNLP;
• Exceptional communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills, with significant experience working on teams as both a leader and a contributor;
• Exceptional programming skills in Python; in addition, familiarity with C++, CUDA, and Warp is a plus;
• Significant experience with robotics frameworks such as ROS2 and physics simulation frameworks such as Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, and MuJoCo;
• Deep comfort in working through the complexities of simulation and real-world robotics, including debugging physics simulators and renderers under rapid development; selecting, setting up, maintaining, and enhancing complex robotics hardware; debugging communication systems; and designing robust workflows for model training and evaluation.

Qualifications

• Experience with one or more of the following research areas and applications, which are of particular interest:
• Bimanual and dexterous manipulation
• Mobile manipulation and humanoid loco-manipulation
• Multisensory perception (e.g., vision, tactile, and force/torque sensing)
• Simulation, sim-to-real, and real-to-sim
• Vision-language-action (VLA) models, including architectural advancements, large-scale training, and test-time reasoning
• Industrial applications, such as bin-picking, kitting, and assembly

Skills

• Strong research and engineering skills;
• Exceptional communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills;
• Exceptional programming skills in Python;
• Familiarity with C++, CUDA, and Warp;
• Significant experience with robotics frameworks such as ROS2 and physics simulation frameworks such as Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, and MuJoCo;
• Deep comfort in working through the complexities of simulation and real-world robotics;
• Experience with one or more of the following research areas and applications, which are of particular interest;
• Bimanual and dexterous manipulation;
• Mobile manipulation and humanoid loco-manipulation;
• Multisensory perception (e.g., vision, tactile, and force/torque sensing);
• Simulation, sim-to-real, and real-to-sim;
• Vision-language-action (VLA) models, including architectural advancements, large-scale training, and test-time reasoning;
• Industrial applications, such as bin-picking, kitting, and assembly;

Benefits

The Seattle Robotics Lab is currently located near the University of Washington and is moving to a new office in the vibrant Fremont neighborhood in 2026. Widely considered to be one of the technology world’s most desirable employers, NVIDIA has some of the most forward-thinking and hardworking people in the world inventing the future for us. Are you a creative and collaborative researcher interested in seeking new challenges? If so, we want to hear from you!

Pay

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 192,000 USD - 304,750 USD for Level 4, and 224,000 USD - 356,500 USD for Level 5.

Schedule

NVIDIA is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.