Embodied AI / VLA Research Engineer

Maxinsights

  • Santa Clara, California
  • 28 days ago

    Highlights

    You will work across multimodal perception, robot control, long-horizon task planning, large-scale robot data, and model deployment. 1+ years of relevant industry or research experience in machine learning, robotics, computer vision, embodied AI, or a related field.

    Numbers & Facts

    LocationSanta Clara, California

    Description

    Job Description:

    Position Overview

    In this role, you will work on the research, training, optimization, and real-world deployment of embodied AI models, including Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, World Models, and related robotics foundation models.

    You will work across multimodal perception, robot control, long-horizon task planning, large-scale robot data, and model deployment. This is a highly hands-on role that involves both model development and real-world robotic system integration.

    Key Responsibilities

    Embodied AI Model Development

    • Research and develop Vision-Language-Action (VLA), World Model, and other embodied AI foundation models.

    • Work on areas including:

      • Robotic manipulation

      • Multimodal perception and control

      • Long-horizon task planning

      • Vision-language-action reasoning

      • Robot-environment interaction

    • Develop and optimize models for real-world robotic applications.

    • Translate research ideas into practical models and systems that can operate reliably on physical robots.

    Foundation Model Training & Optimization

    • Train and optimize embodied AI foundation models using large-scale real-robot datasets and egocentric human demonstration data.

    • Design approaches for incorporating multimodal inputs such as:

      • Vision

      • Force

      • Tactile sensing

      • Proprioception

      • Other robot and environmental signals

    • Develop and evaluate multimodal fusion architectures.

    • Conduct model training, evaluation, benchmarking, and performance optimization.

    • Analyze model performance and identify opportunities to improve training efficiency, generalization, and real-world performance.

    Robotics Data Pipeline

    • Build and improve large-scale robotics data pipelines for model training.

    • Develop processes for:

      • Data cleaning

      • Data filtering

      • Resampling

      • Data augmentation

      • Data quality evaluation

    • Design scalable data pipelines capable of supporting large volumes of robot and human demonstration data.

    • Work closely with data and robotics teams to improve dataset quality and training efficiency.

    Model Deployment & Real-Robot Testing

    • Deploy trained models to physical robot systems.

    • Perform real-world robot debugging, testing, and performance optimization.

    • Diagnose issues across models, sensors, software, and robotic hardware.

    • Iterate between model training and real-world testing to improve system performance.

    • Help ensure models operate reliably and consistently in real-world environments.

    Qualifications

    Required

    • 1+ years of relevant industry or research experience in machine learning, robotics, computer vision, embodied AI, or a related field.

    • Strong understanding of deep learning and modern machine learning methods.

    • Experience with PyTorch or similar deep learning frameworks.

    • Experience training and evaluating machine learning models.

    • Strong programming skills in Python and familiarity with relevant ML/robotics tooling.

    • Understanding of multimodal learning, computer vision, robotics, or related areas.

    • Ability to work in a fast-paced startup environment and take ownership of technical problems from research through implementation.

    • Strong problem-solving and debugging skills.

    Strong Plus

    Real-World Robotics Deployment

    • Experience deploying and debugging machine learning models on physical robot systems.

    • Ability to bring models from development into real-world robotic environments.

    • Experience troubleshooting and stabilizing robotic systems in production or experimental environments.

    Multimodal / VLA Models

    • Experience working with force, tactile, or other multimodal sensing.

    • Experience designing or training multimodal fusion models.

    • Hands-on experience with VLA models, including model design, training, evaluation, or real-world applications.

    • Experience with robotic manipulation or embodied AI systems.

    Large-Scale Distributed Training

    • Experience with large-scale distributed model training.

    • Familiarity with DDP, DeepSpeed, FSDP, or similar distributed training frameworks.

    • Experience optimizing training performance, GPU utilization, memory usage, or training throughput.

    • Experience working with large-scale datasets and distributed data pipelines.

    Ideal Candidate

    We are looking for an engineer who is excited about the intersection of foundation models and physical robotics.

    The ideal candidate is:

    • Hands-on and comfortable moving between research, coding, experimentation, and real-world robot testing.

    • Interested in solving problems that cannot be addressed through simulation or software alone.

    • Comfortable working with large-scale datasets and modern foundation-model architectures.

    • Able to take ownership of a problem from data training evaluation deployment real-world iteration.

    • Comfortable working in an early-stage environment where priorities can move quickly.

    • Curious about emerging VLA, World Model, and embodied AI research and able to translate new ideas into working systems.

    Why Join MaxInsights?

    • Work directly on embodied AI and robotics foundation models.

    • Work with large-scale real-world robotics and human demonstration data.

    • Gain hands-on experience across the full AI development lifecycle, from data pipelines to real-robot deployment.

    • Work in a fast-moving startup environment with significant ownership and technical autonomy.

    • Collaborate with teams working at the forefront of robotics and foundation-model development.

    Default Benefits:

    • Health insurance

    • Vision care

    • Dental coverage

    • 401(k)

    • Paid holidays

    • PTO (Paid Time Off)

    • Sick leave

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