Junior Research Scientist (Robotics)

AIRoA is building a large-scale humanoid robot data ecosystem, collecting one million hours of robot operation data to train Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models. This role designs and builds scalable data collection systems operating across hundreds of humanoid and mobile robots, develops semi-autonomous teleoperation systems with low latency and minimal operator workload, creates automated pipelines to deploy and evaluate trained models in simulation and on real robots, and works closely with the VLA team to integrate models onto physical platforms. Requires a Ph.D. in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science or a related field (or an M.S. with 3+ years of equivalent experience), hands-on experience with physical robotic platforms such as manipulators or humanoids, experience controlling robots with ROS/ROS2 including full-stack integration and deployment, experience with teleoperation, AR/VR interfaces, and leader-follower architectures, and strong programming proficiency in C++ and Python. Preferred: publications in top robotics venues, experience with advanced control strategies (impedance, force/torque, admittance, or MPC), tactile sensing or contact-rich manipulation experience, and experience leading large-scale robot data collection or fleet management.