Research Scientist (Robotics)

The AI Robot Association (AIRoA) is collecting one million hours of humanoid robot operation data and training Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models in the open. This research scientist role focuses on the robotics side: the systems that gather data from robots and test models on real machines.

The scientist builds scalable data collection systems for hundreds of humanoid and mobile robots and semi-autonomous teleoperation systems with low latency and little operator workload. The role also creates automated pipelines to deploy trained models and evaluate them in simulation and on real robots, working closely with the VLA team to integrate new models onto physical platforms.

Applicants need a PhD in robotics, mechanical engineering, computer science or a related field, or an MS with at least three years of equivalent industry or research experience. They need extensive hands-on work with physical platforms such as UR5, Franka Emika, HSR or Spot, real-robot control with ROS or ROS 2 including full-stack integration, experience with teleoperation, AR/VR interfaces and leader-follower setups, and strong C++ and Python. Candidates with only theoretical research are not considered. Publications at robotics conferences are preferred.