Senior Robotics Research Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

At Toyota Research Institute (TRI), we’re on a mission to improve the quality of human life. We’re developing new tools and capabilities to amplify the human experience. To lead this transformative shift in mobility, we’ve built a world-class team advancing the state of the art in AI, robotics, driving, and material sciences.

The Vision

We envision a future with robots that help people in our real environments with interactions that allow robots to understand, adapt, and grow with us. We believe that robots should and will work well alongside people: helping where wanted, and ultimately enabling people to spend more time on the activities they enjoy most. To achieve this, robots need to be able to operate reliably in messy, unstructured environments. We must also create robots that people can understand, collaborate with, and rely on.

 

The Team
Our goal is to revolutionize the field of robotics, enabling long-horizon dexterous behaviors to be efficiently taught, learned, and improved over time in diverse, real-world environments with people.

 

Our team has deep cross-functional expertise across hardware, simulation, perception, controls, and machine learning. We measure our success in terms of fundamental capabilities development, as well as research impact via open-source software and publications. Come join us and let’s make general-purpose robots a reality.

Some of our ongoing work is highlighted here:

 

Some of our ongoing work is highlighted here.

 

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a driven engineer with a “make it happen” mentality. The ideal candidate is able to operate independently when needed, but works well as part of a larger integrated group at the cutting edge of state-of-the-art robotics and machine learning. If our mission of revolutionizing robotics through machine learning resonates with you, get in touch and let’s talk about how we can create the next generation of AI-powered capable robots together!

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the design of novel robotic systems through software development, including control, perception, planning, with classical and learned methods; applying state-of-the-art methods, or creating new ones as needed.

• Enable research into learned models by working with hardware engineers, technicians, and researchers to build and integrate new robotics technologies.

• Work with robotics research scientists toward applying and integrating research toward more robust, perceptive, and scalable systems.

• Design and integrate creative system solutions; combining actuation, structure, and sensing, as well as new mechanisms and sensory for human-scale manipulation and dexterity.

Qualifications

• B.S. or higher in an engineering related field and 6+ years of relevant industry experience.

• Strong software engineering skills; very comfortable with working in mixed Python and C++ codebase.

• The ability to design and deploy integrated systems that complement and bring to bear advanced software and learning algorithms.

• Deep multi-functional understanding of all levels of a robotic system including both hardware and software, with experience operating robots.

• Experience with a full-stack approach to robotics, including familiarity with electromechanical systems and actuation, as well as practical software design.

• Familiarity with physical/embodied AI methods and training machine-learned policies.

• Experience with inter- and in-process communication, parallelism, logging, networking and data systems, and common methods.

• Familiarity with classical motion planning and robotic control.

Bonus Qualifications

• A track record of relevant publications in top international conferences (RSS, NeurIPS, ICML, CoRL, ICRA, IROS, …)

• Background or familiarity with some of the following: motion control and actuation, whole-body control, robot teleoperation methods, common communication protocols, research robotic arms/systems, visual perception and depth sensors, machine learning, robotic simulation, force and tactile sensing systems, haptic interfaces.

The pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $162,000 and $232,875/year for Massachusetts-based roles. Base pay offered will depend on multiple individualized factors, including, but not limited to, a candidate's experience, skills, job-related knowledge, and market location. TRI offers a generous benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) eligibility, paid time off benefits (including vacation, sick time, and parental leave), and an annual cash bonus structure. Additional details regarding these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

Please reference this Candidate Privacy Notice to inform you of the categories of personal information that we collect from individuals who inquire about and/or apply to work for Toyota Research Institute, Inc. or its subsidiaries, including Toyota A.I. Ventures GP, L.P., and the purposes for which we use such personal information.

 

TRI is fueled by a diverse and inclusive community of people with unique backgrounds, education and life experiences. We are dedicated to fostering an innovative and collaborative environment by living the values that are an essential part of our culture. We believe diversity makes us stronger and are proud to provide Equal Employment Opportunity for all, without regard to an applicant’s race, color, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, religion, marital status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state or local laws.

 

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.