Senior AI Research Scientist, Robotics & Embodied AI

Samsung SDS America AI Science Lab is researching the next generation of intelligent robotic systems that perceive, reason, learn, and act in the physical world. Working with multiple robot hardware partners, we develop complete embodied AI systems spanning data collection through teleoperation, learning and policy development, simulation, and deployment on physical robots in real-world environments.

We are looking for an AI Research Scientist, Robotics & Embodied AI to join our team and help advance the science behind intelligent robotic systems. You will research and develop learning-based approaches that enable robots to understand their environment, learn complex behaviors, manipulate objects, and perform tasks autonomously.

This role sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, computer vision, and embodied intelligence. You will work on problems such as robot learning, imitation learning, reinforcement learning, vision-language-action models, multimodal perception, dexterous manipulation, and learning-based control.

Unlike a traditional research role focused primarily on simulation or publications, you will have the opportunity to take research from hypothesis to experiment to physical robot deployment. You will work directly with humanoid and other robotic platforms, use teleoperation and real-world demonstrations to generate training data, develop and evaluate learning-based policies, and iterate through experiments on physical hardware.

What sets our lab apart is the combination of research freedom and real-world impact. You will work alongside a small, highly technical team where researchers have direct ownership of their work—from defining research questions and developing novel approaches to implementing experiments and evaluating results on real robots.

Samsung SDS builds and operates systems supporting manufacturing at scale across thousands of factory lines worldwide. The embodied AI capabilities we research today are being developed with this production environment in mind, with a long-term vision extending from individual intelligent robots to coordinated multi-robot systems operating in complex industrial environments.

If you are excited about advancing AI from systems that understand the digital world to systems that can perceive, reason, learn, and act in the physical world, this is an opportunity to do research that moves directly into reality.

This is an onsite position based in our Mountain View, CA location.

Responsibilities

• Conduct original research in robotics, embodied AI, physical AI, and machine learning
• Develop novel algorithms and learning approaches for intelligent robotic systems
• Research and develop methods for robot learning, imitation learning, reinforcement learning, and learning-based control
• Explore vision-language-action and multimodal models for robotic perception, reasoning, and action
• Develop approaches that enable robots to learn complex manipulation, grasping, locomotion, and interaction behaviors
• Design experiments using real-world robot platforms, simulation environments, and large-scale robotics datasets
• Develop and evaluate data collection pipelines using teleoperation, demonstrations, and other forms of human-guided robot interaction
• Train, evaluate, and deploy learning-based policies on physical robotic platforms
• Research dexterous manipulation, grasping, and contact-rich interaction for humanoid and other robotic systems
• Investigate methods for transferring learned behaviors from simulation and synthetic data to real-world robots
• Develop scalable training and evaluation pipelines for embodied AI models
• Integrate research algorithms with robot perception, sensors, actuators, and low-latency control systems
• Analyze experimental results, identify limitations, and formulate new research directions
• Collaborate with robotics engineers, AI researchers, and hardware teams to translate research concepts into working robotic systems
• Contribute to research publications, technical reports, patents, and intellectual property where appropriate
• Stay current with advances in embodied AI, foundation models, robot learning, computer vision, reinforcement learning, and related research areas
• Contribute to the architecture and long-term research direction of next-generation embodied AI systems Basic Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, AI/ML, or a related technical field, or equivalent research experience
• Strong research background in one or more areas of:
  • Robotics
  • Embodied AI
  • Robot learning
  • Reinforcement learning
  • Imitation learning
  • Computer vision
  • Multimodal AI
  • Machine learning
  • Robot manipulation
  • Motion planning and control
• Strong programming skills in Python and C++
• Hands-on experience with modern machine learning frameworks, such as PyTorch
• Experience designing and conducting research experiments with measurable results
• Experience working with robotics simulation and/or physical robotic platforms
• Strong understanding of machine learning fundamentals and experimental methodology
• Ability to independently identify research problems, formulate hypotheses, implement solutions, and evaluate results
• Must be eligible to work in the US without visa sponsorship
• Must be able and willing to commute to our office in Mountain View, CA

Preferred Qualifications

• Research experience with humanoid robots or other advanced robotic platforms
• Experience with Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, multimodal foundation models, or generative AI for robotics
• Experience with dexterous manipulation, grasping, locomotion, or contact-rich robotics
• Experience with reinforcement learning and/or imitation learning for real-world robotics
• Experience with Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, SAPIEN, PyBullet, or similar simulation environments
• Experience with ROS/ROS2
• Experience collecting and processing large-scale robot demonstration datasets
• Experience with teleoperation systems and human demonstration data
• Experience with sim-to-real transfer and domain randomization
• Experience optimizing AI inference and robotics systems for real-time deployment
• Publications in leading AI/robotics conferences or journals such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, CoRL, RSS, ICRA, or IROS
• Contributions to open-source robotics or AI projects
• Experience taking research prototypes from experimentation to robust physical systems
• Experience working with NVIDIA GPU platforms and CUDA-based AI/robotics workloads

Why Join Us

• Work on frontier Physical AI and robotics technologies
• Build systems that bridge advanced AI with real-world robotic behavior
• Collaborate with a highly technical, fast-moving engineering team
• Help shape next-generation intelligent robotics platforms from the ground up
• Solve challenging real-world problems at the intersection of AI, robotics, and autonomy

Compensation

This role offers competitive compensation package including base salary, bonus, equity, and benefits.

Expected salary range for this role in Mountain View, CA:

$230,000 – $270,000 base salary, depending on experience, interview assessment results, skills and qualification. On top of base salary this role may participate in performance bonus plan.

Samsung SDSA offers a comprehensive suite of programs to support our employees:

• Top-notch medical, dental, vision and prescription coverage
• Wellness program
• Parental leave
• 401K match and savings plan
• Flexible spending accounts
• Life insurance
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Time off
• Additional benefits

Samsung SDS America, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, marital status, genetic information, medical condition, or any other characteristic protected by law.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to participate in the job application or interview process for candidates with disabilities. Please let your recruiter know if you need an accommodation at any point during the interview process.

Certain roles are eligible for additional rewards, including annual bonus. U.S.-based employees have access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan and company match, short-term and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, and wellbeing benefits, among others. U.S.-based employees also receive, per calendar year, up to 10 scheduled paid holidays, and Paid Time Off.