Physical AI Engineer, Lead

Booz Allen Hamilton•Washington, DC

9d•$112,800 - $257,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As a Physical AI leader at Booz Allen, you will shape, design, and deploy next-generation robotic and multimodal AI capabilities for complex national security, defense, and emerging technology missions. You will lead multidisciplinary engineering teams, build scalable physical AI systems, and drive technical strategy across autonomy, reinforcement learning, world modeling, simulation-to-real transfer, robotic perception, and embodied AI. You will partner with mission leaders to translate cutting-edge research into operational, production-grade capabilities. The role involves leading the architecture, development, and deployment of physical AI systems for autonomous systems and embodied agents; designing models for perception, planning, motion control, manipulation, navigation, and sensor fusion; and developing large-scale training pipelines using simulation, synthetic data, imitation learning, and reinforcement learning. You will integrate multimodal AI into real-world physical AI platforms, translate research innovations into production-ready solutions, mentor senior engineers, establish engineering standards, collaborate with stakeholders on strategy and emerging technologies, and represent Booz Allen in industry and client forums. The position is hybrid in Washington, DC. Applicants must be able to obtain a Secret clearance. A security investigation may be required, along with eligibility for access to classified information.

Requirements

At least 8 years of experience developing AI, robotics, autonomous systems, or machine learning solutions.
Experience delivering production AI systems from concept through deployment.
Experience with one or more of reinforcement learning, imitation learning, robot learning, computer vision, planning, autonomous navigation, manipulation, sensor fusion, multimodal AI, or foundation models.
Experience with Python, C++, and modern AI frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, or Ray.
Experience with robotic middleware and simulators such as ROS, ROS2, Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, or Gazebo.
Ability to obtain a Secret clearance.
Master's degree.

Nice To Haves

Experience publishing research in robotics, embodied AI, or machine learning.
Experience with robot foundation models, world modeling, and digital twins.
Experience in humanoid robotics, dexterous manipulation, or mobile robotics.
Experience with distributed training, GPU acceleration, and edge or embedded deployment.
Experience contributing to open-source AI or robotics ecosystems.
Doctorate degree in computer science, robotics, AI, electrical engineering, or mechanical engineering.

Responsibilities

Lead the architecture, development, and deployment of physical AI systems for autonomous systems and embodied agents.
Design and implement models for perception, planning, motion control, manipulation, navigation, and sensor fusion.
Develop large-scale training pipelines using simulation, synthetic data generation, imitation learning, and reinforcement learning.
Integrate multimodal AI, including vision, language, and action models, into real-world physical AI platforms.
Translate research innovations, including robot learning, foundation models, and world models, into production-ready solutions.
Mentor and guide senior engineers and establish engineering best practices and technical standards.
Partner with business, research, and mission stakeholders to define strategy and assess emerging technologies.
Represent Booz Allen in industry forums, technical exchanges, and client engagements.