Research Scientist

Deft AI • San Francisco, CA

3d

About The Position

We are seeking a talented Research Scientist to join our team and contribute to the development of robot autonomy software. In this role, you will design and develop robot autonomy software stacks and algorithms to enable advanced capabilities such as grasping and dexterous behaviors in unstructured environments. You will research and implement state-of-the-art robot learning policies, including reinforcement learning and imitation learning-based techniques. Your work will involve building reliable, high-speed robot autonomy software stacks optimized for inference performance, and designing and maintaining robust data collection and curation pipelines for production robot fleets. You will also optimize robot policies for distributed training at scale and real-time edge deployment, and ship production quality, safety-critical software. A key aspect of this role is to advance the state-of-the-art in dexterous manipulation research through novel methodologies, bridging theory and practice with real customer use-cases and clear success criteria.

Requirements

• PhD or MS degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or equivalent technical discipline
• Deep expertise in machine learning fundamentals, reinforcement learning, and associated frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Ray, etc.)
• 3+ years of proven track record developing and deploying ML systems from research through production implementation
• Hands-on experience with model lifecycle management including training, deployment, and maintenance in production settings

Nice To Haves

• Authored or co-authored peer-reviewed publications in robotics or related fields
• Hands-on experience designing and implementing bimanual manipulation tech stacks with imitation learning or RL-based methods
• Background in real-time ML inference systems, simulation-to-reality transfer, or advanced reinforcement learning implementations

Responsibilities

• Design and develop robot autonomy software stack and algorithms to enable capabilities including grasping and more dexterous behaviors in unstructured environments
• Research and implement state-of-the-art robot learning policies, including reinforcement learning and imitation learning-based techniques
• Build reliable, high-speed robot autonomy software stack optimized for inference performance
• Design and maintain robust data collection and curation pipelines for production robot fleets
• Optimize robot policies for distributed training at scale and real-time edge deployment
• Ship production quality, safety-critical software
• Advance SOTA dexterous manipulation research through novel methodologies while bridging theory & practice—real customer use-cases with clear success criteria.

Benefits

• We support publishing at top robotics/ML venues and presenting at conferences (travel + time fully covered).
• Medical, dental & vision plans
• Daily meals stipend

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree