Santa Clara, California
Location Flexibility: Primary Location Only
Req Id: 13655
Posting Start Date: 10/27/26
Job Description: Robotics & Physical AI Subject Matter ExpertPosition: Robotics & Physical AI Subject Matter Expert (SME)
Experience: 3-5 years of relevant industry experience
Education: Ph.D. required
Japanese Language: Preferred
Position OverviewWe are seeking a highly skilled and innovative
Robotics & Physical AI Subject Matter Expert to drive research adoption, technology development, and industry engagement in next-generation intelligent robotic systems.
The ideal candidate will possess a strong academic foundation in robotics, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems, complemented by practical industry experience developing and deploying AI-enabled robotic solutions.
This role will focus on advancing Physical AI technologies that enable machines to perceive, reason, learn, and interact intelligently with the physical world. The candidate will work closely with research teams, technology partners, and customers to translate cutting-edge research into commercially relevant applications.
Key Responsibilities1. Technical Leadership & Expertise- Serve as a subject matter expert in robotics, Physical AI, embodied intelligence, and autonomous systems.
- Provide technical leadership in AI-driven perception, planning, reasoning, control, and robotic manipulation.
- Evaluate emerging technologies, including Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, foundation models for robotics, reinforcement learning, and imitation learning.
- Identify opportunities for applying Physical AI to industrial automation, manufacturing, logistics, and other enterprise applications.
2. Research & Technology Development- Collaborate with research scientists and engineers to develop advanced robotics and Physical AI solutions.
- Translate academic advances into practical technologies, prototypes, and proof-of-concept demonstrations.
- Support the integration of AI models with robotic hardware, sensors, actuators, and real-time control systems.
- Evaluate simulation environments, digital twins, and sim-to-real transfer techniques for robotic learning and deployment.
3. Industry Engagement & Collaboration- Engage with enterprise customers and technology partners to understand business requirements and identify opportunities for robotics and Physical AI adoption.
- Serve as a technical advisor in discussions with industry stakeholders and research institutions.
- Collaborate with international research and engineering teams, particularly in Japan, to align technology development with business and research priorities.
- Represent the organization at technical conferences, research forums, and industry events.
4. Technology Strategy & Innovation- Monitor emerging trends and competitive developments in robotics and Physical AI.
- Contribute to technology roadmaps, research priorities, and strategic initiatives.
- Assess the technical feasibility, scalability, and commercial potential of emerging robotic AI technologies.
- Develop technical presentations, white papers, and demonstrations for internal and external audiences.
Required Qualifications- Ph.D. in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related discipline.
- 3-5 years of relevant industry experience in robotics, autonomous systems, Physical AI, or applied AI research and development.
- Strong understanding of robotic perception, motion planning, manipulation, control systems, and machine learning.
- Experience with deep learning, reinforcement learning, or foundation models for robotics.
- Hands-on familiarity with robotic software frameworks and simulation tools, such as ROS/ROS 2, NVIDIA Isaac Sim, Gazebo, or MuJoCo.
- Proficiency in Python and experience with machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
- Demonstrated ability to bridge fundamental research and real-world engineering applications.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, and technical presentation skills.
- Ability to collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary and geographically distributed teams.
Preferred Qualifications- Japanese language proficiency, particularly the ability to communicate with technical and research teams in Japan.
- Experience collaborating with Japanese technology companies, universities, or research organizations.
- Knowledge of Vision-Language-Action models, multimodal foundation models, and embodied AI.
- Experience with humanoid robotics, industrial robotics, mobile manipulation, or autonomous mobile robots.
- Familiarity with robotic simulation, synthetic data generation, and sim-to-real learning.
- Published research in leading robotics or AI conferences such as ICRA, IROS, RSS, NeurIPS, or CoRL.
- Experience developing proof-of-concept solutions in collaboration with enterprise customers or industry partners.
Ideal Candidate ProfileThe successful candidate will combine
deep technical expertise, hands-on industry experience, and strong communication skills. They will be equally comfortable discussing emerging robotics research with leading scientists, engaging engineering teams on implementation challenges, and articulating the business value of Physical AI to customers and senior executives.
An interest in international collaboration, particularly with Japanese research and technology organizations, will be a significant advantage.
#Americas_Priority
Relocation Supported: No
Visa Sponsorship Approved: Yes
