Staff AI Research Engineer

Agility Robotics$216K — $338K *
Technical Services
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 7+ years of software engineering and/or AI/robotics experience.
  • 3+ years with hands-on development of learning-from-demonstration and reinforcement learning systems.
  • Proven mentoring abilities with junior engineers or researchers.
  • Experience leading complex technical projects from research to deployment.
  • Strong skills in Python and deep learning frameworks like PyTorch.
  • Familiarity with modern learning-from-demonstration tools like DiffusionPolicy.
  • Experience in robot data collection and manipulation tasks.

Responsibilities

  • Establish research execution standards for the team.
  • Mentor junior AI research engineers in project execution.
  • Align AI Research and Robotics teams on evaluation methods.
  • Review experimental designs and ensure research rigor.
  • Onboard new researchers into robot learning workflows.
  • Design and implement robust policies for humanoid robots.
  • Develop reinforcement learning infrastructure for scalable training.

Benefits

  • 401(k) plan with a 6% company match.
  • Equity in the form of company stock options.
  • 100% company-paid insurance for medical, dental, and vision.
  • Flexible unlimited PTO and 12 company holidays.
  • Generous paid parental leave programs.
  • Catered lunches and healthy snacks available at offices.
  • Professional development and tuition reimbursement opportunities.
Full Job Description
About The Role

The AI innovation team at Agility works on building and deploying next-generation robot foundation models and end-to-end policies on humanoid robots. Your goal will be to develop and test cutting-edge methods for imitation learning and reinforcement learning on humanoid robots, in order to establish the techniques necessary for humanoid robots to perform different real-world tasks. In addition to driving research direction, you will play a key role in shaping the technical roadmap for robot learning at Agility and leveling up a growing team of junior AI research engineers by providing mentorship, guiding project execution, and establishing strong research and engineering practices.
About the Work
  • Establish team-level standards for research execution, including experiment tracking, evaluation protocols, and model benchmarking.
  • Mentor and guide junior AI research engineers through project design, experiment execution, and technical problem solving.
  • Drive alignment across AI Research and Robotics teams on methods, evaluation, and deployment readiness for learned policies.
  • Review experimental design, code, and results to ensure rigor, reproducibility, and alignment with research goals.
  • Help onboard new researchers and accelerate their effectiveness in robot learning and experimental workflows.
  • Design, train, and deploy robust policies for locomotion, manipulation, and dynamic interactions with the environment.
  • Develop core reinforcement learning infrastructure, including scalable training pipelines and evaluation frameworks.
  • Design and implement new simulation environments and tasks to support training and deployment of control policies.
  • Develop, design, and test imitation learning methods.
  • Collaborate with Robotics Software and AI engineering teams to develop policies which can be transferred to production.
About You
  • 7+ years of total experience in software engineering and/or AI/robotics.
  • 3+ years of hands-on experience developing and deploying learning-from-demonstration, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, foundation models, or related robot learning systems in real-world or simulated robotics environments
  • Proven ability to mentor and develop junior engineers or researchers, raising the technical bar of a team.
  • Track record of leading complex technical initiatives and influencing technical direction from research through deployment.
  • Strong ability to translate ambiguous research problems into structured, executable work for a team.
  • Strong programming skills in Python, with proficiency in deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
  • Experience with modern learning-from-demonstration tools such as DiffusionPolicy.
  • Experience with robot data collection, training, and testing on hardware for manipulation tasks.
  • MS in Robotics, Computer Science, or a related field.
Bonus Points
  • PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, or a related field.
  • Publications in top ML or robotics conferences (e.g. NeurIPS, ICML, CoRL, RSS, ICRA).
  • Familiarity with robot simulation environments (e.g. Mujoco, Isaac Sim) and sim-to-real transfer techniques.
  • Experience with modern reinforcement learning techniques for locomotion, manipulation, and whole-body control
  • Experience with writing performant, high quality software in C++


This a hybrid position based out of one of our Salem, Pittsburgh, or Fremont offices.

The final salary offered to a successful candidate will be dependent on several factors that may include but are not limited to: market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. This range may change based on geographical location and may be modified in the future.

Anticipated Salary Range

$216,000-$338,000 USD

In addition to base pay, our competitive total rewards package consists of the following for full-time employees:
  • 401(k) Plan: Includes a 6% company match.
  • Equity: Company stock options.
  • Insurance Coverage: 100% company-paid medical, dental, vision, and short/long-term disability insurance for employees.
  • Benefit Start Date: Eligible for benefits on your first day of employment.
  • Well-Being Support: Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
  • Time Off:
    • Exempt Employees: Flexible, unlimited PTO and 12 company holidays, including a winter shutdown.
    • Non-Exempt Employees: 10 vacation days, paid sick leave, and 12 company holidays, including a winter shutdown, annually.
  • On-Site Perks: Catered lunches four times a week and a variety of healthy snacks and refreshments at our Salem and Pittsburgh locations.
  • Parental Leave: Generous paid parental leave programs.
  • Work Environment: A culture that supports flexible work arrangements.
  • Growth Opportunities: Professional development and tuition reimbursement programs.
  • Relocation Assistance: Provided for eligible roles.
  • Annual Discretionary Bonus: Provided for eligible roles.

All of our roles are U.S.-based. Applicants must have current authorization to work in the United States.

Apply Now: https://grnh.se/b444bbd04us

About Agility Robotics

Agility Robotics is a robotics company that designs and builds bipedal robots for a variety of applications. The company's robots are designed to operate in human environments, and are capable of navigating stairs, uneven terrain, and other obstacles. Agility Robotics' robots are used in a variety of industries, including logistics, delivery, and inspection. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Albany, Oregon.
Learn more about Agility Robotics
Size
50 employees
Industry
Founded
2015

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