Research Scientist, Robotics Research - PhD New College Grad 2026

at Nvidia

USD 168,000-264,500 per year

JUNIOR

✅ On-site

Tech Stack
Tag name is followed by "@" symbol and proficiency level value. About proficiency levels:

1-2 — basic awareness. Minimal hands-on experience, and a rudimentary understanding of the technology's purpose;

3-6 — daily use. Comfortable and regular usage, capable of handling common tasks and challenges related to the technology;

7-9 — you are an expert, you can teach others, you know all the pitfalls and tricks;

10 — exceptional knowledge, comprehensive understanding, and adeptness in all aspects of the technology, including advanced problem-solving. Think twice before claiming or demanding such level.

AI @ 6 Algorithms CUDA @ 2 Communication @ 8 Debugging @ 3 Deep Learning @ 5 JAX @ 5 Machine Learning @ 3 PyTorch @ 5 Python @ 8 Reinforcement Learning Robotics @ 3

Details

NVIDIA's Seattle Robotics Lab develops fundamental and applied robotics research across perception, planning, control, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, and simulation. The team works to transfer research into NVIDIA robotics and simulation products, including Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, Isaac Manipulator, Cosmos, GR00T-N, and the Newton physics simulation engine.

The lab is seeking research scientists with outstanding research and engineering skills, a proven research track record, strong supporting references, and a team-first approach.

Responsibilities

Develop algorithms, models, and methods for robotic manipulation and loco-manipulation for industrial and household applications.
Integrate methods into real-world robotic manipulation systems, including collaborative and industrial robot arms, mobile manipulators, humanoids, and dexterous hands.
Contribute to multi-person research projects spanning the robotics and machine learning stack.
Engage with the academic community through high-impact publications, conferences, workshops, and code releases.
Collaborate with product managers and engineering teams to transfer research into NVIDIA products.
Mentor interns joining NVIDIA during their PhD programs.

Requirements

Completing a PhD in Robotics, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
Strong research track record, with publications in top robotics and AI conferences and journals such as RSS, CoRL, ICRA, IROS, IJRR, T-RO, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, and EMNLP.
Exceptional Python programming skills.
Proficiency with modern deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX, robotics frameworks such as ROS or ROS2, and physics simulation frameworks such as Isaac Sim/Lab or MuJoCo.
Familiarity with C++, CUDA, and Warp is a plus.
Exceptional communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills, with significant experience working on teams.
Ability to work through the complexities of simulation and real-world robotics, including debugging physics simulators and renderers, maintaining and enhancing complex robotics hardware, debugging real-world communication systems, and designing robust workflows for model training and evaluation.

Research Areas of Interest

Bimanual and dexterous manipulation
Mobile manipulation and humanoid loco-manipulation
Multisensory perception, including vision, tactile, and force/torque sensing
Simulation, sim-to-real, and real-to-sim
Vision-language-action models, including architectural advancements, large-scale training, and test-time reasoning
Industrial applications such as bin-picking, kitting, and assembly

The Seattle Robotics Lab is located in a new office in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. This is a full-time position. NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes and is an equal opportunity employer.