Senior Research Scientist, Multimodal Foundation Models and Robotics

Details

We are looking for a Senior Research Scientist focused on multimodal foundation models and robotics to join the Generalist Embodied Agent Research (GEAR) group at NVIDIA. The mission is to build general-purpose embodied agents and humanoid robot foundation models that learn to explore and master complex skills across virtual and physical worlds. The team produces work on multimodal foundation models, large-scale robot learning, game AI, and physical simulation (examples: Eureka, VIMA, Voyager, MineDojo, MimicPlay, Prismer, Project GR00T).

Responsibilities

• Design and implement novel AI algorithms and models for general-purpose humanoid robots and embodied agents.
• Develop large-scale AI training and inference methods for foundation models.
• Optimize and deploy AI models in physical simulation and on robot hardware.
• Collaborate with research and engineering teams across NVIDIA to transfer research into products and services.

Requirements

Education

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent research experience.

Experience & Technical Skills

• Minimum ~5 years of relevant work/research experience across multimodal foundation models and/or robotics.

Multimodal Foundation Models:

• Hands-on training experience and publications in topics such as large language models (LLMs), large vision-language models, video generative models and diffusion algorithms, or action-based transformers.
• Strong engineering skills in rapid prototyping and model training frameworks (PyTorch, Jax, TensorFlow, etc.). Python is required; C++ and CUDA proficiency are a strong plus.
• Experience working with large-scale machine learning/AI systems and compute infrastructure.

Robotics:

• Hands-on training experience and publications in robot learning (reinforcement learning, imitation learning, classical control methods).
• Strong programming skills in Python and C++; familiarity with ROS and ML frameworks like PyTorch.
• Deep understanding of robot kinematics, dynamics, sensors, and control methods (PID, model predictive control, whole-body control).
• Ability to safely operate robot hardware, lab equipment, and tools; experience with robot hardware design and hands-on building.
• Familiarity with physics simulation frameworks such as MuJoCo and Isaac Sim.

Benefits

• Base salary range (varies by level and location):
  • Level 4: 184,000 USD - 299,000 USD
  • Level 5: 224,000 USD - 356,500 USD
• Eligible for equity and additional benefits (see NVIDIA benefits information).
• Applications accepted at least until November 9, 2025.
• NVIDIA is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity in hiring and promotion practices.