Senior Robotics Research Engineer, Robotics and AI for Drug Discovery

Details

NVIDIA's Seattle Robotics Lab is seeking a Senior Robotics Research Engineer to develop fundamental robotics technology and build real-world systems to enable automation and autonomy for molecular discovery, manufacturing, testing, and validation. The role supports NVIDIA's partnership with Eli Lilly on a co-innovation AI lab to build physical AI for wet labs with scientists in the loop.

Responsibilities

• Build digital twins of robots, laboratory environments, and scientific procedures using NVIDIA Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, and Matterix.
• Use NVIDIA Newton to simulate physics of robots, articulated rigid bodies, deformable objects, granular media, and fluids.
• Develop perception pipelines for object detection, pose estimation, and tracking using multisensory inputs (RGB, depth, force/torque, tactile) and foundation models.
• Translate experimental protocols into executable physical procedures and smooth, collision-free trajectories using VLMs and task & motion planning pipelines.
• Train robots on contact-rich manipulation tasks through imitation learning, reinforcement learning, and high-performance control.
• Build real-world systems that perform discovery, manufacturing, testing, and validation procedures with high reliability and efficiency.
• Integrate these systems into real-world biological experiment workflows.
• Collaborate with research scientists in the Seattle Robotics Lab and the NVIDIA + Lilly Co-innovation AI Lab to elevate early-stage research findings into a mature automation and autonomy stack.
• Periodically co-author publications for high-impact scientific journals and conferences.

Requirements

• PhD in Robotics, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• At least 3 years of research and engineering experience after completing the PhD; 5+ years preferred.
• Deep knowledge of both theory and practice of robotics and AI, with strong expertise in real-world robotics applications.
• Exceptional communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills; experience working as both a leader and contributor on teams.
• Exceptional programming skills in Python. Familiarity with C++, CUDA, and Warp is a plus.
• Track record of writing clean, high-quality code using software engineering best practices (unit tests, version control, CI/CD).
• Fluency in modern deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch and JAX, and experience training models on GPU clusters.
• Significant experience with robotics frameworks such as ROS2 and physics simulation frameworks such as Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, and MuJoCo.
• Comfort debugging physics simulators and renderers; selecting, setting up, maintaining, and enhancing complex robotics hardware; debugging communication systems (latency, bandwidth, race conditions); and designing robust workflows for model training and evaluation.
• Willingness to experiment with rapidly-developing robotics and AI technology (robotics foundation models, world models, agentic AI) and rapidly get up to speed on biology and chemistry fundamentals, laboratory tasks, hardware, automation standards, and safety/regulatory constraints. Direct experience in scientific and laboratory automation is a significant plus.

Areas of expertise of particular interest

• Bimanual manipulation
• Mobile manipulation and humanoid loco-manipulation
• Simulation, sim-to-real, and real-to-sim
• Multisensory perception (vision, force/torque, tactile)
• Task and motion planning
• Grasp and manipulation planning
• Imitation learning and reinforcement learning
• High-performance control
• Robotics foundation models

Compensation and benefits

• Base salary ranges (location, experience, and level dependent):
  • Level 4: 184,000 USD - 287,500 USD
  • Level 5: 224,000 USD - 356,500 USD
• Eligible for equity and benefits.
• Applications accepted at least until April 12, 2026.

Other notes

• This posting is for an existing vacancy. NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes. NVIDIA is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse work environment.