{"id":833456,"url":"https://alion.io/job/roboforce-senior-staff-ai-research-scientist-foundation-models","title":"Senior / Staff AI Research Scientist, Foundation Models","company":{"id":686554,"name":"RoboForce","domain":"roboforce.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/roboforce","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"is_intermediary":false,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"C","score":55,"open_postings":16,"ghost_share":0.75,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-09-23T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"staff","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Milpitas, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":200000,"max":360000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":360000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":4,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"CUDA","optional":false},{"name":"CUDA Toolkit","optional":false},{"name":"Diffusion Models","optional":false},{"name":"Embodied AI","optional":false},{"name":"JAX","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Multimodal AI","optional":false},{"name":"Physical AI","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":false},{"name":"Synthetic Data","optional":false},{"name":"TensorRT","optional":false},{"name":"Vision-Language-Action","optional":false},{"name":"VLM","optional":false},{"name":"World Models","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2025-11-10T16:25:24Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-07","last_verified_at":"2026-09-23T09:22:27Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":317,"trust":{"level":"ghost","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale","company_stale"],"days_open":316},"description":"Why RoboForce\nRoboForce is an AI robotics company developing Physical AI-powered Robo-Labor for dull, dirty, and dangerous work. The company's robots are engineered for demanding industrial environments, with a focus on real-world deployment and scalability.\nWe are looking for a Senior / Staff AI Research Scientist, Foundation Models to advance robotic embodied intelligence. In this role, you will develop algorithms that enable robots to understand their environment, interpret and execute tasks, and communicate seamlessly with humans - with a particular focus on building and training world models that allow robots to predict, plan, and generalize across complex physical tasks.\nResponsibilities\nDesign and deploy vision-language(-action) models (VLM/VLA) for contextual understanding and generalized robot action policies.\n\nDevelop and train world models for action-conditioned prediction, long-horizon planning, and environment simulation - enabling robots to reason about the consequences of their actions before execution.\n\nResearch approaches to improve world model fidelity using multi-modal inputs including vision, language, proprioception, and spatial representations.\n\nDevelop foundation models with spatial reasoning capabilities to achieve high-precision robotic actions.\n\nIntegrate multi-modal data sources (vision, language, speech, etc.) to enable natural human-robot communication.\n\nOptimize and deploy models as production-grade solutions on RoboForce robotic platforms.\n\nRequirements\nPhD degree in Machine Learning, Robotics, or related field, or Master's degree with 4+ years of relevant experience.\n\nProficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, JAX).\n\nExpertise in large foundation models (VLM, VLA, etc.).\n\nStrong understanding of world model architectures and action-conditioned generative modeling for robot learning.\n\nDecent understanding of multimodal models, modern ML architectures (transformers, diffusion models, etc.).\n\nRequires 5 days/week in-office collaboration with the teams.\n\nBonus Qualifications\nExperience with video generation or prediction models (e.g., diffusion-based video models, autoregressive video transformers) and their application to world modeling or synthetic data generation for robot learning.\n\nStrong publication record at top conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, ICCV, CoRL, ICRA, or equivalent).\n\nExpertise in neural network deployment (e.g., TensorRT) and GPU programming with CUDA.\n\nProven ability to design scalable experimentation and data pipelines.\n\nBenefits\nCompetitive stock options/equity programs.\n\nHealth, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) plan.\n\nVisa sponsorship and green card support for qualified candidates.\n\nLunches and dinners, a fully stocked kitchen, and regular team-building events.\n\nCompensation: Salary $200,000-$360,000 USD + Bonus + Equity\nThe base salary range above represents the expected compensation for this full-time U.S. position. Final compensation will be determined based on role scope, level, location, job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training, and may fall outside the listed range in exceptional cases.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3154,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":4,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Stock options","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Robotics"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-12T17:41:26Z"}],"liveness":{"score":4,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.138,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":316,"expected_fill_days":53,"reasons":["conf:8","stale_co","ghost","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-09-23T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":360000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/roboforce-senior-staff-ai-research-scientist-foundation-models","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/roboforce-senior-staff-ai-research-scientist-foundation-models.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-09-23T18:09:24Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers"}}