Research Scientist, Robotics at The Allen Institute for AI

Seattle, Washington, United States

The Allen Institute for AI Logo
$167,030 – $260,570Compensation
Senior (5 to 8 years), Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level
Full TimeJob Type
YesVisa
AI, RoboticsIndustries

Requirements

  • Strong foundation (typically PhD level) in one or more of: robot manipulation, planning and motion generation, RL and imitation learning, real world robot systems, simulation environments and sim2real, vision-language-action models
  • Strong publication record in AI-related areas (e.g., ICRA, RSS, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, ICLR)

Responsibilities

  • Develop and investigate core research problems in foundation models and skills for robotics
  • Contribute to the development of completely open data sets, benchmarks, and models
  • Experiment with robots in the real world
  • Work on robot manipulation, large scale training in simulated environments, vision-language-action models, and skill learning
  • Collaborate with researchers on other Ai2 teams (embodied AI, computer vision, natural language processing) and external organizations including universities
  • Lead select projects
  • Mentor interns and pre-doctoral candidates
  • Author and present scientific papers
  • Enable agents that safely navigate, manipulate objects, and follow instructions in simulation and in the real world (with real robots)
  • Make vision-language-action models more robust and capable
  • Make substantial contributions to open source projects for robust, reproducible, and distributed experimentation

Skills

Key technologies and capabilities for this role

RoboticsRobot ManipulationLarge Scale TrainingSimulated EnvironmentsVision-Language-Action ModelsSkill LearningEmbodied AIComputer VisionNatural Language Processing

Questions & Answers

Common questions about this position

What is the salary range for the Research Scientist, Robotics position?

The base salary range is $167,030 - $260,570, with generous bonus plans to provide a competitive compensation package.

Is this role fully remote, or are there on-site requirements?

Employees are expected to spend part of their time on-site in Seattle offices and may occasionally work remotely from home in the Greater Seattle area, with on-site requirements varying by position and team.

What skills and expertise are required for this Research Scientist role?

The role requires interest and expertise in robotics, focusing on core techniques in robot manipulation, large scale training in simulated environments, vision-language-action models, and skill learning.

What is the work environment and collaboration like on the Robotics team?

The team collaborates frequently with other Ai2 teams in embodied AI, computer vision, and natural language processing, and has close ties to University of Washington researchers; opportunities include leading projects, mentoring interns, and publishing in top conferences.

What makes a strong candidate for this Research Scientist position?

Strong candidates are excited about robotics research, internal and external collaborations, and opportunities to lead projects, mentor interns, author papers, and contribute to open-source tools in simulation, data generation, and benchmarking.

The Allen Institute for AI

Advances AI through research and engineering

About The Allen Institute for AI

The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) focuses on advancing artificial intelligence through research and engineering. It develops technologies that improve machine reasoning, common sense for AI, and language modeling. AI2 works on various projects, such as AllenNLP for natural language processing and EarthRanger for environmental monitoring. Unlike for-profit companies, AI2 operates as a non-profit, relying on grants and donations to fund its initiatives. This allows them to provide their research and tools to the public for free, promoting collaboration in the AI field. The goal of AI2 is to tackle significant scientific and engineering challenges to benefit society.

Seattle, WashingtonHeadquarters
2014Year Founded
N/ACompany Stage
AI & Machine LearningIndustries
201-500Employees

Benefits

Medical
401(k)
Visa Sponsorship
Time off
Catered meals & free snacks
Training & development
Tuition reimbursement
Remote & hybrid work options

Risks

Competition from OpenAI's QwQ-32B model may reduce AI2's market influence.
AI2's reliance on grants poses financial risks during economic downturns.
Open-source models may face intellectual property risks and misuse.

Differentiation

AI2 focuses on open-source models, promoting transparency and collaboration in AI development.
AI2's projects like AllenNLP and Semantic Scholar address diverse scientific and societal challenges.
AI2 operates as a non-profit, relying on grants and donations for funding.

Upsides

AI2's open-source models attract researchers, enhancing collaboration and innovation.
Tülu3 and OLMo-2 models position AI2 as leaders in open-source AI.
AI2's multimodal models meet the demand for integrated data processing in various fields.

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