Company Overview At Skild AI, we are building the world's first general purpose robotic intelligence that is robust and adapts to unseen scenarios without failing. We believe massive scale through data-driven machine learning is the key to unlocking these capabilities for the widespread deployment of robots within society. Our team consists of individuals with varying levels of experience and backgrounds, from new graduates to domain experts. Relevant industry experience is important, but ultimately less so than your demonstrated abilities and attitude. We are looking for passionate individuals who are eager to explore uncharted waters and contribute to our innovative projects. Position Overview We are looking for a Research Engineer who is passionate about delivering results in the real world. As a member of the post-training team, you’ll be responsible for improving Skild foundation models and deploying them onto robots in the field. You’ll work with customers and deployment data to deliver reliable robot behavior in real-world environments, ensuring our systems are safe, efficient, and robust under operational constraints. We work across the final mile of robotics: turning strong lab performance into dependable customer deployments and continuous improvement. By bridging this gap, you will define the standard for how autonomous systems scale from experimental prototypes into indispensable global infrastructure.
Responsibilities Research, post-train and evaluate large deep learning models for robotic manipulation tasks. Develop frameworks to continuously improve robot behaviors. Collaborate closely with our product teams to source and iterate on customer
requirements to ensure technical alignment for on-site deployments. Own scenario setup and data collection methodologies, managing the operational lifecycle for unique customer use-cases. Work with our robotics teams to maintain and ensure robots are deployment-ready and execute full-stack software and hardware deployments at customer sites. Build robust testing and evaluation pipelines for tracking model improvements and corner cases. Preferred
Qualifications BS, MS or PhD degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. Proficiency in Python and at least one deep learning library such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, etc. Deep technical knowledge in computer vision and deep learning for robotics, including reinforcement and imitation learning. Prior experience working with large-scale model training. Prior experience developing and deploying ML models or software on real robots. Prior experience with ROS/ROS2 or other robotics middleware platforms.
Bonus if you have experience working with customers and deploying real-world robotics applications.
Bonus if you have experience leveraging LLMs to accelerate development and solve complex engineering problems. Base Salary Range $100,000 — $300,000 USD
Skild AI is building the world's first general-purpose robotic intelligence — an omnibodied AI brain that can be deployed into any hardware platform, from humanoid robots to warehouse automation systems to quadrupeds. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, Skild AI takes a fundamentally different approach to the robotics race: rather than building a single robot, they've created a platform-agnostic foundation model that makes any robot a dramatically better version of itself.
The company operates at the intersection of massive-scale machine learning and physical robotics, believing that data-driven AI is the key to unlocking robust robotic intelligence that adapts to unseen scenarios without failing. Their customers include major technology companies like Amazon and NVIDIA, who integrate Skild's brain into their own hardware platforms.
With over $1.8 billion in funding from world-class investors including SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, NVIDIA, Bezos Expeditions, and Samsung, Skild AI has grown from a 12-person team to nearly 200 employees in under two years. The company also pursues strategic acquisitions — such as Fetch Robotics — to expand their hardware footprint and demonstrate the transformative power of their AI when deployed into existing platforms.
Skild AI fosters a fast-paced, high-ownership startup culture where team members work directly with founders and have outsized impact. The founding team emerged from CMU's robotics ecosystem, and the company values demonstrated ability and attitude over pedigree, welcoming individuals from new graduates to domain experts who are passionate about exploring uncharted territory in embodied AI.
Salary
$100,000 - $300,000
Location
San Mateo, CA
Total raised
$1.8B
Last stage
Series C
Investors
No applications, no recruiter spam. Just the intro.
A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.
I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.
If they’re a yes, I book the chat. You show up — that’s the whole job-hunt.