Senior / Staff AI Research Engineer, Real-Time Inference

The role

You will drive the full stack of model optimization to deploy high-performance AI models on edge compute platforms. This includes CUDA kernel engineering, quantization, and compression for RoboForce robots.

What you will do

• Develop and optimize inference pipelines for embodied AI models targeting real-time execution on edge hardware.
• Implement CUDA-level optimizations including custom kernels, memory layout tuning, and hardware-aware graph compilation.
• Apply and advance model compression techniques like quantization, pruning, distillation, and structured sparsity.
• Profile and debug end-to-end inference stacks using tools such as NSight, TensorRT, and Triton.
• Collaborate with ML research and robotics teams to co-design model architectures.
• Establish benchmarking frameworks to evaluate model performance on target hardware.

Required qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field with 4+ years of experience, or a PhD degree.
• Deep expertise in CUDA programming, GPU architecture, and low-level kernel optimization, including custom kernel authoring with tools such as Triton.
• Hands-on experience with model quantization, pruning, distillation, and deployment using frameworks such as TensorRT, ONNX Runtime, TVM, or Triton.
• Proficiency in C++ and Python.
• Strong systems programming and performance profiling skills.
• Experience deploying ML models on edge or embedded hardware (e.g., NVIDIA Jetson, Orin, or equivalent ARM/GPU SoCs).
• Requires 5 days/week in-office collaboration with the teams.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with embodied AI models — VLA, multimodal transformers, or diffusion-based policies — and their inference characteristics.
• Familiarity with compiler-based optimization pipelines such as XLA, torch.compile, or MLIR for graph-level model acceleration.
• Understanding of robotics system constraints such as control-loop timing, sensor fusion latency, and memory bandwidth limits on edge SoCs.
• Publication or production work in efficient deep learning or on-device ML systems.

Benefits

• Competitive stock options/equity programs.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) plan.
• Visa sponsorship and green card support for qualified candidates.
• Lunches and dinners.
• A fully stocked kitchen.
• Regular team-building events.

About the company

RoboForce 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.