PhD Research Intern, Robotics - Summer 2027

AI in this role

Develop algorithms and foundation models for robotic manipulation and reinforcement learning as a PhD research intern at NVIDIA.

pytorchjaxpythonisaac-sim

ai-agentscomputer-visionroboticsreinforcement-learningmachine-learningsimulation

NVIDIA is at the forefront of the AI and robotics revolution, and NVIDIA’s robotics teams are on a mission to build the essential technology that can enable any company to become a robotics company. The Seattle Robotics Lab is uniquely positioned at the intersection of open academic research and real-world industry impact, pursuing fundamental and applied robotics research across the full robotics stack, including perception, planning, control, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, simulation, and robotics foundation models. This research aims to transform research paradigms, transfer into NVIDIA’s robotics and simulation products, and create new robotics markets for the world.

The Seattle Robotics Lab has published over 500 research papers, including many influential works that have been presented at top robotics, AI, and computer vision conferences. These works include BayesSim, cuRobo, DeXtreme, DiSECT, Factory, GraspNet, IndustReal, ITPS, LAPA, MimicGen, NeRD, RoboLab, RVT, ScheduleStream, and SHAC. (See our publications page for a complete list.) The work has deeply impacted the research community and NVIDIA products, including Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, Isaac Manipulator, Isaac Lab-Arena, Cosmos, and Newton amongst others.

We are looking for PhD-candidate interns to play a pivotal role in our research efforts, providing deep, hands-on technical contributions. Our interns must have exceptional research and engineering skills, a strong research track record, and a team-first mindset. You will have the opportunity to achieve real impact, while working with some of the most creative, brilliant, and motivated researchers in the world. Interns can either be working on their own projects typically aligned with one of our internal efforts, or in some cases directly contribute to one of our efforts. Our former interns have gone on to become full-time researchers and engineers at NVIDIA and other world-leading tech companies, started academic careers at top universities, and launched frontier robotics and AI companies.

What you will be doing:

Developing algorithms, foundation models, and methods for robotic manipulation and/or loco-manipulation, for industrial, scientific, and household applications;
Integrating these methods into real-world robotic manipulation systems, including those consisting of collaborative robot arms, industrial robot arms, mobile manipulators, humanoids, and dexterous hands;
Contributing to multi-person research projects that require a diverse set of skills across the robotics and machine learning stack;
Engaging with the academic community through high-impact publications, conferences, workshops, and/or code releases;
Developing AI agents to accelerate research and engineering while ensuring correctness, reproducibility, and security.

What we need to see:

Enrolled in a PhD program in Robotics, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field;
Knowledge of both the theory and practice of robotics and AI, with a strong interest in connecting your work to real-world robotics applications;
A demonstrated track record, with first-author work published in top robotics and AI conferences and journals such as RSS, CoRL, ICRA, IJRR, T-RO, Science Robotics, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, and EMNLP;
Exceptional communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills, with significant experience working on a team;
Exceptional programming skills in Python; in addition, familiarity with C++, CUDA, and Warp is a plus;
Fluency in modern deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX;
Experience in AI coding and research agents, including critical validation of their outputs;
Experience with robotics frameworks such as ROS2 and physics simulation frameworks such as Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, Newton, and/or MuJoCo;
Comfort in working through the complexities of simulation and real-world robotics, including debugging physics simulators and renderers under rapid development; selecting, setting up, maintaining, and enhancing complex robotics hardware; debugging communication systems; and designing robust workflows for model training and evaluation.

The following research areas and applications are of particular interest:

Bimanual and dexterous manipulation
Mobile manipulation and humanoid loco-manipulation
Multimodal robot learning (e.g., vision, tactile, and force/torque sensing)
Simulation (classical and neural), sim-to-real, real-to-sim, and world models
Learning in the real world (e.g., imitation learning, RL)
Robot foundation models (e.g., VLAs, WAMs, world models): pre-training, mid-training and post-training (SFT, RL, etc.) using various data sources (e.g., simulation, teleoperation, egocentric data)
Agentic robotics
Robot learning theory
High-precision manipulation and reliable policy deployment
Scientific lab automation

The Seattle Robotics Lab is primarily located in the vibrant Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.

Our internship hourly rates are a standard pay based on the position, your location, year in school, degree, and experience. The hourly rate for our interns is 38 USD - 94 USD.


You will also be eligible for Intern benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until September 25, 2026.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.

NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.

NVIDIA is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.

How we rate this

PhD Research Intern, Robotics - Summer 2027 at NVIDIA rates 95 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.

Prepare for this job

A free preview built only from this posting: what it asks for, what you could be asked in an interview, and how to adjust your resume.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

AI AgentsComputer VisionRoboticsReinforcement LearningMachine LearningSimulationPyTorchJax

Questions you could be asked

How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
Walk me through a computer vision problem you solved, from raw data to a deployed model.
Tell me about a project where robotics was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where reinforcement learning was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: AI Agents, Computer Vision, Robotics, Reinforcement Learning, and Machine Learning. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them — a tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Lead with what you built, trained or shipped — this role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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