Senior Research Engineer, Robotics Systems

NVIDIA is hiring a Senior Research Engineer, Robotics Systems in Santa Clara, United States. It pays $184k-$288k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on NVIDIA.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this role Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
The posting mentions MLOps among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a senior role.
NVIDIA has 2,700+ other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

ml-ops

NVIDIA is searching for a senior or principal engineer who specializes in robotics systems in the Generalist Embodied Agent Research (GEAR) group. Our team is leading Project GR00T, NVIDIA’s moonshot initiative at building foundation models and full-stack technology for humanoid robots. You will work with an amazing and collaborative research team that consistently produces influential works on multimodal foundation models, large-scale robot learning, embodied AI, and physics simulation. Our past projects include Eureka, VIMA, Voyager, MineDojo, MimicPlay, Prismer, and more. Your contributions will have a significant impact on our research projects and product roadmaps.

What you will be doing:

Design and maintain teleoperation software for controlling humanoid robots with low latency and high precision;
Develop and optimize the control stack, including locomotion, manipulation, and whole-body control algorithms;
Deploy and evaluate neural network models in physics simulation and on real humanoid hardware;
Implement tools and processes for regular robot maintenance, diagnostics, and troubleshooting to ensure system reliability;
Monitor teleoperators at the lab and develop quality assurance workflows to ensure high-quality data collection;
Collaborate with researchers on model training, data processing, and the full MLOps lifecycle.

What we need to see:

A Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Engineering, or a related field or equivalent experience; advanced degrees are helpful.
8+ years of full-time industry experience in robotics hardware or software full-stack;
Hands-on experience with deploying and debugging neural network models on robotic hardware;
Ability to implement real-time control algorithms, teleoperation stack, and sensor fusion;
Proficiency in languages such as Python, Rust, C++, and experience with robotics frames (ROS) and physics simulation (Gazebo, Mujoco, Isaac, etc.).
Experience in maintaining and troubleshooting robotic systems, including mechanical, electrical, and software components.
Physically work on-site at NVIDIA HQ on all business days.

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

Master’s or PhD’s degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Engineering, or a related field;
Experience at autonomous driving or humanoid robotics companies on real hardware deployment;
Experience in robot hardware design;
Demonstrated Tech Lead experience, coordinating a team of robotics engineers and driving projects from conception to deployment as well as contributions to popular open-source robotics frameworks or research publications in top-tier conferences, such as ICRA, IROS, RSS, CoRL.

NVIDIA is widely considered to be one of the technology world's most desirable employers. We have some of the most forward-thinking and productive people in the world. Please join us and be part of the forefront of developing general-purpose robots and large-scale foundation models!

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and other objective job-related factors. The expected base salary ranges for this position are:
184,000 USD – 287,500 USD for Level 4; and 224,000 USD – 356,500 USD for Level 5.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until November 3, 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

Senior Research Engineer, Robotics Systems at NVIDIA rates 90 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. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Senior Research Engineer, Robotics Systems is an open job at NVIDIA.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The listed salary is $184k-$288k a year.
The role is based in US, CA, Santa Clara.
The job was posted on July 31, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by NVIDIA. Apply on NVIDIA

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

ML Ops

Questions you could be asked

How do you monitor a model once it's live, and how do you know it needs retraining?
How would you decide a model or AI system is ready to ship?
Tell me about a time a model underperformed in production. How did you find out, and what did you change?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: ML Ops. 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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