Director of Robotics Research

Job Title: Director of Robotics Research

Job Type: Full-time

Location: Remote

The Role:

As Director of Robotics Research, you'll lead our Robotics Research team in developing the data foundations behind robot learning. You'll define how robotics data is collected, represented, evaluated, and scaled—helping build a Robotics Data Engine that enables increasingly capable robotic systems.

Working alongside AI researchers and engineers, you'll drive research at the intersection of robotics, perception, learning, and large-scale data. You'll also build and mentor a team of exceptional Robotics Researchers, setting the technical vision while remaining deeply involved in research and experimentation.

What You'll Do

• Define and execute the research strategy for robotics data, embodied AI, and robot learning.
• Lead research initiatives focused on robotics datasets, multimodal representations, perception, manipulation, and data-centric learning.
• Build, mentor, and grow a team of Robotics Researchers while fostering a culture of scientific rigor, curiosity, and rapid experimentation.
• Develop novel approaches for collecting robotics data through teleoperation, human demonstrations, simulation, autonomous exploration, and real-world deployments.
• Design scalable robotics data pipelines by defining collection workflows, task taxonomies, annotation schemas, quality control processes, evaluation methodologies, and final data delivery formats.
• Translate research and client objectives into scalable data pipeline specifications, defining data requirements, collection strategies, labeling standards, and success metrics.
• Partner with research, engineering, product, and operations teams to operationalize pipeline designs and deliver production-ready robotics data solutions.
• Establish scalable benchmarks and evaluation frameworks to measure and improve robot learning performance.
• Stay at the forefront of robotics research by evaluating emerging literature, datasets, and techniques from leading academic labs and industry.
• Drive technical excellence through clear documentation, knowledge sharing, and effective cross-functional communication.

What We're Looking For

• Significant experience in robotics research, embodied AI, robot learning, or robotics software engineering.
• Experience leading or mentoring high-performing technical or research teams.
• Deep understanding of robotics data pipelines, multimodal datasets, and data infrastructure for robot learning.
• Strong expertise in robot perception, manipulation, control, imitation learning, reinforcement learning, or foundation models for robotics.
• Experience designing and evaluating large-scale robotics datasets and data collection strategies.
• Ability to bridge research and engineering, translating cutting-edge ideas into scalable systems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with experience collaborating across multidisciplinary teams.
• Passion for advancing embodied intelligence through innovative research and data-driven approaches.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• Publications at leading conferences such as CoRL, RSS, ICRA, IROS, NeurIPS, ICML, or CVPR.
• Experience building large-scale robotics datasets, data engines, or research infrastructure.
• Hands-on experience with robotics frameworks and simulation environments such as ROS, ROS2, Isaac Lab, Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, Habitat, or ManiSkill.
• Contributions to open-source robotics projects or significant research impacting embodied AI.

Compensation & Benefits Notice

The national pay range for this full-time position is base salary of $250,000 –$350,000. All employees are eligible for equity compensation, and employees may also receive performance-based bonuses, dependent on role and subject to company policies. micro1 provides a comprehensive benefits package, including up to 100% reimbursement for health-insurance premiums, paid time off, a 401(K) plan with a company match, and additional benefits designed to support a high-performing, remote-first workforce.

micro1 is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation during the application process, reach out to support@micro1.ai.

Our hiring process utilizes artificial intelligence tools to assist in candidate screening and assessment. Our AI tools are designed to complement, not replace, human decision-making.

Disclaimer

The information contained in this job posting, including but not limited to role responsibilities, qualifications, compensation, and benefits, is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute a binding offer of employment. micro1 reserves the right to amend, modify, or withdraw any portion of this posting at its sole discretion and without prior notice. All employment decisions are made in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.