Research Scientist, Autonomous Systems and Physical AI Research - PhD New College Grad 2026
$168,000 - $264,500 USD yearly
Originally posted 7 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role involves foundational research in autonomous vehicles, robotics, and physical AI, addressing challenges in intelligent machines that perceive, reason, and interact with the physical world.
What you'll do
- Design and implement techniques for autonomous vehicles, robotics, and physical AI.
- Conduct original research and publish results.
- Collaborate with research colleagues, internal product teams, and external researchers.
- Transfer developed technology to relevant product groups.
What you'll need
- Completing or recently completed a PhD in 2026 in Robotics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering or a related field.
- Relevant research experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, embodied AI, or autonomous systems.
- Strong knowledge of the theory and practice of vehicle or robot autonomy.
- Track record of research excellence demonstrated through publications at conferences and journals (e.g., RSS, ICRA, CoRL, IJRR, NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, TAC) and open-source software.
- Exceptional Python programming skills.
- Experience with machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
Nice to have
- Experience with C++ and parallel programming, such as CUDA.
Skills: autonomous vehicles, robotics, embodied AI, deep learning, reinforcement learning, PyTorch
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 75-day median for AI/ML Hardware Engineering roles.
AI/ML Hardware Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
521
|
Median days open
75 d
|
Median salary
$235k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | NVIDIA | All employers we track in this specialty (521 roles · 76 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 92 | 521 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 964 | 6063 · 146 employers |
| Median days open | 57 d | 75 d (−18 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $235k |
Skills observed across this category: autonomous vehicles, robotics, embodied AI, deep learning, reinforcement learning, PyTorch
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 100 open roles · median 112 d
- NVIDIA (this employer) · 89 open roles · median 51 d
- AMD · 41 open roles · median 71 d
- Micron Technology · 30 open roles · median 60 d
- Mobileye · 19 open roles · median 70 d
- Analog Devices · 16 open roles · median 33 d
How we counted: 521 open AI/ML Hardware Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 76 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 8 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.