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Roles at frontier labs · Research specialties

Robotics Researcher and Engineer

35 recorded postings · Partial update · October 8, 2026

Recorded postings, not a live vacancy count. Partial update: some sources retain earlier observations; each listing has its own check date.

Robotics teams bring models into the physical world: robot learning, simulation, data collection and the hardware the models run on.

What the postings ask for
  1. Multimodal models 60%
  2. Evals and benchmarks 57%
  3. How language models work 54%
  4. Reinforcement learning 49%
  5. Python 49%
  6. Inference and serving 37%

taught here course coming not taught

The numbers

Recorded postings at 9 labs
35
Median base pay middle half $290k to $402k, 11 U.S. bands
$320k
No degree requirement stated 11% require a PhD outright
31%
Years asked, median of the 22 that state a minimum
2
Explore opportunities

The recorded snapshot

Postings from 9 labs

In the labs' own words

In the labs' own words

“Familiarity with writing bring-up, test, or diagnostic firmware in C, C++, Rust, or Python.”
OpenAI · Electrical Engineer, Robotics ↗
“Strong development and debugging skills across the full robotics stack (perception → planning or inference → control → hardware).”
Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) · Robotics Engineer ↗
“Experience with Vision Language Models (VLM), Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, perception, navigation and manipulation, simulation tools (e.g. Isaac SIM).”
Mistral AI · Applied Science - Research Engineer (Robotics) ↗

Your way in

Three doors to this role

  1. Door 1

    Finishing a degree

    Prof Rod Avatar

    37% mention publications

    The way in is a program: 32 recorded in the snapshot

  2. Door 2

    A software engineer

    Prof Rod Avatar

    31% have no degree requirement stated

    What to add

  3. Door 3

    A PhD

    Prof Rod Avatar

    9% ask for distributed training

    Engineering at scale

Asked often

The short answers

How much does a robotics researcher and engineer at a frontier lab make?

The median U.S. base salary across 11 recorded robotics researcher and engineer postings that publish a band is $320k; the middle half runs from $290k to $402k. Equity and bonus are not included.

Do you need a PhD to be a robotics researcher and engineer?

31% of the 35 recorded postings do not state a degree requirement, 51% mention a PhD or master's, and 11% require a PhD outright.

What skills do robotics researcher and engineer postings ask for?

Most often: multimodal models (60%), evals and benchmarks (57%), how language models work (54%), reinforcement learning (49%), python (49%).

Which labs posted robotics researcher and engineer roles in this recorded board?

Recorded board: Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) (9), Google DeepMind (8), OpenAI (7), Physical Intelligence (4), Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) (2), Mistral AI (2), and 3 more.

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The board

Recorded postings, newest first

Each title opens the lab's own posting. By family: research scientists and engineers · software engineering at labs · fellowships, residencies and internships · applied ai and forward-deployed · ml systems and infrastructure

  1. Lead Safety Engineer, Robotics ↗

    OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $381k to $423k base

  2. Research Scientist Intern, Robotics - Meta Superintelligence Labs (PhD) ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Fellowships, residencies and internships · PhD required

  3. Research Scientist, Robotics ↗

    Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required · $167k to $261k base

  4. Robotics Engineer ↗

    Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) · Software engineering at labs · PhD required · $129k to $193k base

  5. Electrical Engineer, Robotics, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Software engineering at labs · Bachelor's or equivalent

  6. Mechanical Engineer, Robotics, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Software engineering at labs · Master's, PhD or equivalent

  7. Research Scientist, Multisensor Robotics, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  8. Research Scientist, Robotics Pre-Training and Data Quality, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  9. Research Scientist, Robotics RL, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  10. Robotics Engineer, Controls and Autonomy, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Software engineering at labs · Bachelor's or equivalent

  11. Robotics Platform Software Engineer, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Software engineering at labs · Bachelor's or equivalent

  12. Senior Research Engineer, Embodied Generalist Agent, Gaming, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD preferred

  13. AI Research Scientist, Robotics ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  14. AI Research Scientist, Robotics ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  15. AI Research Scientist, Robotics - Meta Superintelligence Labs ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  16. AI Research Scientist, Robotics - Meta Superintelligence Labs ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  17. AI Research Scientist, Robotics - Meta Superintelligence Labs ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  18. Research Engineer, Robotics - Meta Superintelligence Labs ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required

  19. Research Scientist – World Models, Robotics & Embodied AI ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  20. Robotic Controls Researcher ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  21. Applied AI Engineer, Robotics ↗

    Mistral AI · Applied AI and forward-deployed · Bachelor's degree

  22. Applied Science - Research Engineer (Robotics) ↗

    Mistral AI · Research scientists and engineers · PhD preferred

  23. Control Systems Software Engineer, Robotics ↗

    OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $380k to $460k base

  24. Electrical Engineer, Robotics ↗

    OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $287k to $423k base

  25. Inference Engineer, Robotics ↗

    OpenAI · ML systems and infrastructure · No degree stated · $380k to $380k base

  26. PCB Layout Engineer, Robotics ↗

    OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $318k to $485k base

  27. Robotics Software Engineer ↗

    OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $255k to $325k base

  28. Software Engineer, Distributed Data Systems - Robotics ↗

    OpenAI · ML systems and infrastructure · No degree stated · $230k to $385k base

  29. Forward Deployed Robotics Engineer ↗

    Physical Intelligence · Applied AI and forward-deployed · Bachelor's degree

  30. Robot Integration Engineer ↗

    Physical Intelligence · Software engineering at labs · Bachelor's degree

  31. Robotics Software Engineer ↗

    Physical Intelligence · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated

  32. Software Engineer, Robot Interfaces ↗

    Physical Intelligence · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated

  33. Member of Technical Staff (Robotics) ↗

    Reka · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated

  34. Member of Technical Staff, Robotics Engineer ↗

    Runway · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $270k to $370k base

  35. Research Engineer / Scientist (Robot Learning) ↗

    World Labs · Research scientists and engineers · PhD preferred · $250k to $350k base

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