Research Scientist, RL for Dexterous Manipulation, Atlas

Are you passionate about using reinforcement learning to solve dexterous manipulation tasks? As an RL Research Scientist, you'll lead research projects on visual sim-to-real transfer and post-training of Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models. Your job is to turn unlabeled data from simulation or the real-world into robust real-world manipulation skills. You should push the frontier of what bimanual and multi-fingered systems can do in unstructured environments.In This Role, You WillDevelop novel algorithms for visual sim-to-real transfer with photorealistic renderingDesign post-training recipes that improve pretrained VLA models on manipulation tasksResearch reward modeling, and offline-to-online RL for large multimodal policiesClose the sim-2-real gap through tactile sensing, vision, and system identificationTrain policies that generalize across objects, scenes, and embodimentsRequired QualificationsPhD, in ML, Robotics, or a related field or a MS with 3+ years of experienceTrack record of first-author publications at top venues (CoRL, RSS, ICLR, NeuRIPS)Demonstrated experience training policies for dexterous or contact-rich manipulationHands-on experience with VLA models, diffusion policies, or large behavior modelsProficient in PyTorch and/or JAX, with experience training models at scaleStrong software fundamentals and the ability to ship research code that runs reliablyThe Ideal Candidate HasDeployed vision-based manipulation policies on physical robotsDeep knowledge of sim-to-real transfer techniques and photorealistic renderingBuilt training pipelines that combine RL, imitation learning, and large-scale pretrainingExperience fine-tuning foundation models with RLHF, DPO, GRPO, or related methodsFamiliarity with tactile sensing, multi-fingered hands, or bimanual coordinationWhy join us?Direct impact on the policies powering our humanoid robots in the real worldAccess to a world-class fleet of robots, simulation infrastructure, and computeThe chance to define what's possible for dexterous manipulation at scaleThe pay range for this position is between $175,000 to $220,000 annually. Base pay will depend on multiple individualized factors including, but not limited to internal equity, job related knowledge, skills and experience. This range represents a good faith estimate of compensation at the time of posting. Boston Dynamics offers a generous Benefits package including medical, dental vision, 401(k), paid time off and a annual bonus structure. Additional details regarding these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer for employment.