Senior Research Engineer, Robotics

About the Team

Our mission is to expand the capabilities of foundational models to support general-purpose robotics in dynamic, real-world environments, ensuring reliable and safe operation. These capabilities include, but are not limited to, action generation, motion planning, world modeling, and real-time communication through voice and emotions.

We work across the entire robotics stack, integrating cutting-edge hardware, sensors, end-effectors, and models to explore a diverse range of robotic form factors. Our goal is to develop models that provide state-of-the-art intelligence combined with seamless physical skills under the practical constraints of robotic platforms.

About the Role

As a research engineer for our robotics initiative, you will develop foundational models, and shape the direction of our early-stage robotics efforts at OpenAI. Your expertise will be instrumental in defining our strategy and establishing a strong foundation for future advancements.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Own and pursue a research agenda to improve model capability and performance.

• Contribute to the team's efforts through the design, review, and implementation of various technical aspects.

• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams within the robotics effort and across the broader Research organization.

• Mentor and support team members, helping them achieve their professional goals and maximize their impact.

You might thrive in this role if you: 

• Have a strong research background in robotics, multimodal foundational models, scaling laws, and imitation learning or reinforcement learning.

• Have proven experience managing high-performing teams of research engineers and research scientists.

• Thrive in ambiguity and adapt to rapidly evolving research and product initiatives.

If you're passionate about pushing the boundaries of robotics and AI, we'd love to hear from you.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status. 

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For US Based Candidates: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

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