1.52 Robotics Autonomy Engineer - Reasoning
Irvine, CA
Area 1: ML, AI, Autonomy /
Full time /
On-site
Field AI is transforming how robots interact with the real world. We are building risk-aware, reliable, and field-ready AI systems that address the most complex challenges in robotics, unlocking the full potential of embodied intelligence. We go beyond typical data-driven approaches or pure transformer-based architectures, and are charting a new course, with already-globally-deployed solutions delivering real-world results and rapidly improving models through real-field applications.
About the Job
At Field AI, we’re building robots that don’t just sense the world, they reason about it and make intelligent decisions in real time. As a Robotics Autonomy Engineer - Reasoning, you’ll design and deploy scalable, interpretable world models and decision-making systems that let our robots operate safely and intelligently in dynamic, uncertain environments. You’ll fuse multi-modal sensing with semantics and risk analysis, enable real-time decision-making under uncertainty, and embed transparency, adaptability, and fail-safes into the autonomy stack. This is a role for an engineer who thrives at the frontier of AI and robotics—someone excited to push beyond perception into true reasoning, and to see their work come alive in robots that adapt and succeed in the real world.
What You’ll Get To Do
- 1. World Modeling & Representation
- Design and iterate on scalable, interpretable spatio-temporal-semantic world models.
- Fuse multi-modal sensing with semantics and embedded risk analysis.
- Ensure real-time performance with low latency in dynamic, uncertain environments.
- 2. Reasoning & Decision-Making
- Develop reasoning and decision-making systems that remain reliable under uncertainty and enable success in complex real-world missions.
- Validate reasoning systems across challenging edge-case scenarios (e.g., sudden obstacles, degraded sensing).
- Integrate reasoning with perception and control for closed-loop autonomy at high mission success rates.
- 3. Safety, Transparency & Adaptability
- Implement diagnostic layers that log reasoning steps for interpretability and post-mission analysis.
- Develop fail-safe behaviors that trigger under uncertain or conflicting world-state estimates.
- Ensure adaptability to new environments while always prioritizing safety.
What You Have
- Master’s degree or higher in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, or a related field, with focus on autonomy, reasoning, or decision-making.
- Strong foundation in algorithms for reasoning and decision-making under uncertainty (e.g., probabilistic methods, motion planning, decision theory, foundation models).
- Demonstrated experience building and deploying autonomy systems in simulation and/or real-world robotic platforms.
- Proficiency in modern machine learning techniques relevant to robotics (e.g., reinforcement learning, foundation models, representation learning).
- Strong software engineering skills in C++ and Python, with experience developing real-time robotics or AI systems.
- Track record of research contributions (e.g., publications, open-source projects) or demonstrated ability to advance state-of-the-art methods into practical systems.
The Extras That Set You Apart
- Background in semantic reasonings, human-robot interaction, or multi-agent system.
- Familiarity with ROS or similar middleware for robotics development and deployment.
- Knowledge of hardware-aware optimization and acceleration of autonomy stacks (e.g., real-time constraints, GPU/TPU programming).
- Experience deploying autonomy on physical robotic platforms in real-world field environments (e.g., outdoor, off-road, degraded sensing).
Compensation and Benefits
Our salary range is generous ($70,000 - $200,000 annual), but we take into consideration an individual's background and experience in determining final salary; base pay offered may vary considerably depending on geographic location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Also, while we enjoy being together on-site, we are open to exploring a hybrid or remote option.
Why Join Field AI?
We are solving one of the world’s most complex challenges: deploying robots in unstructured, previously unknown environments. Our Field Foundational Models™ set a new standard in perception, planning, localization, and manipulation, ensuring our approach is explainable and safe for deployment.
You will have the opportunity to work with a world-class team that thrives on creativity, resilience, and bold thinking. With a decade-long track record of deploying solutions in the field, winning DARPA challenge segments, and bringing expertise from organizations like DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA, Amazon, Tesla Autopilot, Cruise Self-Driving, Zoox, Toyota Research Institute, and SpaceX, we are set to achieve our ambitious goals.
Be Part of the Next Robotics Revolution
To tackle such ambitious challenges, we need a team as unique as our vision — innovators who go beyond conventional methods and are eager to tackle tough, uncharted questions. We’re seeking individuals who challenge the status quo, dive into uncharted territory, and bring interdisciplinary expertise. Our team requires not only top AI talent but also exceptional software developers, engineers, product designers, field deployment experts, and communicators.
We are headquartered in always-sunny Mission Viejo (Irvine adjacent), Southern California and have US based and global teammates.
Join us, shape the future, and be part of a fun, close-knit team on an exciting journey!
We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Candidates and employees are always evaluated based on merit, qualifications, and performance. We will never discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, martial status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status.
