AI Engineer

About Us

Foundation is developing the future of general purpose robotics with the goal to address the labor shortage. https://foundation.bot

Our mission is to create advanced robots that can operate in complex environments, reducing human risk in conflict zones and enhancing efficiency in labor-intensive industries.

We are on the lookout for extraordinary engineers and scientists to join our team.

We expect that many of our team members will bring diverse perspectives from various industries and fields. We are looking for individuals with a proven record of exceptional ability and a history of creating things that work.

All positions are based in San Francisco or Munich

Our Culture

We like to be frank and honest about who we are, so that people can decide for themselves if this is a culture they resonate with. Please read more about our culture here https://foundation.bot/culture.

Who should join:

• You like working in person with a team in Munich, Germany.
• You deeply believe that this is the most important mission for humanity and needs to happen yesterday.
• You are highly technical - regardless of the role you are in. We are building technology; you need to understand technology well.
• You care about aesthetics and design inside out. If it's not the best product ever, it bothers you, and you need to “fix” it.
• You don't need someone to motivate you nor give you tasks; you get things done.

• Develop software-engineering solutions for the integration of machine-learning models in robotics environments
• Develop intelligent perception and control models using VLMs, transformers, CNNs, RNNs, and RL to power robotic behaviors.
• Fine-tune and adapt modern pre-trained models for robotic vision, policy learning, etc.
• Use large-scale pre-trained networks to develop robust, generalizable ML pipelines.
• Integrate ML with real-time control, combining traditional robotics methods with learned components.
• Use simulation environments like Isaac Sim and MuJoCo to prototype and evaluate models prior to real-world deployment.
• Close the sim-to-real gap
• Collaborate cross-functionally with controls, perception, systems, and hardware teams to bring ML-driven robotics to life.
• Write high-quality, scalable code in Python using ML frameworks like PyTorch and JAX; contribute to shared tooling and research infrastructure.

• Very strong software-engineering background in robotics
• Very strong experience using ROS 2
• Strong background in machine learning for vision and control.
• Deep experience with Python, PyTorch, and/or JAX; comfortable debugging, optimizing, and scaling ML systems.
• Experience with simulators like Isaac Sim or MuJoCo for training and testing robotics pipelines.
• Comfort integrating ML into control systems, including hybrid and end-to-end approaches.
• MSc or PhD in Machine Learning, Robotics, Computer Science, or related field—or equivalent practical experience
• Willingness to travel to customer sites as well as to US HQ.

• Prior experience deploying pre-trained models in embedded or edge environments.
• Familiarity with reinforcement learning in robotics applications.
• Interest in active perception, multi-agent robotics, or HRI (human–robot interaction).
• Contributions to open-source robotics and publications.