Your Opportunity
Chewy Robotics is seeking a Principal Research Scientist to join our Physical AI team in Woburn, MA. This is a senior individual contributor role for a scientist who can define and advance Chewy's research roadmap in embodied AI for humanoid and other high-DOF robotic systems.
You will lead breakthrough work at the intersection of reinforcement learning, imitation learning, vision-language-action models, multimodal perception, whole-body control, manipulation, and sim-to-real adaptation. You will help Chewy develop the next generation of robotic intelligence for physically demanding, high-variability workflows in real operating environments.
This role is for a scientist who is equally comfortable doing first-principles thinking and using modern large-scale learning methods. You should be excited to invent new algorithms, build evaluation frameworks, guide technical direction across teams, and turn research ideas into capabilities that work on real robots. Success in this role means raising Chewy's scientific ambition while also creating measurable progress on hardware.
You will partner closely with roboticists, controls engineers, ML engineers, software engineers, and operations stakeholders to develop systems that can perceive, reason, learn, and act safely and robustly in the physical world.
What You'll Do
- Define and lead Chewy's scientific roadmap for embodied AI and humanoid robot learning, with emphasis on reinforcement learning, imitation learning, VLA-style policy learning, and modern control approaches for real-world robotic systems
- Invent, prototype, and validate novel algorithms for manipulation, loco-manipulation, whole-body coordination, multimodal perception, policy adaptation, and task generalization across environments and robot embodiments
- Develop learning systems that combine data-driven policies with principled robotics methods such as planning, control, system identification, estimation, and safety-constrained execution
- Drive advances in simulation, synthetic data generation, offline and online evaluation, benchmarking, and sim-to-real transfer to accelerate learning and reduce time to deployment
- Build and evaluate robot learning pipelines that leverage vision, language, proprioception, force, and touch to enable robust performance on complex physical tasks
- Partner with cross-functional teams to translate ambiguous business needs into tractable scientific programs, technical milestones, and experimental roadmaps
- Influence the architecture of Chewy's physical AI stack, including model training strategy, data engines, evaluation methodology, and integration with real robot platforms
- Establish technical standards for scientific rigor, experiment design, ablation studies, reproducibility, and model evaluation across the team
- Publish, patent, and communicate high-impact work internally and externally, helping strengthen Chewy's reputation in robotics and embodied AI
- Mentor scientists and engineers, raise the bar for technical depth and judgment, and serve as a trusted technical advisor to senior leadership
What You'll Need
- PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related technical field
- 10+ years of relevant experience in robotics research, embodied AI, machine learning, controls, or a closely related domain
- Deep expertise in several of the following areas
- reinforcement learning
- imitation learning or behavior cloning
- offline RL or policy improvement from logged data
- vision-language-action models or embodied foundation models
- robot manipulation and loco-manipulation
- whole-body control, MPC, or optimization-based control
- system identification, state estimation, or sensor fusion
- sim-to-real transfer and domain adaptation
- Demonstrated track record of developing novel methods that improved real robot performance, not just offline benchmarks
- Strong publication, patent, and/or open-source record in top-tier robotics or machine learning venues such as CoRL, RSS, ICRA, IROS, NeurIPS, ICML, or related forums
- Strong software and research engineering skills in Python and C++, with experience in modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch and/or JAX
- Experience with robotics tooling and simulation environments such as ROS2, Isaac Lab, Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, Gazebo, or equivalent platforms
- Proven ability to operate as a top-level technical leader in ambiguous environments, influence without authority, and communicate effectively with executive stakeholders
Bonus
- Experience training and deploying policies on humanoid robots or other dynamically complex platforms such as legged robots or mobile manipulators
- Experience with dexterous or force-sensitive manipulation, deformable object handling, or contact-rich tasks
- Experience building or adapting foundation models for robotics, including multimodal representation learning or action modeling
- Experience combining learned policies with classical controls, planners, or safety layers for production-grade systems
- Experience working on warehouse, logistics, or industrial robotics applications
- Experience leading external collaborations with academic labs, research partners, or strategic technical vendors
Why You'll Love This Role
- You will define foundational technical direction in one of Chewy's most ambitious investment areas
- You will have the freedom to work on long-horizon scientific problems while staying close to real hardware and real operational impact
- You will help shape how embodied AI gets built inside a company with meaningful physical problems, strong executive interest, and room to create new capabilities from the ground up
The base salary range for this role is $213,000 - $300,000.00.
- The specific salary offered to a candidate may be influenced by a variety of factors including but not limited to the candidate's relevant experience, education, and work location. In addition, this position is eligible for 401k and a new hire and annual equity grant. C08+ positions may also be eligible for annual bonus.
We offer different types of insurance and benefits, such as medical/Rx, vision, dental, life, disability, hospital indemnity, critical illness, and accident. We offer parental leave, family services benefits, backup dependent care, flexible spending accounts, telemedicine, pet adoption reimbursement, employee assistance program, and many discounts including 10% off pet insurance and 20% off at Chewy.com.
Exempt salary team members have unlimited PTO, subject to manager approval. Team members will receive six paid holidays per year. Team members may be eligible for paid sick and family leave in compliance with applicable state and local regulations.
Chewy is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender, citizenship, marital status, religion, age, disability, gender identity, results of genetic testing, veteran status, as well as any other legally-protected characteristic. If you have a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act or similar law, and you need an accommodation during the application process or to perform these job requirements, or if you need a religious accommodation, please contact [email protected].
To access Chewy's California CPRA Job Applicant Privacy Policy, please click here.
Skills Required
- PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or related technical field
- 10+ years of relevant experience in robotics research, embodied AI, machine learning, controls, or closely related domain
- Expertise in reinforcement learning
- Expertise in imitation learning or behavior cloning
- Expertise in offline RL or policy improvement from logged data
- Expertise in vision-language-action models or embodied foundation models
- Expertise in robot manipulation and loco-manipulation
- Expertise in whole-body control, MPC, or optimization-based control
- Expertise in system identification, state estimation, or sensor fusion
- Expertise in sim-to-real transfer and domain adaptation
- Demonstrated track record of developing novel methods that improved real robot performance
- Strong publication, patent, and/or open-source record in top-tier robotics or ML venues (CoRL, RSS, ICRA, IROS, NeurIPS, ICML, etc.)
- Strong software and research engineering skills in Python and C++
- Experience with modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch and/or JAX
- Experience with robotics tooling and simulation environments such as ROS2, Isaac Lab, Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, Gazebo, or equivalent platforms
- Proven ability to operate as a top-level technical leader, influence stakeholders, and communicate with executive leadership
- Experience training and deploying policies on humanoid robots or other dynamically complex platforms (legged robots, mobile manipulators)
- Experience with dexterous or force-sensitive manipulation, deformable object handling, or contact-rich tasks
- Experience building or adapting foundation models for robotics, including multimodal representation learning or action modeling
- Experience combining learned policies with classical controls, planners, or safety layers for production-grade systems
- Experience working on warehouse, logistics, or industrial robotics applications
- Experience leading external collaborations with academic labs, research partners, or strategic technical vendors
What the Team is Saying
Chewy Compensation & Benefits Highlights
How does Chewy ensure its pay and bonus plans are competitive?
Chewy approaches compensation through a total rewards strategy that combines salary, bonuses, equity opportunities, healthcare benefits, employee discounts, and career growth opportunities. The company emphasizes supporting employees across ecommerce, healthcare, pharmacy, customer service, technology, and fulfillment operations while competing for talent in both retail and tech markets.
Competitive compensation and bonus opportunities: Chewy offers market-based compensation packages that may include salary, performance bonuses, commissions, and equity depending on role and level. Built In also notes benefits such as relocation assistance, employee discounts, and bonus opportunities across multiple teams and functions.
- Healthcare and wellness support: Benefits include medical, dental, vision, prescription coverage, HSA/FSA options, life insurance, disability coverage, telemedicine, mental health resources, and wellbeing programs. Chewy also offers wellness-focused resources designed to support employees physically, mentally, and financially.
- Retirement and financial wellbeing: Employees receive 401(k) plans with company matching along with financial wellness resources and broader support programs. Benefits are designed to support both short-term needs and long-term financial planning.
- Pet-focused and family-oriented benefits: Chewy offers pet insurance discounts, employee discounts on Chewy products, parental leave, fertility support, family-focused benefits, and caregiving resources. The company’s benefits package is closely aligned with its pet-focused identity and customer mission.
- Flexibility and workplace support: Corporate employees may have access to hybrid work arrangements, flexible scheduling, commuter benefits, PTO, paid holidays, and wellbeing initiatives. Employees also cite supportive managers and collaborative teams as important parts of the broader employee value proposition.
- Long-term career investment: Compensation is reinforced through career growth opportunities, mentorship, leadership development, cross-functional learning, and exposure to large-scale ecommerce, automation, healthcare, and logistics initiatives. Employees often describe growth opportunities as an important part of the overall company experience.
- External signals: Comparably reports that 70% of employee reviews are positive overall. Employees frequently highlight healthcare benefits, employee discounts, coworkers, and growth opportunities as strengths of the company experience. (Glassdoor; Comparably)
Chewy Insights
What We Do
Who We Are Chewy is where pet parents find everything they need for life with pets, from food to fun to pharmacy. We make pet care easier, more informed, and more joyful through fast, reliable delivery and award-winning 24/7 Customer Care, including access to pet health support when it’s needed. Founded in 2011, Chewy combines the convenience of online shopping with a high-touch, personalized experience built around the real moments of pet parenthood. Our Mission Chewy’s mission is to be the most trusted and convenient destination for pet parents and partners, everywhere. What We Do We support pet parents through the highs, lows, and everyday moments of the pet parenting journey with: • Pet food, treats, and daily essentials • Supplies for dogs, cats, fish, birds, reptiles, equine, and small pets • Pharmacy and veterinary services, including prescriptions and medications • Pet wellness and health products • Autoship for convenient recurring deliveries • Chewy+, our premium membership offering exclusive savings, faster delivery, and personalized pet care benefits • 24/7/365 customer support from knowledgeable, pet-loving experts What Makes Chewy Different Chewy is known for industry-leading service, deep personalization, and our customer-obsessed culture. We combine trust, convenience, and care, and pet parents come to us for: • Exceptional customer care • Human- and pet-centered product and experience design • Fast, dependable fulfillment across a nationwide operations network • A mission-driven culture built on empathy, trust, and passion for pets Our Culture Chewy’s culture is built for people who thrive on ownership, innovation, and impact. We value curiosity, creativity, and continuous improvement across all our teams. We empower Team Members—our Chewtopians—to learn, grow, and unleash their full potential in a collaborative, supportive, mission-driven environment. How We Work Chewy’s Operating Principles guide how we think, innovate, collaborate, and execute. These principles shape our character, decision-making, and approach to delivering results while connecting our people and culture in support of our mission. Where We Work Chewy headquarters: Plantation, FL, and Boston, MA Additional hubs: Bellevue, WA, and Minneapolis, MN
Why Work With Us
Why You Should Work at Chewy Chewy is a unique, fast-growing e-commerce and tech leader where builders, creators, and problem-solvers shape the future of pet care. Our teams drive innovation in a mission-driven culture that creates real impact for pets and the people who love them.
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