At Boston Dynamics, we are pushing the boundaries of what advanced humanoid robots can do in the real world. The Atlas team is building next-generation whole-body mobile manipulation capabilities, and we are seeking a curious, driven Research Scientist to develop cutting-edge reinforcement learning (RL) solutions that run directly on our humanoid platforms.
In this role, you will design, train, and deploy RL policies that combine whole-body movement and dexterous manipulation to solve complex tasks in unstructured environments. You’ll work with a world-class team of roboticists and have rare, direct access to our physical Atlas robots and large-scale simulation infrastructure.
What You’ll DoDesign, implement, and train reinforcement learning algorithms for challenging whole-body mobile manipulation and bimanual manipulation tasks.
Develop high-quality Python and C++ code that is tested, documented, and production-ready.
Build and leverage high-fidelity simulation environments (e.g., Isaac Sim, MuJoCo) to validate RL policies before deploying on hardware.
Integrate learned policies with Atlas’s control and software stack through close collaboration with controls and platform teams.
Deploy, debug, and iterate policies directly on real Atlas hardware through hands-on experimentation.
Participate in design reviews, experimental planning, and team-wide research direction.
We’re Looking For
MS or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or a related field.
Strong experience training and deploying RL policies for complex behaviors in robots or simulated agents.
Proficiency with modern ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, RLlib).
Strong foundations in algorithms, debugging, performance optimization, and robotics fundamentals (kinematics, dynamics).
Excellent Python and C++ programming skills and experience contributing to production-scale software.
Nice to Have
PhD or equivalent research experience in reinforcement learning or robotic manipulation.
Experience deploying RL policies on physical robots.
Experience developing locomotion, bimanual manipulation, or whole-body control behaviors.
Contributions to large software projects or open-source ML/robotics frameworks.
Publications in top-tier robotics or ML conferences (e.g., CoRL, RSS, ICRA, NeurIPS).
Why Join Us
Direct access to cutting-edge humanoid robots and the infrastructure to run large-scale RL experiments.
A highly collaborative, mission-driven team where your work has immediate impact.
The opportunity to define state-of-the-art humanoid capabilities and shape the future of real-world robotics.
Top Skills
What We Do
Boston Dynamics builds advanced mobile manipulation robots with remarkable mobility, dexterity perception and agility. We use sensor-based controls and computation to unlock the potential of complex mechanisms. Our world-class development teams develop prototypes for wild new concepts, do build-test-build engineering and field testing and transform successful designs into robot products. Our goal is to change your idea of what robots can do.
