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AI Research Scientist, Physical AI

Meta

Menlo Park, CAResearch$184–257K/yrSeen 3w agoSeen in employer's feed 5 days ago

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At a glance

Compensation
$184–257K/yr
Location
Menlo Park, CA
Role Type
Research
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Job overview

Meta's Fundamental AI Research lab seeks a Research Scientist to advance foundational physical AI research and generate engineering designs, including robotic hardware, vehicles, and semiconductors. The role involves software research engineering, large-scale data manipulation, and simulator integration. The scientist will develop LLM post-training approaches using reinforcement learning and 3D data, integrate simulation, and explore engineering domains where LLMs can address key problems.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Reinforcement Learning3D DataSimulationPhysical AIRepresentation LearningSelf-Supervised LearningMultimodal LearningRobotics Policy Development3D Computer VisionEgocentric PerceptionEmbodied AILLMsControl TheoryOptimization AlgorithmsC/C++PythonDeep Learning FrameworksPrototype Software-Hardware IntegrationDebuggingDomain-Specific SimulationCross-Functional CommunicationTeamwork

Qualifications

Bachelor's in CS or RelatedBachelor's in CS, Computer, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering or RelatedPhD in AI, Physical AI, 3D Vision, ML or RelatedResearch ExperienceWork AuthorizationGrants, Fellowships, Patents or PublicationsEngineering Domain Work Experience

Full job description

Summary:

Meta's Fundamental AI Research lab is seeking a Research Scientist to drive foundational research aimed at advancing physical AI capabilities. We seek to generate advanced engineering designs such as robotic hardware, vehicles, and novel semiconductors. This role will involve heavy software research engineering, such as large-scale data manipulation and simulator integration.

Required Skills:

AI Research Scientist, Physical AI Responsibilities:

  1. Explore and develop novel post-training paradigms for LLMs using reinforcement learning

  2. Explore and develop novel LLM post-training recipes using 3D data

  3. Integrate large-scale simulation into LLM post-training

  4. Explore mechanical, aerospace, civil, and other engineering disciplines and how to enable LLMs to solve key problems in these domains

Minimum Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

  1. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience

  2. Currently has, or is in the process of obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience. Degree must be completed prior to joining Meta

  3. Currently has or is in the process of obtaining a PhD degree in Artificial Intelligence, Physical AI, Computer Vision (3D), Machine Learning, relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience. Degree must be completed prior to joining Meta

  4. Research experience in at least one of the following research areas: physical AI, simulation, reinforcement learning, representation learning, self-supervised learning, multimodal learning, robotics policy development, computer vision (3D), egocentric perception, embodied AI and/or LLMs, control theory, optimization algorithms

  5. Experience in C/C++ and Python and deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)

  6. Must obtain work authorization in country of employment at the time of hire, and maintain ongoing work authorization during employment

Preferred Qualifications:

Preferred Qualifications:

  1. Experience integrating and debugging prototype/scientific software-hardware systems including mechanical, aerospace, or civil engineering domain-specific simulation

  2. Proven track record of achieving significant results as demonstrated by grants, fellowships, patents, as well as first-authored publications at leading workshops or conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, JMLR and Computer Vision (CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, TPAMI)

  3. Prior work experience in the fields of mechanical, aerospace, civil engineering or other engineering domains

  4. Experience working and communicating cross-functionally in a team environment

Public Compensation:

$184,000/year to $257,000/year + bonus + equity + benefits

Industry: Internet

Equal Opportunity:

Meta is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Meta participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law. Please note that Meta may leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in connection with applications for employment.

Meta is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let us know at [email protected].

How this job compares

Set against the 2,200 open Research Scientist jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 9, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$184–257K/yr
  • California median$174–270K/yr489 salary ranges
  • US median$143–219K/yr1,470 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $221K, is close to the California median midpoint ($225K) — in the middle half of Research Scientist salary ranges in California.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 728 open Research Scientist jobs in California and 2,200 across the US. 3% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most in California
Experience
Research Scientist postings that state a minimum ask for 3 years of experience at the median; the middle half ask for 2 to 6 years (1,144 postings).
Education
1,063 of the 2,200 open Research Scientist jobs (48%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 9, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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