Helix AI Engineer, Robot Learning

at Figure AI · Robotics · HQ · AI - Helix Team

Figure AI is seeking a Helix AI Engineer specializing in Robot Learning to develop and deploy visuomotor manipulation policies for their humanoid robots. The role involves designing, training, and evaluating learning-based policies using techniques like behavior cloning and reinforcement learning, with a strong emphasis on real-world robot deployment and data collection.

What you'd actually do

  1. Design, train, evaluate, and deploy learning-based visuomotor policies for humanoid robot manipulation
  2. Develop manipulation behaviors such as grasping, pick-and-place, object reorientation, door opening, bimanual manipulation, and basic assembly
  3. Apply and extend techniques including behavior cloning, reinforcement learning, and VLA reasoning
  4. Train models that are robust to real-world challenges such as sensor noise, partial observability, contact dynamics, and environment variability
  5. Own the full pipeline from data collection on real robots to model training, evaluation, and deployment

Skills

Required

  • Python
  • C++
  • PyTorch
  • behavior cloning
  • reinforcement learning
  • robot manipulation
  • visuomotor control

Nice to have

  • humanoid robots
  • dexterous robotic platforms
  • robot learning publications
  • embodied AI publications
  • project leadership
  • mentoring engineers

What the JD emphasized

  • real-robot deployment
  • real-world performance and transfer
  • robot learning systems on real robots
  • robot manipulation and visuomotor control
  • behavior cloning, reinforcement learning
  • commercial or production robotic systems

Other signals

  • robot learning
  • visuomotor policies
  • real-robot deployment
  • humanoid robots
Read full job description

Helix AI Engineer, Robot Learning

Figure is an AI robotics company developing autonomous general-purpose humanoid robots. The goal of the company is to ship humanoid robots with human level intelligence. Its robots are engineered to perform a variety of tasks in the home and commercial markets. Figure is headquartered in San Jose, CA.

We are looking for a Helix AI Engineer, Robot Learning with a strong robotics learning background to help develop and improve our visuomotor manipulation policies, with a heavy emphasis on real-robot deployment.

Responsibilities

  • Design, train, evaluate, and deploy learning-based visuomotor policies for humanoid robot manipulation
  • Develop manipulation behaviors such as grasping, pick-and-place, object reorientation, door opening, bimanual manipulation, and basic assembly
  • Apply and extend techniques including behavior cloning, reinforcement learning, and VLA reasoning** **
  • Train models that are robust to real-world challenges such as sensor noise, partial observability, contact dynamics, and environment variability
  • Own the full pipeline from data collection on real robots to model training, evaluation, and deployment
  • Work closely with simulation and digital twin tooling where useful, while prioritizing real-world performance and transfer** **
  • Collaborate with perception, controls, systems, and hardware teams to integrate policies into a full autonomy stack
  • Evaluate tradeoffs between learning-based and classical approaches and make principled design decisions
  • Write high-quality, well-tested software that ships to and runs reliably on physical humanoid robots
  • Partner with integration and testing teams to continuously improve robustness, performance, and deployment velocity

Requirements

  • Hands-on experience developing and deploying robot learning systems on real robots** **
  • Strong background in robot manipulation and visuomotor control** **
  • Experience with behavior cloning, reinforcement learning, or related learning-based manipulation methods
  • Proficiency in Python and/or C++ for robotics and ML systems
  • Experience with modern deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch)
  • Ability to design experiments, analyze failures, and iterate quickly in real-world robotic systems
  • Solid understanding of the tradeoffs between classical robotics approaches and learning-based methods
  • Thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments where solutions require exploration and ownership

Bonus Qualifications

  • Experience deploying learning-based manipulation systems in commercial or production robotic systems** **
  • Prior work on humanoids or highly dexterous robotic platforms
  • Publication record in robot learning, manipulation, or embodied AI
  • Experience leading projects or mentoring other engineers
  • Passion for building autonomous humanoid robots that operate in the real world

The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package may also include additional components/benefits depending on the specific role. This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.