Applied Researcher

<div class="content-intro"><p><strong>Who we are</strong></p> <p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Aurora’s mission is to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly.</p> <p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br><a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://aurora.tech/aurora-driver" target="_blank" data-stringify-link="https://aurora.tech/aurora-driver" data-sk="tooltip_parent">The Aurora Driver</a> will create a new era in mobility and logistics, one that will bring a safer, more efficient, and more accessible future to everyone.</p> <p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">At Aurora, you will tackle massively complex problems alongside other passionate, intelligent individuals, growing as an expert while expanding your knowledge. For the latest news from Aurora, visit <a href="https://aurora.tech/" target="_blank">aurora.tech</a> or follow us on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/auroradriver" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.</p> <p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </p></div><p>Aurora hires talented people with diverse backgrounds who are ready to help build a transportation ecosystem that will make our roads safer, get crucial goods where they need to go, and make mobility more efficient and accessible for all. <span style="font-weight: 400;">We’re searching for a a PhD to serve as our technical pathfinder in the realm of Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models. You won't just be applying existing tech; you will be identifying the 'jagged edges'—the points of failure in current state-of-the-art models—and helping us rediscover and rebuild our architecture from the ground up.</span></p> <p><strong>In this role, you will focus on</strong></p> <ul> <li>Architectural Exploration: Deep dive into VLM/VLA architectures to determine their viability for our specific problem sets.</li> <li>Technical Mentorship: Act as the subject matter expert and guide for an exceptionally capable engineering team eager to move into this space. </li> <li>Practical Implementation: Bridge the gap between high-level academic theory and practical, scalable applications.</li> <li>Innovation: Redesign and optimize model architectures to leverage high-performance computing environments like Aurora.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Required Qualifications</strong></p> <ul> <li>PhD Graduate in AI, Computer Science, or Robotics (Top-tier research lab background)</li> <li>Deep expertis