Senior Manager, Learning from Demonstration

Role overview A humanoid robotics company operating commercially deployed bipedal robots in warehouses, manufacturing, and distribution environments is hiring a Senior Manager to lead its Learning from Demonstration group. The position bridges advanced AI/ML research with deployed robotic functionality, driving a one- to two-year roadmap that converts concepts into minimum viable products across perceptive real-time planning, whole-body control, and imitation learning. The role carries responsibility for both technical direction and people leadership within the AI Innovation program.

Responsibilities - Oversee end-to-end innovation projects, from initial research and whiteboarding through proof-of-concept deployment on humanoid platforms. - Drive investigations into novel AI approaches for real-time planning, human-robot interaction, and adaptive motor control. - Advance a data flywheel that fuses teleoperation, synthetic data, and fleet learning to expand performance and reliability. - Partner with hardware and robot software teams so next-generation sensor suites align with future AI architectures. - Build team capability through hiring, performance reviews, and individualized development plans. - Foster a culture of rigorous experimentation, fast iteration, and shared ownership of outcomes.

Requirements - Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related discipline. - At least eight years of AI/ML experience, including three or more managing researchers or engineers. - Track record of developing and deploying real-time AI for robotics, autonomous systems, or other mission-critical applications. - Strong command of computer vision, reinforcement learning, and large language models applied to robotics. - Hands-on experience deploying models on resource-constrained edge devices under inference, power, and thermal constraints. - Demonstrated success scaling high-performance engineering or research teams.

Benefits and work setup - Fully remote within the U.S., with hybrid flexibility near offices in Salem, OR, Pittsburgh, PA, or Fremont, CA. - Anticipated base salary range of $268,000 to $364,000 USD, plus an annual discretionary bonus where eligible. - Comprehensive benefits from day one, including 401(k) with company match, equity, fully company-paid medical/dental/vision and disability coverage, EAP, parental leave, tuition reimbursement, and unlimited PTO for exempt staff with twelve paid holidays.