1.74 Research Scientist -Multi-Robot SLAM

Field AI is transforming how robots interact with the real world. We are building risk-aware, reliable, and field-ready AI systems that address the most complex challenges in robotics, unlocking the full potential of embodied intelligence. We go beyond typical data-driven approaches or pure transformer-based architectures, and are charting a new course, with already-globally-deployed solutions delivering real-world results and rapidly improving models through real-field applications.

Are you excited by the challenge of building scalable, real-world SLAM systems that power autonomous robots in GPS-denied, unstructured environments? Field AI is seeking a Research Engineer/Scientist to lead the development of multi-robot SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) systems that are risk-aware, field-tested, and ready for deployment.

This role is central to our mission: transforming how embodied AI systems perceive and navigate the world. You’ll design algorithms and infrastructure for teams of autonomous agents to build shared maps, reason under uncertainty, and safely operate in unknown terrain—all with real robots, in the real world.

• Design and Deploy Multi-Robot SLAM Systems
• Develop real-time SLAM pipelines capable of fusing multi-agent multi-modal perception and odometry data.
• Build shared-mapping infrastructure to support distributed localization, loop closure, and multi-agent coordination.
• Design algorithms that handle uncertainty, communication latency, and bandwidth constraints in field environments.
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• Bring Algorithms into the Real World
• Integrate SLAM pipelines into full-stack robotic systems—across sensing, perception, planning, and control.
• Work closely with hardware and embedded teams to deploy on real robot platforms, from ground vehicles to aerial systems.
• Run large-scale field experiments to stress-test robustness in dynamic, GPS-denied settings.
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• Build Tooling and Infrastructure
• Create logging, visualization, and analysis tools to understand failure modes and improve reliability.
• Optimize research workflows for high-throughput experimentation, from simulation to deployment.
• Collaborate with planning and learning teams to tightly couple SLAM with downstream tasks.
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• Publish and Engage
• Contribute to top robotics and AI venues (RSS, CoRL, ICRA, NeurIPS).
• Share your work with the research community and represent Field AI at workshops and conferences.

• Ph.D. in Robotics, Computer Science, or a related field with a focus on SLAM, mapping, or autonomous systems.
• Proven experience building SLAM systems—ideally multi-robot or distributed—used outside simulation.
• Strong coding skills in C++ and Python, and familiarity with ROS2.
• Experience with real-world robotics platforms and sensor integration (stereo, LiDAR, IMU, etc.).
• Familiarity with state-of-the-art methods in mapping, pose graph optimization, visual-inertial odometry, and multi-agent coordination.
• Ability to think systematically across perception, estimation, and control.

• Experience deploying SLAM on embedded compute or low-SWaP platforms.
• Publications in top robotics conferences (e.g., RSS, CoRL, ICRA, IROS, etc).
• Experience designing comms-aware SLAM systems for bandwidth-constrained or lossy networks.
• Familiarity with frontier topics like 3D scene graphs, semantic mapping, or SLAM-learning hybrid models.
• Prior work on large-scale autonomy systems involving teams of heterogeneous agents.

Our salary range is generous and we take into consideration an individual's background and experience in determining final salary; base pay offered may vary considerably depending on geographic location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. 

Why Join Field AI?

We are solving one of the world’s most complex challenges: deploying robots in unstructured, previously unknown environments. Our Field Foundational Models™ set a new standard in perception, planning, localization, and manipulation, ensuring our approach is explainable and safe for deployment.

You will have the opportunity to work with a world-class team that thrives on creativity, resilience, and bold thinking. With a decade-long track record of deploying solutions in the field, winning DARPA challenge segments, and bringing expertise from organizations like DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA, Amazon, Tesla Autopilot, Cruise Self-Driving, Zoox, Toyota Research Institute, and SpaceX, we are set to achieve our ambitious goals.

Be Part of the Next Robotics Revolution

To tackle such ambitious challenges, we need a team as unique as our vision — innovators who go beyond conventional methods and are eager to tackle tough, uncharted questions. We’re seeking individuals who challenge the status quo, dive into uncharted territory, and bring interdisciplinary expertise. Our team requires not only top AI talent but also exceptional software developers, engineers, product designers, field deployment experts, and communicators.

We are headquartered in always-sunny Mission Viejo (Irvine adjacent), Southern California and have US based and global teammates. 

Join us, shape the future, and be part of a fun, close-knit team on an exciting journey!

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Candidates and employees are always evaluated based on merit, qualifications, and performance. We will never discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, martial status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status.