TL;DR This role is for you if: instead of building in an AI lab, you want to do R&D grounded in data with learnings from real world deployments. You’ll believe that iterative development and learning by doing, reduces technical risk and increases chances of success. No two days will be the same, but you can expect to:

• Develop cutting edge navigation, manipulation and human-robot interaction models.

• Identify and validate adjacencies (cross task / cross sector) that your research unlocks.

• Building iteratively to generalisable robotics tasks whilst delivering real-world impact from deployed robots, today.

About Paddington Robotics

At P9R7, we’re building robots that can handle the messy, unpredictable and chaotic real world! We believe that by deploying today, we reveal second-order effects and edge cases that can’t be seen in the lab or the sim. Our mission: become the UK’s go-to applied AI robotics team - and we’ll go above and beyond to get there.

What we actually do:

• Build AI models and hardware that let robots work safely alongside humans - lifting, moving, and getting stuff done better and faster.

• Spend lots of time on Customer sites, to better understand and solve for the messy chaos of most environments.

• Think 10+ years ahead, reimagining manual labour and creating robots that become complementary assistants for labour intensive and physically demanding tasks

We’re a small, dynamic team from Amazon, InstaDeep, Imperial, UCL, and Cambridge to name a few, united by one of the founders of Magic Pony (acquired by Twitter).

Senior AI Research Scientist @ Paddington Robotics

We’re hiring Senior AI Research Scientists to leverage the data from our real-world deployments to build the AI and software stack required for reliable robotics. Depending on your experience and interest, you might be problem solving across:

• 3D perception and scene understanding

• Object manipulation and interaction

• Navigation and planning

• Safe Human-Robot interaction

About you

• You are an active member of the AI research community and have good intuitions on how to improve on the state-of-the-art: e.g. whether it is in more data-efficient learning techniques, new model architectures, or methods to better understand our dynamic human world.

• You have developed and deployed cutting-edge models for use in the real world: robustness against the mess of the world, sensor noise, ever changing dynamic environments. You have experience with what works in practice and what is more speculative.

• You’re highly collaborative, and love working with others: sharing knowledge, learning from and teaching others, and embracing feedback

• You’re a fast learner, and low ego: and ask all the questions! Fast iteration speed means you do not get attached to specific solutions.

• You’re a practical problem solver: you can take your expertise and tackle engineering challenges pragmatically in messy, real-world environments.

Above all, we’re building a team of creative, outside-the-box thinkers. To thrive here, you are:

• Highly ambitious: comfortable taking a project from concept to completion - you do what is necessary to achieve our goals.

• Self-directed and proactive: you thrive in a dynamic, unpredictable, multi-disciplinary environment.

• Enthusiastic team players: you ask questions, help others, and communicate effectively.

What will impress us

We love proactive doers. Show us what you’ve built - whether it’s interfaces, projects, or experiments. Tell us why our mission excites you. Be bold, be creative, and don’t feel embarrassed to stand out from the crowd.

Location

Our London office is right by Portobello Road. We work full-time, and largely on-site (4 days a week). Expect vibrant startup energy with a team that knows when to laugh, and when to buckle down.

Paddington Robotics is an equal opportunity employer and encourages individuals from all backgrounds to apply. We offer competitive compensation, the friendliest of teams, an insanely stimulating work environment, and the opportunity to be a part of something massive.