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Toyota Research Institute · 3 months ago

Senior Machine Learning Researcher, Large Behavior Models & Diffusion Policy

Los Altos, CA

Full-time

Hybrid

Senior Level

$200K/yr - $300K/yr

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is on a mission to improve the quality of human life through innovative tools and capabilities. The Senior Machine Learning Researcher will develop state-of-the-art systems for automated driving, focusing on end-to-end learning approaches and collaborating across teams to enhance model deployment and evaluation.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)AutomotiveConsumer ResearchMachine LearningProduct Research

Comp. & Benefits

H1B Sponsor Likely

Responsibilities

Conduct ambitious research to advance the state-of-the-art in using new capabilities in generative AI (e.g., recent results in diffusion policy [1], [2]) for end-to-end perception, planning, and prediction in automated driving with a focus on computer vision as the primary sensing modality

Research and implement scalable end-to-end architectures that process raw sensor data to generate vehicle trajectories, addressing the challenges of long-tail driving scenarios with low data coverage

Prototype, validate, and iterate model architectures using imitation learning and large-scale data, ensuring robust performance across diverse scenarios

Perform closed-loop evaluations in sensor simulations and real-world testing environments to rigorously assess model performance, stability, and scalability

Explore multi-modal and language-conditioned models to broaden the applicability of end-to-end policies, using external data sources and transfer learning to enhance generalization

Collaborate with researchers and engineers across TRI, Woven by Toyota, and Toyota’s global ecosystem to accelerate model deployment and evaluation in both controlled environments (closed-course) and public road driving

Take the lead on writing and publishing research results in peer-reviewed venues

Qualification

Machine LearningLarge Behavior ModelsDiffusion PolicyPythonC++RoboticsComputer VisionResearch PublicationIndependent ResearchCollaborationMentoring

Required

A PhD or equivalent experience in a robotics-relevant or embodied-AI field such as Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, or Engineering

A consistent track record of publishing at high-impact conferences/journals (CVPR, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, CoRL, RSS, ICRA, ICCV, ECCV, PAMI, IJCV, etc.)

A consistent track record of independent research

Demonstrated ability to independently formulate and complete a research agenda while collaborating across subject areas

Experience training large-scale models, including foundation models (e.g., vision-language models, text-to-video models)

Proficiency in Python and C++ for implementing and evaluating research ideas

Preferred

Experience with robot motion planning techniques like trajectory optimization, sampling-based planning, and model predictive control, or experience with automated driving domains (e.g., perception, prediction, mapping, localization, planning, simulation)

Experience in developing production-level code for real-time operating systems

Experience optimizing runtime-critical systems for Linux, UNIX-like real-time operating systems on automotive-grade compute platforms, and building safety-critical software architectures

Benefits

401(k) eligibility

Various paid time off benefits, such as vacation, sick time, and parental leave

Annual cash bonus structure

Company

Toyota Research Institute

Glassdoor4.2

Toyota Research Institute is an R&D enterprise with an initial focus on artificial intelligence and robotics.

Founded in 2016

Palo Alto, California, USA

201-500 employees

http://www.tri.global

H1B Sponsorship

Toyota Research Institute has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)

Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship

Represents job field similar to this job

Trends of Total Sponsorships

2025 (10)

2020 (7)