General Motors · 1 week ago
Principal Applied Scientist - AI & Robotics
Mountain View, CA
Full-time
Hybrid
Lead/Staff
$259K/yr - $320K/yrGeneral Motors is focused on advancing embodied AI through its AI Research team, which is building end-to-end robot policies for dexterous manipulation. The Principal Applied Scientist will define technical direction, create innovative robot learning methodologies, and lead initiatives to develop reliable robotic capabilities.
AutomotiveElectric VehicleInformation ServicesManufacturingTransportation
Responsibilities
Define the research strategy and technical roadmap for embodied manipulation policies that span perception, training, control, and deployment
Invent or advance robot learning architectures (e.g., diffusion-based policies, ACT-style agents, multimodal embodied transformers) to enable robust dexterous manipulation
Architect end-to-end policy systems from multimodal sensing to hardware control, across simulation and real environments
Establish standards for data generation, demonstrations, simulation fidelity, evaluation, and sim-to-real adaptation for manipulation tasks
Guide cross-functional efforts to scale robot learning from prototypes to production, including reliability constraints, observability, and performance guarantees
Mentor scientists and engineers, influence hiring, and shape research priorities within the organization
Represent GM in external communities (e.g., CoRL, RSS, ICRA, NeurIPS), pursue collaborations, and drive thought leadership in embodied AI
Qualification
Required
PhD in a relevant STEM field, with a recognized track record in robotics, robot learning, or embodied AI
Significant experience designing and deploying robot learning systems on physical hardware, including manipulation tasks and real-time policy execution
Expertise in modern AI architectures (Transformers, diffusion models, VLM/VLA agents, imitation learning, offline RL) and ability to extend them to new embodied scenarios
Mastery of PyTorch, including model internals, performance optimization, distributed training, and debugging complex failures
Hands-on experience with ROS/ROS2, motion planning stacks, and integration of ML components into robotic platforms
Evidence of high-impact contributions: top-tier publications, influential open-source efforts, field deployments, or foundational algorithms
Proven ability to lead ambiguous multi-disciplinary research programs and deliver tangible embodied AI outcomes
Preferred
Experience establishing research agendas in robot learning or dexterous manipulation that resulted in widely adopted systems or protocols
Leadership of projects involving perception → policy → control integration, staged training, or multi-robot deployment
Deep expertise in at least one advanced area: Dexterous manipulation / affordance-driven action, Multi-step task sequencing / long horizon reasoning, Offline RL or imitation learning at scale, Physics-informed or tactile-informed policies, Foundation models for embodied agents
Strong industry or academic presence: invited talks, program committees, major open-source contributions, or collaborations with robotics research institutions
Benefits
Bonus Potential: An incentive pay program offers payouts based on company performance, job level, and individual performance.
Benefits: GM offers a variety of health and wellbeing benefit programs. Benefit options include medical, dental, vision, Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending Accounts, retirement savings plan, sickness and accident benefits, life insurance, paid vacation & holidays, tuition assistance programs, employee assistance program, GM vehicle discounts and more.
Company Vehicle: Upon successful completion of a motor vehicle report review, you will be eligible to participate in a company vehicle evaluation program, through which you will be assigned a General Motors vehicle to drive and evaluate.
Relocation: This job may be eligible for relocation benefits.
Company
General Motors
General Motors is an automotive company that designs, produces, markets, and distributes vehicles and vehicle parts.
Founded in 1908
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
General Motors 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 (787)
2024 (740)
2023 (450)
2022 (795)
2021 (748)
2020 (452)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$8.51BKey Investors
US Department of Energy
2025-05-05Post Ipo Debt· $2B
2024-10-31Grant· $8M
2024-07-11Grant· $500M
Leadership Team
Mary Barra
Chair and Chief Executive Officer
Tony Cervone
Senior Vice President, Global Communications
Recent News
2026-01-16
Company data provided by crunchbase