Staff Machine Learning Engineer
Atoms · San Francisco, CA · United States · On-site
Pay: USD 273,000 – 345,000 a year
Posted Jun 26, 2026
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Who we are
Atoms is building the machines that power the next era of progress.
Over the last decade, software has transformed the digital world. But the physical world, where food is made, minerals are mined, goods are moved, and industries are run, remains far less intelligent, far less efficient, and far more constrained. We’re changing that.
Atoms builds Physical AI— real-world robots for the industries that move civilization forward, starting with food, mining, and transport. Our systems are designed to understand, predict, and control the real world with precision, turning complex physical operations into something more reliable, more scalable, and more productive.
This work requires more than robotics. It requires deep integration across hardware, software, AI, operations, manufacturing, and real estate. We don’t just build machines in a lab. We deploy them into real environments, operate them, learn from them, and improve them until they work at scale.
We are roboticists, engineers, operators, and builders. We believe the next great technology companies will not only transform information, but the physical systems that shape everyday life.
If you want to work on hard problems with real-world impact, join us.
AI Researcher (World Models & VLA)
What you’ll do
A visionary Machine Learning Engineer to join our founding team who will help bridge the gap between high-level AI research and real-world physical actuation for our next-generation autonomous transport platforms. We are actively hiring across three core specialized subcategories: AI Research, Post-Training Optimization, and Data Engineering.
Research and develop cutting edge RL and distillation techniques for trajectory planning
Integrate emerging research from the broader AI community, identifying and prototyping the most promising solutions
Design and deploy end-to-end multimodal models that translate real-time visual perception and high-level behavioral goals into physical vehicle actuation
Develop interactive world models from raw multi-sensor logs, allowing the team to re-simulate events and query what a vehicle would see if it altered its trajectory
Ensure core autonomous driving models can seamlessly adapt to novel urban environments and edge cases
Partner with validation and QA teams to run model releases through rigorous simulated scenarios, detecting regressions and identifying systemic performance bottlenecks.
What we’re looking for
10+ years of non-internship professional MLE experience.
Deep expertise in applying AI Transformers to robotics, physical actuation, or spatial-temporal data.
Proven track record designing or training multimodal systems, large-scale VLA models, or generative Diffusion models.
Strong background in Sensor Fusion, combining inputs from Cameras, LiDAR, and Radar.
Fluency in PyTorch or JAX for training large-scale models.
Experience with multi-task learning, Birds-Eye-View (BEV) frameworks,…