Back to jobs

Research Scientist - Autonomous Systems

Palo Alto, California

About Evolver

Evolver is an AI technology company transforming professional services. We combine deep domain expertise, advanced AI, and continuous applied learning to automate complex enterprise workflows while keeping people involved where judgment matters. Our goal is to help organizations operate more efficiently, accurately, and intelligently.

The Role 

Evolver is looking for a Research Scientist with a strong background in autonomous systems, control, mathematical system theory, optimization, or decision-making under uncertainty. 

You will help develop the methodologies underlying intelligent systems that perceive changing environments, maintain and update internal state, reason under uncertainty, plan and act, observe outcomes, and adapt over time. 

We welcome applications from exceptional recent graduates as well as experienced researchers. We care more about depth of thinking, mathematical maturity, and research ability than years of industry experience. 

Experience in robotics or other physical autonomous systems is valuable, but this is not primarily a hardware or embedded-systems role. 

What You'll Do 

  • Develop methods for state and world modeling, state estimation, planning, control, and sequential decision-making. 
  • Design approaches for autonomous systems operating under uncertainty and incomplete information. 
  • Develop adaptive planning and feedback mechanisms that update decisions as new information becomes available. 
  • Apply optimization, control, probabilistic reasoning, reinforcement learning, or related methods to complex AI systems. 
  • Develop methods for evaluating the robustness, reliability, and behavior of autonomous systems. 
  • Translate research into algorithms, prototypes, benchmarks, evaluation methods, and product architectures. 
  • Collaborate with research, engineering, and product teams to bring new methodologies into real systems. 

Minimum Qualifications 

  • Ph.D. or thesis-based Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Control, Robotics, Applied Mathematics, Operations Research, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or a related quantitative field (Note: Please include the title of your thesis in your application and a brief summary of the problem, methodology, and your specific contribution). 
  • Strong foundation in mathematical modeling and systems thinking. 
  • Research experience in one or more of: 
  • dynamical systems and control 
  • state estimation 
  • optimization or optimal control 
  • stochastic systems 
  • sequential decision-making 
  • planning under uncertainty 
  • reinforcement learning 
  • autonomous systems 
  • Strong Python or equivalent scientific computing skills. 
  • Ability to translate mathematical concepts into computational methods and working prototypes. 

There is no minimum number of years of industry experience. Strong candidates may demonstrate their capabilities through a thesis, publications, research projects, internships, open-source work, or relevant industry experience. 

Preferred Qualifications 

  • Research experience in areas such as model predictive control, stochastic control, POMDPs, Bayesian estimation, system identification, hybrid systems, multi-agent systems, or formal verification. 
  • Experience with robotics, autonomous vehicles, aerospace, industrial automation, or other complex autonomous systems. 
  • Strong publication record or demonstrated research impact. 
  • Experience transferring research into production or real-world systems. 
  • Familiarity with modern machine learning, foundation models, or agentic AI systems. 

Deep prior experience with LLMs, RAG, prompt engineering, or specific agent frameworks is not required. 

Application 

In your cover letter, please include the title of your thesis and a brief summary of the problem, methodology, and your specific contribution. 

About Evolver 

Evolver is building intelligent enterprise systems that go beyond generating answers. Our systems must understand evolving situations, reason under uncertainty, make decisions, act, evaluate outcomes, and continuously improve. 

We are looking for researchers who want to bring the foundations of systems, control, autonomy, and decision science into the next generation of AI. 

 

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at Evolver? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Education

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

U.S. Standard Demographic Questions

We invite applicants to share their demographic background. If you choose to complete this survey, your responses may be used to identify areas of improvement in our hiring process.
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Evolver’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...