Research Engineer, Manipulation

The Mission

At GRAM, we believe the next great leap for humanity will be physical, not digital. What AGI is to bits, Self-Replication (SR) is to atoms. As an SR research and deployment company, our mission is to make humanity galactic by enabling physical exponential growth. To achieve this, we are conducting foundational research across general-purpose robotics, artificial intelligence, biology, and materials science to enable SR within our lifetimes.

Our first step is to challenge the consensus that robots should look like us. We believe true progress comes from optimizing for function over form. We are creating a new embodiment for intelligence, designed from first principles to build the future physical economy, on and off-world.

The Role

We are looking for a Research Engineer to solve the central challenge of our robotic platform: manipulation. The Insectoid’s defining feature is its ability to use its forelimbs for both locomotion and complex work, a design that presents a unique and profound robotics puzzle. Your job is to solve it.

This is not a role for incrementalists. You will be responsible for creating the manipulation brain for a novel morphology, drawing inspiration from nature but building on the frontier of control theory and reinforcement learning. You will define how our robot interacts with its environment, turning a machine that can move into a machine that can build. The solutions you create will be foundational to our platform and central to our mission.

Key Responsibilities:

• Architect and implement the full software stack for manipulation, from low-level controllers to high-level task planning and execution.

• Design and develop novel algorithms for motion planning, trajectory optimization, and contact-rich behaviors (e.g., pushing, grasping, turning) for a non-traditional robot topology.

• Solve the core locomotion-manipulation problem, creating robust solutions for stability, workspace management, and seamless transitions between states.

• Leverage modern reinforcement learning and imitation learning techniques to teach the robot complex skills that are difficult to engineer by hand.

• Build high-fidelity simulations for rapid prototyping and testing, and deploy your algorithms on physical hardware, owning the full cycle from theory to reality.

About You

You are a first-principles thinker who is energized by solving problems that have no playbook. You are drawn to ambitious, long-term missions and want to build technology that fundamentally changes our physical capabilities. You thrive in a high-agency environment where you are given the ownership and resources to tackle core challenges.

Basic Qualifications:

• MS in Robotics, Computer Science, or a related field with 3+ years of hands-on experience in robot manipulation.

• Demonstrated expertise in C++ and Python for a production robotics environment.

• A strong foundation in robotics fundamentals, including kinematics, dynamics, and control theory.

• Experience implementing and deploying manipulation algorithms on real hardware.

Preferred Qualifications:

• A PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, or a related discipline.

• A track record of publications in top-tier robotics conferences (e.g., RSS, ICRA, IROS, CoRL).

• Proven experience solving contact-rich manipulation tasks using reinforcement learning, optimal control, or trajectory optimization.

• Hands-on experience with novel or complex robot morphologies (e.g., legged robots, multi-arm systems).

• Experience with modern simulation environments (e.g., Isaac Gym, MuJoCo, RaiSim) and robotics frameworks like ROS/ROS2.

Location

This is an on-site role at our research lab in El Segundo, California. We offer significant relocation assistance for exceptional candidates.

Interview Process

After submitting your application, we review your portfolio and any exceptional work you've shipped. If your application demonstrates the caliber we seek, you'll enter our interview process, which is designed for speed and substance. We aim to complete it within one week from start to finish.

• Company-Wide Base Salary Range: $75,000 - $300,000 USD, calibrated to your impact potential
• Equity: Substantial ownership stake befitting founding team members
• Benefits: Health, dental, and vision coverage; all meals are paid for; relocation assistance

GRAM is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate solely on capability and drive.

Why Join?

We are an early, focused team of scientists and engineers building the system that builds itself. GRAM is funded by leading investors and long-term visionaries. We operate without bureaucracy. Ownership and leadership flow to those who demonstrate exceptional capability, and every team member works directly on our core technology. We are based in El Segundo, the heart of America's industrial future, focused on solving one of the most important problems of our time.