Back to jobs

HRI Researcher

San Francisco

THE COMPANY

LUDO ROBOTICS is dedicated to building general-purpose robotic intelligence systems that are robust, adaptive, and capable of handling real-world scenarios. We believe that data-driven machine learning at massive scale is the key to unlocking these capabilities and enabling the widespread deployment of robots across society.

We are a new startup headquartered in Bay Area, California, with an office in Seoul, Korea. Our team spans a wide range of backgrounds and experience, from new graduates to seasoned domain experts. What matters most to us is ownership, speed, and intellectual curiosity - people who take responsibility, move fast, and enjoy thinking deeply about hard problems.

We are supported by a highly advanced AI Center within KRAFTON, a leading global video game company best known for the genre-defining worldwide success PUBG: Battlegrounds. KRAFTON has extensive experience building and operating large-scale, data-rich products, and we have secured investment from them. This gives us strong long-term backing, deep technical partnership opportunities, and access to world-class infrastructure and talent networks as we push robotic intelligence forward.

We are looking for passionate builders who want to explore uncharted territory, take on difficult problems, and ship ambitious, industry-shaping work. You will collaborate across diverse teams as we bring our technology from research into real-world deployment.

THE OPPORTUNITY

As an HRI Researcher at Ludo Robotics, you will shape how robots and people connect - designing, studying, and evaluating how robots perceive, interpret, and respond to human behavior in real-world settings. You will collaborate with engineers, designers, and domain experts to prototype socially capable robots that exhibit natural, acceptable, and effective behaviors across diverse contexts.

The ideal candidate brings deep knowledge of human-robot interaction, social cognition, or adjacent fields and the curiosity to translate that knowledge into working systems deployed on physical robots. You will help define how our robots look, act, and communicate as social agents in the world.

RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Contribute to research at the frontier of robot social intelligence, including gaze behavior, turn-taking, dialog, gesture, emotional expression, proxemics, and other socially acceptable robot behaviors.
  • Design and conduct experiments, and field deployments to evaluate how people perceive and interact with our robots.
  • Develop theoretical frameworks and translate them into prototype robot behaviors, bridging HRI theory with real-world system implementation.
  • Synthesize findings from academic literature across HCI, social robotics, cognitive science, and AI to inform research direction and prototype design.
  • Integrate social behavior models into robot control pipelines.
  • Help establish metrics and evaluation frameworks for socially intelligent robot behavior.

QUALIFICATIONS

  • PhD or Master's degree in Human-Robot Interaction, Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Robotics, or a related field (or equivalent research experience).
  • Hands-on prototyping experience with robots (humanoid, mobile, or custom platforms) or virtual agents.
  • Experience designing and running controlled user studies, participatory design sessions.
  • Comfort working across disciplines, translating between user insights, theoretical models, and engineering constraints.
  • A genuine curiosity about people and what makes interactions feel natural, safe, and engaging.
  • Ability to implement or collaborate on technical systems - familiarity with ROS, Python, or related robotics tools is a plus.
  • Experience with large language models (LLMs) is a plus, particularly in building conversational AI or dialog systems, or applying LLMs to robot behavior such as natural language understanding and task planning.

Reasonable Accommodation

LUDO ROBOTICS is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, the Company will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to apply for an open position, perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact the Operations Team, to begin the interactive process.

EEOC Statement

LUDO ROBOTICS provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type.

This position may be filled at multiple levels depending on experience, scope, and business need. In California, the expected salary range for this position is $98,000–$305,000. The listed expected salary ranges represent good faith estimates. Actual compensation may vary based on job-related factors including experience, education, skills, performance, and work location. This position is also eligible for equity compensation and a comprehensive benefits package.

Don’t meet every single requirement?

Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply at jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At LUDO ROBOTICS we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might just be the right candidate for this or other roles.

Due to recent scams, our recruiters will only reach out to you via @ludorobotics.ai, @sds.com, @krafton.com or @pubg.com. If you received an email and are unsure you can always email recruiting_KA@Krafton.com

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

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

Thank you for applying to KRAFTON. We are going to collect and process your information in order to progress through the recruitment process. For more details about processing your information please visit KRAFTON’s Privacy Policy. 

KRAFTON refers to KRAFTON, Inc and its subsidiary and affiliated entities that provide and develop games and services under different studios. If you want to see the list of affiliated studios please visit HERE.

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 Ludo Robotics’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...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.