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Postdoctoral Fellowship - Robotics and AI

San Francisco

TYPE:  Research Fellowship · 1 Year

START DATE:  September 2026 (start date flexible; open to discussion)

LOCATION:  Palo Alto, CA  |  Seoul, Korea

COMPENSATION:  Competitive, commensurate with experience

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 the 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 of 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.

About the Fellowship

The Ludo Robotics Research Fellows Program is a one-year, post-doctoral-level appointment for exceptional early-career researchers who want to go beyond the boundaries of traditional academic research and translate frontier ideas into physical systems deployed in the real world.

Fellows will pursue independent and collaborative research in Robotics, AI and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)—with full access to our robot platforms, datasets, compute infrastructure, and the mentorship of our core research team. This is not an internship. Fellows are expected to drive meaningful research contributions that advance the state of the art and feed directly into Ludo's technical roadmap. Business travel to our Seoul Office may be required.

We welcome applicants whose work spans AI / ML, HRI, perception, manipulation, navigation, or any adjacent area where ambitious research can move the needle.

Research Areas

Fellows may pursue projects in, but not limited to, the following areas:

  • Robot learning from demonstration, reinforcement learning, and imitation learning
  • Perception, scene understanding, and semantic mapping
  • Manipulation, dexterous grasping, and tool use
  • Navigation, mobility, and multi-robot coordination
  • Foundation models and large-scale data pipelines for robot training
  • Safety, robustness, and sim-to-real transfer
  • Trust, transparency, and long-term user studies in public or semi-public settings
  • Social intelligence and human-aware robot learning
  • Socially aware planning, adaptation, and interaction-aware control

Responsibilities

  • Design and lead an independent research agenda within the fellowship scope, in collaboration with Ludo's research team.
  • Conduct experiments, user studies, and field deployments to evaluate hypotheses on real hardware.
  • Develop theoretical frameworks and translate them into prototype robot behaviors that bridge research with real-world system implementation.
  • Synthesize findings from academic literature across HRI, HCI, social robotics, cognitive science, robot learning, and AI to inform research direction.
  • Integrate developed models and algorithms into robot control pipelines and evaluate their real-world performance.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with engineers, designers, and product teams to translate research insights into deployable systems.
  • Contribute to establishing metrics and evaluation frameworks for robot behavior and system performance.
  • Publicize and disseminate research findings through publications, preprints, talks, and open-source releases.
  • Actively participate in team seminars, design reviews, and knowledge-sharing sessions.

Qualifications

Required

  • PhD (completed or expected by start date) in Human-Robot Interaction, Human-Computer Interaction, Robotics, Computer Science, Cognitive Science, or a closely related field.
  • A strong record of research contributions demonstrated through publications, preprints, or equivalent technical output.
  • Experience conducting rigorous experiments—user studies, ablations, or system evaluations—and interpreting results clearly.
  • Ability to work independently and drive a research agenda with minimal supervision while remaining collaborative and communicative.

Preferred

  • Hands-on prototyping experience with physical robots (humanoid, mobile, or custom platforms) or virtual agents.
  • Experience designing and running controlled user studies and participatory design sessions.
  • Comfort working across disciplines, translating between user insights, theoretical models, and engineering constraints.
  • Familiarity with ROS, Python, or related robotics software tools.
  • Experience with large language models (LLMs), particularly in building conversational AI, dialog systems, or applying LLMs to robot behavior such as natural language understanding and task planning.
  • Genuine curiosity about people and what makes interactions feel natural, safe, and engaging.

What We Offer

  • Competitive compensation commensurate with post-doctoral research experience.
  • Full access to state-of-the-art robot platforms, compute infrastructure, and real-world deployment environments.
  • Direct mentorship from Ludo's founding research team and access to KRAFTON's AI Center network.
  • A collaborative, fast-moving research culture that values independent thinking and high-quality work.
  • Opportunity for the fellowship to convert to a full-time research role based on mutual interest and fit.

How to Apply

Submit your CV, a brief research statement (1–2 pages), and up to three representative publications or preprints below.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage early applications. The anticipated start date is September 2026; alternative start dates are available and can be discussed during the interview process.

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 $100,000-$125,000. 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. 

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

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