About this opportunity
Lightspeed lists this Robot Learning Engineer opportunity in northbrook, Illinois. Review the employer’s description below for duties, qualifications and application requirements.
Job description
About LightSpeed
LightSpeed Build Technologies is revolutionizing the construction industry through AI-powered robotics. Our flagship systems BRUTE for automated wall panel manufacturing and DEX for on-site collaborative construction are addressing the global housing crisis by delivering unprecedented speed, precision, and affordability in homebuilding.
Position Overview
As a Robot Learning Engineer, you will teach our robots to perform complex manipulation tasks from human demonstration. You will own the path from demonstration to deployed behavior: building the teleoperation systems that capture how skilled people do the work, turning that data into trained policies, and proving those policies on real robots with dexterous hands and custom tooling. You'll also shape how we learn from video of people doing the work itself. This role is hands-on, fast-moving, and measured by one thing: robots that reliably do the job.
What you'll work on
Teleoperation & Demonstration Data
Build and improve teleoperation pipelines using leader arms for bulk arm motion and VR hand tracking for fine, finger-level interaction
Retarget human hand motion to a dexterous robot hand, developing in simulation first and validating on hardware
Design data collection protocols so demonstrations are consistent, well-structured, and train well
Define what data is worth collecting and how much, and guide technicians who run collection sessions
Policy Learning
Train and fine-tune manipulation policies using imitation learning and vision-language-action (VLA) models
Choose policy architectures and action representations suited to multi-step, contact-rich tasks
Combine teleoperation data with human demonstration video to improve policies
Iterate quickly from data to trained policy to real-robot trial
Evaluation & Deployment
Define and run evaluation protocols on real robots, measuring success rate per task step
Diagnose failures across data, model, and hardware, and fix the right one
Deploy policies on robots with ROS2-based control and optimize inference for real-time performance
Work with integration engineers to run policies across a full task sequence
Data Pipeline & Vendor Oversight
Define dataset formats and data quality standards for training
Supervise external partners who build data pipeline infrastructure and label human demonstration video, and set specs and accept deliveries
Prototype extraction of useful training signals from egocentric (head-mounted camera) video in-house before scaling it out
Required Qualifications
Robot Learning
3+ years of hands-on experience in robot learning, ML for robotics, or closely related production ML
Experience training policies from demonstrations on physical robots using imitation learning (e.g., ACT, Diffusion Policy, or similar)
Experience collecting teleoperation or demonstration data for robot learning
Strong PyTorch skills and experience running training, evaluation, and debugging end to end
Track record of evaluating models in the real world and diagnosing failures
Robotics & Software
Strong Python; working C++
Experience with ROS or ROS2 and real robot hardware
Understanding of manipulator kinematics and control fundamentals
Proficiency with Linux, Docker, and Git
Preferred Qualifications
MS or PhD in Robotics, Machine Learning, Computer Science, or a related field
Experience fine-tuning VLA or foundation models for robot control
Experience with dexterous hands, VR hand tracking, or motion retargeting
Experience building or using leader-follower teleoperation systems
Experience learning from human video or egocentric data
Experience building and maintaining large-scale robotics datasets
Robotics simulation experience with MuJoCo, Isaac Sim, or similar
Experience with robot learning datasets and tooling (e.g., LeRobot, rosbag, MCAP)
Experience managing data vendors or labeling workflows
Background in manufacturing, industrial automation, or construction technology
Why Join LightSpeed
Teach real robots to do skilled work that addresses the housing crisis
Own the full loop from human demonstration to deployed robot behavior
Work with dexterous hands, custom tooling, and human demonstration data at scale
Hands-on culture with direct access to robots, sensors, and manufacturing environments
Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits
Employment Relationship
This position is at-will, meaning either you or the Company may terminate employment at any time, with or without cause or notice.
Equal Opportunity
LightSpeed Build Technologies is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and experiences.
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Worksite address
northbrook, IL, 60065, US
Who can apply
Review the original listing for work authorization, qualifications and employer requirements.