Senior AI Software Engineer, AI Controls

Why Join Now

Digit is one of the only humanoid robots deployed in real customer facilities today—at Schaeffler, GXO, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, and Mercado Libre, with 65,000+ hours of real-world operation logged. In June 2026 we announced plans to become the first pure-play humanoid robotics company to trade publicly (ticker AGLT), in a ~$2.5B merger backed by NVIDIA, Amazon, Soft Bank Vision Fund 2, and Foxconn.

With $300M+ in orders for Digit and a factory built for 10,000 robots a year, we’re scaling fast—and the policies you build will ship to robots working alongside people in production, not sit in simulation.

The AI Controls team builds high-rate learned controllers that let Digit move robustly, efficiently, and safely in dynamic environments. As an AI Controls Engineer, you’ll develop and deploy reinforcement learning policies across humanoid locomotion, whole-body control, and manipulation—integrating perception to enable collision-free, perceptive motion in the real world.

Design, train, and deploy robust RL policies for locomotion, manipulation, whole body control, and dynamic interactions with the environment. Integrate perception into RL policies to achieve obstacle-aware, collision-free motion, and perceptive manipulation. Develop and maintain core RL infrastructure, including scalable training pipelines and evaluation frameworks. Design and implement new simulation environments and tasks to support training and evaluation of control policies.

Collaborate with on-robot software and deployment teams to ship production-quality policies to Digit.

4+ years of experience developing and deploying RL policies for robotics applications. Strong Python skills and hands‑on experience with a deep learning framework such as PyTorch. Experience designing reward functions, tuning hyperparameters, and implementing exploration strategies to solve complex control tasks. Experience with perception-in-the-loop control, integrating real‑time sensory inputs for reactive or adaptive behaviours. Proven experience deploying reinforcement learning policies on real‑world bipedal or quadrupedal robots.

Familiarity with robot simulation environments (e.g. Mujoco‑Warp, Isaac) and sim‑to‑real transfer. A collaborative approach and the ability to deliver safe, high-quality software in a fast‑paced environment.

Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Robotics, Computer Science, or a related field. Experience with contact-rich manipulation, including force‑torque or tactile sensing. Familiarity with policy distillation (e.g. teacher–student) for transferring state-based policies to perception-driven ones. Publications in top ML or robotics conferences (e.g. NeurIPS, ICML, CoRL, RSS, ICRA).

This a hybrid position based out of one of our Salem, Pittsburgh, or Fremont offices. The final salary offered to a successful candidate will be dependent on several factors that may include but are not limited to: market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. This range may change based on geographical location and may be modified in the future.

Anticipated Salary Range $187,000 — $292,000 USD

• 401(k) Plan:
  Includes a 6% company match.
• Equity:
  Company stock options.
• Insurance Coverage: 100% company-paid medical, dental, vision, and short/long-term disability insurance for employees.
• Benefit
  
  Start Date:
  
  Eligible for benefits on your first day of employment.
• Well-Being Support:
  Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
• Time Off:
  Exempt Employees:
  Flexible, unlimited PTO and 12 company holidays, including a winter shutdown.
• Non-Exempt Employees: 10 vacation days, paid sick leave, and 12 company holidays, including a winter shutdown, annually.
• On-Site Perks:
  Catered lunches four times a week and a variety of healthy snacks and refreshments at our Salem and Pittsburgh locations.
• Parental Leave:
  Generous paid parental leave programs.
• Work Environment: A culture that supports flexible work arrangements.
• Growth Opportunities:
  Professional development and tuition reimbursement programs.
• Relocation Assistance:
  Provided for eligible roles.
• Annual Discretionary Bonus:
  Provided for eligible…