Robotics​/VLA Engineer – Dexterous Manipulation

Robotics / VLA Engineer – Dexterous Manipulation

Join the Advanced Control Group within R&D, focusing on developing next‑generation intelligent robotic systems for manufacturing. Our team operates at the intersection of robotics, imitation learning, perception and vision‑language‑action (VLA) models, control and real‑time systems, and simulation and real‑world deployment in manufacturing environments. The immediate focus for this role is vision‑driven manipulation, specifically leveraging Vision‑Language‑Action models, perception pipelines for robotics, and learning‑based manipulation in structured assembly tasks.

• Develop and deploy learning‑based control policies for dexterous manipulation tasks in real‑world assembly settings.
• Build and refine computer vision pipelines for object detection, pose estimation, and scene understanding in assembly environments.
• Fine‑tune and experiment with pre‑trained VLA or multimodal models on task‑specific datasets.
• Maintain data pipelines for large‑scale robot learning, including data collection, curation, and evaluation.
• Debug system performance across the stack: sensor input → model → control execution.

• Strong background in machine learning and deep learning, with hands‑on experience in model development and evaluation.
• Experience with computer vision (CNNs, feature extraction, perception pipelines).
• Understanding of vision‑language‑action (VLA) models, imitation learning, or diffusion‑based policies.
• Proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (PyTorch / Tensor Flow).
• Strong programming skills with emphasis on scalable, maintainable, and well‑tested code.
• Experience with software engineering best practices (version control, code reviews, modular design).

• Advanced degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• Experience with robotic systems.
• Hands‑on experience with sim‑to‑real transfer and real‑world robotics deployment.
• Familiarity with robotics systems (ROS/ROS2, simulation, real robot deployment) is a plus.
• Experience designing and running experiments, benchmarks, and evaluation pipelines.
• Contributions to research (publications, patents, or deployed systems) in robotics or ML.

This position is onsite at R&D. The role involves working with cutting‑edge technologies in a collaborative and innovative environment focused on advancing robotics in manufacturing.

This is a contract position based out of Warren, MI.

The pay range for this position is $35.00 – $60.00 per hour.

• Medical, dental & vision
• Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital
• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Pre‑tax and Roth post‑tax contributions available
• Life Insurance (Voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents)
• Short and long‑term disability
• Health Spending Account (HSA)
• Transportation benefits
  
  Employee Assistance Program
• Time Off / Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave)

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications without regard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protected by law.