Physical AI Research Engineer

About Remote Robotic SystemsHelp build the next generation of autonomous systems operating at the intersection of robotics, aerospace, artificial intelligence, and defence technology.Remote Robotic Systems (RRS) is a Canadian robotics and defence-tech company helping organizations deploy enterprise-grade drones, uncrewed aircraft, robotic platforms, sensors, payloads, and remote operations technologies for mission-critical applications. Our solutions support customers across defence, public safety, security, industrial, infrastructure, energy, and government sectors.Through our Airmetal team, we develop advanced aerospace and autonomous systems that support defence, public safety, security, and industrial operations.As part of this mission, we are building in-house autonomy capabilities that will enable our platforms to operate more intelligently, more reliably, and with greater independence in complex real-world environments.We're a small, fast-moving team that values ownership, technical depth, practical problem solving, and the ability to translate cutting-edge research into working capabilities.
The RoleAirmetal is looking for a Physical AI Research Engineer to help build the next generation of autonomy for our drone platforms.This is a high-impact role working at the frontier of robotics and physical AI, where you'll evaluate emerging research, develop new approaches, and deploy learning-based autonomy into real-world systems.You'll work across the full autonomy development lifecycle, from research and experimentation through training, simulation, testing, and deployment. Working closely with our software lead, you'll help determine where modern AI approaches outperform classical robotics methods and where hybrid solutions deliver the best results.We're looking for someone who enjoys exploring new ideas, validating them through experimentation, and translating promising research into practical autonomy capabilities that fly on real hardware.
What You Will Work OnResearch & Development

• Evaluate and reproduce state-of-the-art research in physical AI, robot learning, and autonomous systems.
• Assess open-source frameworks, research papers, and emerging techniques for applicability to Airmetal's autonomy challenges.
• Adapt and extend existing algorithms into solutions tailored to our platforms and operating environments.
• Contribute to the technical direction of autonomy research and development efforts.

Machine Learning & Autonomy

• Design, train, and evaluate machine learning models for perception, navigation, control, and autonomous decision-making.
• Develop reinforcement learning, imitation learning, and learning-based autonomy approaches.
• Benchmark AI-based systems against classical robotics and control approaches.
• Help identify where hybrid architectures provide the strongest performance and reliability.

Simulation & Deployment

• Develop simulation environments and datasets to support autonomy research.
• Train and evaluate models using in-house compute resources and multi-GPU infrastructure.
• Support sim-to-real transfer through testing, validation, system identification, and domain randomization.
• Work with engineering teams to integrate successful prototypes into production systems.

Testing & Validation

• Participate in testing and evaluation of autonomy capabilities on real hardware.
• Analyze performance data and continuously improve system behaviour.
• Document experiments, methodologies, results, and technical decisions.
• Help establish best practices for AI research, testing, and deployment across the engineering team.

Core Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Experience developing machine learning systems for robotics, autonomy, physical AI, or embodied AI applications.
• Experience with reinforcement learning, imitation learning, learned perception, control systems, or related techniques.
• Strong PyTorch experience and practical experience developing, training, and deploying deep learning models.
• Ability to understand, evaluate, and reproduce contemporary research papers and open-source projects.
• Experience with robotics simulation environments such as Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, MuJoCo, or similar platforms.
• Strong Python skills and working proficiency in C++.
• Familiarity with classical robotics concepts including planning, control, estimation, and autonomy.
• Experience working through iterative research and development cycles with a high degree of autonomy.

Nice to Have

• Experience with vision-language-action models, world models, diffusion policies, or foundation models for robotics.
• UAV, aerial robotics, PX4, ArduPilot, or autonomous drone experience.
• ROS 2 experience.
• Learning-based navigation in GPS-denied environments.
• Visual-inertial estimation, SLAM, or localization experience.
• Multi-agent systems or swarm robotics experience.
• Experience deploying models to embedded systems such as NVIDIA Jetson platforms.
• Contributions to robotics research, publications, or open-source projects.
• Experience with motion-capture systems and structured laboratory experimentation.

What Will Make You Successful

• You enjoy tackling open-ended research problems and rapidly iterating through new ideas.
• You can balance research curiosity with practical engineering outcomes.
• You are comfortable learning unfamiliar concepts and technologies quickly.
• You enjoy working at the boundary between simulation and real-world hardware.
• You communicate technical concepts clearly and document your work thoroughly.
• You take ownership of problems and follow through from idea to implementation.

What We Offer

• The opportunity to work on real-world autonomy challenges at the frontier of physical AI.
• Direct impact on autonomous systems deployed on operational drone platforms.
• Access to substantial in-house compute resources and hands-on robotics testing environments.
• The opportunity to help build Airmetal's autonomy capability from the ground up.
• Small team environment with significant ownership and visibility.
• Exposure to robotics, aerospace, autonomy, machine learning, and defence technologies.
• Competitive compensation, benefits, and performance incentives.

Employment DetailsType: Full-timeLocation: On-site in Kanata, ONCompensation: $75,000-$90,000 plus benefits and incentives.This posting is for an existing, open vacancy.Security clearance: Some roles are conditional on the ability to obtain and maintain the required security clearance.Use of AI in hiring: We may use AI tools to help with parts of our hiring process, such as reviewing applications, screening resumes, and evaluating candidate responses. These tools support our team, but people make all hiring decisions. AI is used to assist, not replace, human judgment.
Application ProcessIf you're excited about robotics, machine learning, autonomy, and helping shape the future of physical AI, we'd love to hear from you.Submit your resume and tell us why you're interested in joining Remote Robotic Systems and the Airmetal team.Remote Robotic Systems is an equal opportunity employer. If you require accommodation during the recruitment process, please let us know.