Physical AI Distributed Systems Researcher

About the Role

Real-Time Innovations (RTI) is at the forefront of powering the smart-planet promise, from Robotaxi fleets to digital operating rooms. As the creator of the world’s leading software framework for smart machines and real-time systems, RTI is building an edge-to-cloud physical data streaming platform for low-level machine control, AI-driven smart operation, modern agentic coding, and seamless cloud orchestration.

We are seeking a Physical AI Distributed Systems Researcher to join our unique research team. This role offers an unparalleled opportunity to tackle the industry's toughest challenges, including enabling AI coding for distributed systems, delivering determinism and timing control, designing software-defined architectures, and ensuring system-wide coherence. Unlike academia or other corporate research departments, RTI's team collaborates closely with product development and field teams, ensuring that cutting-edge work directly impacts real-world applications and powers the future of smart distributed systems.

What You’ll Do / Responsibilities

As an individual contributor, you will work with a team of experts to research emerging technologies, develop novel solutions for research sponsors, explore new product concepts, prototype ideas, and lead small teams to enhance advanced features related to RTI’s secure real-time connectivity platform, Connext. Your duties will include:

• Innovate new solutions that will form the foundation of secure, adaptable, and fast distributed systems.
• Work with the business-development team to define research areas of interest and interesting research proposal topics.
• Compose research proposals and report progress to research sponsors.
• Execute and lead research contracts to push our technology forward.
• Serve as Principal Investigator and/or Staff Member on externally-funded research contracts.
• Actively interface with research project sponsors, customers, research partners, and prospects.
• Develop expertise in emerging technology and share your insights across RTI.
• Communicate technical innovations through papers and presentations.
• Support the transition of promising technical innovations to product, including customer trials, coordinating with product management, and working closely with the engineering team to design, develop, test, and support this transition.

What We’re Looking For / Requirements

• Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field. Appropriate research expertise includes electromechanical, intelligent or autonomous systems, distributed systems, physical agentic AI, or computer networking.
• An experimental thesis or real-world experience with physical applications or distributed systems research.
• Excellent written communication skills and evidence of research publications.
• Experience writing and winning proposals, and research project management.
• Solid programming skills and experience with AI-assisted software development.
• Ability to work successfully and actively engage with a highly distributed team.
• US Person requirement: Due to applicable laws, government regulations, and contract specifications, we are required to fill this position only with an individual who qualifies as a "U.S. Person."