Principal Physical AI Distributed Systems Researcher

About the Role

To help drive this mission, we are looking for a Principal Physical AI Distributed Systems Researcher 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. This role is an unparalleled opportunity to join our truly unique research team. RTI Research is highly regarded; our excellent record helps us win millions of dollars in funding per year. Unlike academia or other corporate research departments, RTI's team works closely with product development and field teams delivering real-world applications. Like other top teams, we are creative, we take risks, we drive innovation, and we communicate openly. Unlike other top teams, our product and customers drive our results into real application. If you like to take creative risks and drive innovation, knowing your cutting-edge work will actively power the future of smart distributed systems, this role is for you.

Responsibilities

• 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 define 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

Requirements

• Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering or 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 communications 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 / 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."