Senior Applied Researcher, Machine Learning

Key Skills

Aartificial intelligence, Algorithms, C++, C++17 Programming, Computer Vision (CV), Confluence, CUDA kernels, dense 3D reconstruction, GitLab, JIRA, Machine learning techniques, Optimization, Python Programming, PyTorch, Reinforcement Learning, TensorFlow

Job Description

Sanctuary is seeking an exceptional Senior Machine Learning (ML) Researcher to join our team in engineering and solving foundational challenges of robotic perception, planning, and reasoning.

As part of the ML team, you will be responsible for designing and implementing novel algorithms, testing your algorithms in simulation, and deploying them to our robots in real-world settings. With access to in-house robots, you will have a unique opportunity for impactful work with new haptic and proprioceptive sensing modalities. As part of your work, you'll have the opportunity to learn and implement leading-edge ML methods.

Success Criteria

• Design and implement novel algorithms and test your algorithms in real-world settings in at least one of these categories: computer vision, haptics processing, or robotics
• Keep up to date with the state-of-the-art on specific topics in computer vision, robotics, and machine-learning
• Identify, communicate, and drive promising research directions to the team
• Implement and test existing solutions and find ways of improving existing implementations for execution with regards to standard metrics such as speed, memory and computational resource usage, and scalability
• Package research results and implementation for use by other researchers and collaborators
• Work with a multidisciplinary team to develop novel algorithms and investigate sources of errors with existing implementations

Your Experience

Qualifications

• PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Applied Math, or equivalent work experience in ML
• 4+ years' experience implementing a variety of ML methods with a focus in a specialization such as computer vision or robotics
• Demonstrated experience with the state-of-the-art in 3D scene understanding, such as object detection, semantic and instance segmentation, and 3D scene reconstruction 
• Demonstrated experience with optimization algorithms and Monte Carlo methods
• Experience in simulation-to-reality transfer learning
• Experience taking ML R&D and trained models into production
• Hands-on experience integrating ML models onto a robotics platform 
• Experience with computer vision systems
• Publications in leading AI conferences or in the field of robotics learning-based methods

Skills

• Development with Python 3.6 or later
• Working knowledge of PyTorch and/or TensorFlow
• Familiarity with ROS2
• Extensive knowledge of Reinforcement Learning principles and use
• Development experience with C++17 or later
• Development experience with HPC tools: CUDA, OpenMP, SSE
• Experience with Atlassian tools; Jira, GitLab, Confluence
• Expert-level skills working on SLAM 
• Working knowledge of Discrete Optimization 

Traits

• The successful candidate will be a proponent of individual personal responsibility for themselves and their teammates
• Above all else, a consistently positive attitude and a willingness to do whatever it takes to create robust solutions to complex problems
• Eager to take on new challenges with tenacity and positivity
• Patience, persistence, and attention to detail when resolving performance issues
• Enthusiasm for bringing human-like intelligence to machines

Working at Sanctuary

Sanctuary is an equal opportunity employer; employment with Sanctuary is governed based on skills, competence, and qualifications and will not be influenced in any way by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status.

Benefits

Full time (non co-op) employees enjoy medical/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, wellness programs, stock options, paid time off (3 weeks vacation accrued annually, 12 paid holidays, 5 days of annual sick leave, and parental leave), scheduling and worksite flexibility by role, and more.

About Sanctuary

Founded in 2018 by Geordie Rose, Suzanne Gildert, Olivia Norton, and Ajay Agrawal, Sanctuary is a Vancouver, Canada-based company. Sanctuary is on a mission to create the world’s first human-like intelligence in general-purpose robots that will help us work more safely, efficiently, and sustainably. And in the not-too-distant future, help us explore, settle, and prosper in outer space.

Members of the Sanctuary team founded D-Wave (a pioneer in the quantum computing industry), Kindred (first use of reinforcement learning in a production robot), and the Creative Destruction Lab (pioneered a revolutionary method for the commercialization of science for the betterment of humankind). The team has experience launching market-defining innovations rooted in previously unsolved and deep scientific problems.