aimlroles

Senior/Staff Research Engineer — Vision-Language-Action Models (Autonomous Driving)

PlusAI plus.ai Open · verified Oct 22, 2026
Hybrid Santa Clara Full-time Senior AI Research

At a glance

Senior AI Research role at PlusAI. Santa Clara · full-time · $170,000–$260,000 base.

SalaryStated by PlusAI
$170,000 – $260,000
Base salary for this role, in USD per year, as published in the posting.
This role, from PlusAIOur estimate for the market: $202,088–$247,638Median $214,300
The range includes the market median of $214,300 for senior AI research roles in Santa Clara.
Worked out from 10 postings that stated pay, median $214,300. Last updated Oct 19, 2026.
RoleAI Research
SenioritySenior
LocationSanta Clara
WorkplaceHybrid
EmploymentFull-time
Base pay$170,000–$260,000
PostedSep 15, 2026 · 5w ago
Role brief

aimlroles summary, based on the employer's posting.

What you'll do

  • Train and assess vision-language-action models that produce strategic driving choices and trajectory guidance
  • Lead a VLA effort from data and model design through large-scale training and checks on vehicles
  • Create driving-focused training and evaluation pipelines, with rigorous measures of model performance
  • Develop ways to distill and compress large reasoning models for deployment on vehicle computers
  • Use supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning to improve model reasoning, robustness, and long-tail behavior

What you bring

  • At least a master's in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, statistics, or a related discipline
  • Three or more years building and training models with PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX
  • Direct experience training vision-language or vision-language-action models, plus production model evaluation and deployment
  • Strong knowledge of current vision-language and VLA models, diffusion, flow matching, transformers, and distributed training

Who this fits

This senior research role suits someone who can take VLA work from research through production and collaborate with perception, planning, and platform teams. It is based in Santa Clara and follows a hybrid arrangement. A Ph.D. is preferred, while a master's degree is the stated minimum.

From the employer

PlusAI is a Physical AI company pioneering AI-based virtual driver software for factory-built autonomous trucks. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with operations in the United States and Europe, Plus was named by Fast Company as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. Partners including TRATON GROUP’s Scania, MAN, and International brands, Hyundai Motor Company, Iveco Group, Bosch, and DSV are working with Plus to accelerate the deployment of next-generation autonomous trucks. If you’re ready to make a huge impact and drive the future of autonomy, Plus is looking for talented individuals to join its fast-growing teams.

You will join our core AI team at the frontier of autonomous decision-making, building the Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models that form SuperDrive's reasoning layer. You'll train VLA models that generate high-level driving decisions and trajectory guidance for on-board strategic decision-making, and design the knowledge distillation and compression techniques that transition large models onto on-board compute.

Responsibilities

  • Design, train, and evaluate Vision-Language-Action models that generate high-level driving decisions and trajectory guidance in support of Plus's reasoning layer.
  • Own a VLA workstream end to end — data, architecture, large-scale training, and on-vehicle validation.
  • Build training and evaluation pipelines and rigorous metrics for VLA performance in driving contexts.
  • Develop distillation and compression recipes to deploy large reasoning models on on-board compute.
  • Apply SFT and RL post-training to improve reasoning, robustness, and long-tail behavior.
  • Collaborate with perception, planning, and platform teams to bring models from research to production

Required qualifications

    • M.S. minimum, Ph.D. preferred in CS, EE, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field.
    • 3+ years implementing and training models in a deep learning framework (PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX).
    • Direct, hands-on experience training vision-language / vision-language-action models.
    • Hands-on experience with model training, evaluation, and deployment in production.
    • Thorough understanding of state-of-the-art vision-language / VLA models, diffusion, flow matching, and transformers.
    • Experience with large-scale / distributed model training.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Model distillation, quantization, and inference optimization (ONNX/TensorRT, mixed precision, custom kernels).
  • SFT and RL post-training of large multimodal models.
  • Hands-on experience with multi-modal sensor data (camera, LiDAR, radar).
  • Publications at top venues (CVPR, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CoRL, RSS, ICRA).
  • Autonomous driving / ADAS experience.
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Your opportunities joining PlusAIWork, learn and grow in a highly future-oriented, innovative and dynamic field.Wide range of opportunities for personal and professional development.Catered free lunch, unlimited snacks and beverages.Highly competitive salary and benefits package, including 401(k) plan.