Research Engineer (Machine Learning)

About the role

NTU is seeking a Research Engineer to design, implement and integrate Visual-Language Models (VLMs) into autonomous mobile robot platforms. The role focuses on enabling high-level semantic reasoning, perception-language grounding and decision-making in robotic systems, by interfacing VLMs with navigation, mapping and control pipelines. It also covers building simulation environments, running experiments and supporting rapid prototyping.

Key responsibilities

• Design, implement and integrate VLMs into simulation and robotic platforms to enable semantic reasoning, perception-language grounding and decision-making.
• Interface VLM-based modules with robot navigation, mapping, localization, planning and control systems for end-to-end autonomous operation.
• Build and maintain simulation environments, multimodal datasets and evaluation frameworks, handling data volumes from tens to hundreds of gigabytes.
• Run experimental studies using GPU-enabled computing for model training, inference and simulation-based evaluation.
• Support rapid prototyping and iteration of research ideas, from concept to validated robotic systems and demonstrations.
• Collaborate with and support research staff and students across multiple projects.
• Contribute to publications, technical disclosures, patents and robot demonstrations.
• Apply and recommend engineering best practices for reproducibility, maintainability and research productivity.

Required profile

• Bachelor's or Master's degree (BEng/BSc/MEng/MSc) in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, or a related discipline; candidates with strong robotics and autonomous systems experience from other fields may also be considered.
• Hands-on experience in autonomous robotics projects; exposure to deep learning or reinforcement learning is a plus.
• Strong problem-solving ability, collaborative and independent work style, and willingness to learn new tools.

Required skills

• Proficiency in Python, with experience in ROS/ROS2 and Linux-based development environments.
• Familiarity with robotic simulation platforms and 3D modelling tools.