Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Embodied AI and Smart NPCs

Every day, tens of millions of people come to Roblox to explore, create, play, learn, and connect with friends in 3D immersive digital experiences– all created by our global community of developers and creators. At Roblox, we’re building the tools and platform that empower our community to bring any experience that they can imagine to life. Our vision is to reimagine the way people come together, from anywhere in the world, and on any device. We’re on a mission to connect a billion people with optimism and civility, and looking for amazing talent to help us get there. A career at Roblox means you’ll be working to shape the future of human interaction, solving unique technical challenges at scale, and helping to create safer, more civil shared experiences for everyone. As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer within the Creator Services Machine Intelligence team, you will focus on the research and development of Embodied AI and Behavioral Agents that revolutionize how games are created and played on Roblox. You will bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and massive-scale product application, building agents capable of complex 3D gameplay and unblocking many use cases across Roblox, from automated playtesting to ensure quality, to "Smart NPCs" with human-like movement and strategic reasoning, playing with real players in games. You will work on Imitation Learning (IL), Reinforcement Learning (RL), Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Robotics, and Agentic Reasoning to create generalizable agents that can perceive 3D environments, understand game rules, plan long-term strategies, and execute complex physics-based actions. You Will: Report to the Engineering Manager of Creator Services Machine Intelligence. Design and implement foundation models for embodied agents that master both fluid, human-like movement and high-level strategic reasoning. Define the long-term roadmap for Game AI and Embodied Intelligence, acting as a technical bar-raiser for code quality and architectural design. Balance the exploration of cutting-edge deep learning research with the practical constraints of serving models to millions of concurrent users. Mentor fellow engineers and researchers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and scientific inquiry. Collaborate with Product Managers, Backend and Game Engine Engineers and other Roblox team members. You Have: PhD or Master’s in Computer Science, Applied Math, or other field. A record of top-tier publications (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, AAAI, SIGGRAPH, etc) in embodied agents or related domains is a plus. 7+ years of experience as a Machine Learning Engineer or Research Scientist, applying research to tangible products. Deep technical understanding of Imitation Learning, Robotics, Reinforcement Learning, Computer Graphics and Vision, with experience working on low-latency motor control (human-like movement) and high-level strategic reasoning (game rules/goals). Proficiency in Python (PyTorch/TensorFlow) and familiarity with C#, C++, or similar systems languages. Experience training models on large-scale distributed clusters and understanding the challenges of inference in real-time gaming environments. A passion for bridging the gap between research and production, moving beyond academic benchmarks to launch scalable solutions that directly impact millions of users. For roles that are based at our headquarters in San Mateo, CA: The starting base pay for this position is as shown below. The actual base pay is dependent upon a variety of job-related factors such as professional background, training, work experience, location, business needs and market demand. Therefore, in some circumstances, the actual salary could fall outside of this expected range. This pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. All full-time employees are also eligible for equity compensation and for benefits as described on this page . Annual Salary Range $345,040 — $399,420 USD Roles that are based in an office are onsite Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with optional presence on Monday and Friday (unless otherwise noted). Roblox provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Roblox also provides reasonable accommodations to candidates with qualifying disabilities or religious beliefs during the recruiting process. For US based roles only, please note the Company may not be able to employ candidates for this role who have United States work authorization related to certain U.S. visa categories, or support future H-1B sponsorship at this time.