Robotics AI Engineer - Robot Learning

Help us teach robots to do things they've never done before.

Janicki Industries | Sedro-Woolley, Washington | Full-Time

Onsite, Hybrid and Remote opportunities available | $120,000–$220,000 annually

We're building robots that learn from people, practice in simulation, and develop the ability to perform useful work in the real world.

At Janicki Industries, we've spent more than 30 years solving difficult engineering problems and building advanced hardware for aerospace, defense, and space programs. Now we're bringing that experience to one of the most exciting challenges in engineering: creating intelligent robots that can adapt to new tasks and work in environments that were never designed for automation.

And we have some extraordinary opportunities to put that technology to work.

A Different Kind of Factory

Janicki has committed to building an $800 million advanced manufacturing facility in Montana to produce precision metallic components for the aerospace and defense industries. Ground has already been broken on the first building.

We're designing the facility around a high level of automation. The first phase is expected to include dozens of five-axes milling machines, automated warehouses, robotic material loading, automated coordinate measuring machines, and automated metal finishing and coating systems. Massive robotic vehicles will move pallets weighing as much as 40,000 pounds throughout the factory.

But what makes this project particularly interesting isn't just the scale.

Most factory automation is designed to do the same thing, over and over, at high speed. Our challenges are different. We manufacture highly complex parts in relatively small quantities, often with significant differences from one job to the next.

This is high-mix, low-volume manufacturing, and it presents an entirely different set of robotics problems.

We need robots that can recognize unfamiliar parts, understand changing environments, adapt to different tasks, and work alongside sophisticated manufacturing equipment. Many of the capabilities we want simply don't exist as ready-made solutions.

We see enormous potential in combining modern AI, computer vision, robot learning, and simulation to solve these problems. Our goal is to make this one of the most advanced and flexible manufacturing facilities in the world.

You'll have an opportunity to help develop the technology that makes it possible.

Teaching Robots to Learn

Our robotics team is exploring a new approach to automation: rather than programming every movement, we want to teach robots through human demonstrations, train neural networks to reproduce those behaviors, and use simulation to help them learn and improve.

We're interested in the rapidly developing world of vision-language-action models, imitation learning, reinforcement learning, and robotic foundation models such as NVIDIA Isaac GR00T.

We're also developing robots for applications outside traditional manufacturing. One of our first projects is an autonomous robot that cleans horse stalls using cameras, a robotic arm, and specialized tools. It's a deceptively difficult problem involving visual perception, object manipulation, and decision-making in an unpredictable environment.

These projects share an important goal: creating robots that can perform useful physical work without having every action programmed in advance.

We've assembled a team of mechanical, electrical, and software engineers and are looking for an AI engineer who wants to help develop the intelligence behind these machines.

What You'll Do

You'll work on the technologies that allow robots to learn new skills and apply them to physical tasks.

• Robot Learning: Develop and train neural networks that translate visual information and human demonstrations into robotic actions. Work with imitation learning, reinforcement learning, and modern robot foundation models.
• Vision-Language-Action Models: Build training pipelines using camera data and human teleoperation. Explore and adapt VLA approaches, including NVIDIA Isaac GR00T, to teach robots new manipulation skills.
• Simulation: Use NVIDIA Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, and Omniverse to create realistic environments, generate training data, and train and evaluate robotic behaviors before deploying them to physical hardware.
• Computer Vision: Develop perception systems that allow robots to recognize objects, understand their surroundings, and make decisions based on visual information. Apply technologies such as YOLO, image segmentation, and depth sensing.
• Real-World Deployment: Work alongside our robotics, mechanical, and electrical engineers to bring trained models onto actual machines, evaluate their performance, and continually improve their capabilities.

You'll help shape our technical approach, select the tools and models we use, and determine how emerging AI technologies can be applied to real manufacturing and automation problems.

What We're Looking For

We're looking for an exceptionally capable engineer who enjoys difficult problems, learns quickly, and takes pride in making things work.

You'll bring a strong foundation in machine learning, software engineering, or robotics, along with meaningful hands-on experience in at least one of these areas:

• Robotics simulation and learning environments, particularly NVIDIA Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, Omniverse, or similar platforms.
• Training neural networks for robotic manipulation, imitation learning, reinforcement learning, or learning from human demonstrations.
• Computer vision and perception, including object detection, segmentation, and models such as YOLO.
• Developing and training AI models using Python, PyTorch, or comparable frameworks.

We're especially interested in engineers who have worked with vision-language-action models, teleoperation-based training, NVIDIA Isaac GR00T, or robotic systems that learn through experience.

A strong academic background in computer science, robotics, AI, or a related engineering discipline is valuable. We appreciate the preparation that comes from demanding university programs and excellent research environments. We're equally interested in people who have demonstrated exceptional ability by building and delivering impressive systems.

What matters most is your technical ability, your accomplishments, and the way you approach challenging engineering problems.

You don't need experience with every technology listed here. If you've done outstanding work in one of these areas and are excited to expand into the others, we'd like to meet you.

2+ years of relevant engineering experience spanning robotics and AI. (Preferred)

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or closely related field from an ABET-accredited. (Required)

Why Janicki?

There aren't many places where you can develop advanced AI algorithms and work directly with the people who design, machine, assemble, and test the hardware those algorithms control.

Janicki is one of them.

We're a privately owned engineering and manufacturing company with decades of experience tackling ambitious projects in aerospace, defense, space, and advanced manufacturing. We have substantial engineering resources, sophisticated manufacturing facilities, and people who know how to turn difficult ideas into working technology.

Our robotics team is bringing together those capabilities with some of the most exciting developments in artificial intelligence.

You'll join a growing engineering group where your contributions can have a direct influence on the technology. You'll have the freedom to explore new approaches, the resources to test them on physical hardware, and the opportunity to see your work become part of real machines and manufacturing systems.

The Montana facility gives us a remarkable opportunity to develop intelligent automation on a scale that few robotics teams get to experience.

We're not looking simply to automate the way factories have always operated. We're interested in what becomes possible when robots can learn, adapt, and take on tasks that previously required human judgment and flexibility.

If that sounds like an exciting engineering problem, we'd like to talk.

Work Where You Want to Live

Our headquarters is in Sedro-Woolley, Washington, in the beautiful Skagit Valley at the edge of the North Cascades.

For people who love the outdoors, this part of Western Washington is hard to beat. Hiking, mountain biking, skiing at Mount Baker, kayaking, fishing, and exploring the San Juan Islands are all within reach. Bellingham offers a lively university town with restaurants, music, and outdoor recreation, while Seattle provides the cultural and professional opportunities of a major technology center.

We'd love to find someone in the greater Seattle or Puget Sound area who can spend occasional time working with our team and physical hardware in Sedro-Woolley.

We're also open to hybrid and remote candidates, including engineers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Monthly visits to our Washington facilities will help keep you connected to the team and the machines we're developing.

Compensation

The proposed annual base salary range is $120,000–$220,000, plus a discretionary bonus, 401(k) matching, vacation, and health benefits. Depending on experience and qualifications, subject to final approval. The actual salary will vary by geographic region and job experience. We will share detailed compensation data for a specific location during the recruiting process

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance with employer contribution
• Disability insurance as well as Life/AD&D insurance
• HSA (Health Savings Account) with employer contribution and FSA (Flexible Savings Account)
• 401k with employer matching
• Paid time off and paid holidays (including two floating holidays)
• Education reimbursement program
• Several shift options
• Premium pay for off-shifts
• Premium pay for security clearance if applicable

Not sure that you’ll be the perfect fit for this role? You should still apply! We’ll review your application for other opportunities. We are always on the lookout for talented people!

By applying for this job, you are expressing interest in this position and could be considered for other career opportunities where similar skills and requirements have been identified as a match. Should this match be identified, you may be contacted for this and future openings.

Janicki Industries is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Janicki Industries does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, marital or familial status, physical or mental disability, genetic information, age, retaliation, veteran/military service status, or any other legally protected status. Janicki is proud to be a military friendly employer.

Applicants or employees wishing to view a copy of Janicki Industries’ Affirmative Action Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should notify the Human Resources Department at (360) 404-1997.

As a federal government contractor and a recipient of federal funding, Janicki is required to abide by federal drug testing requirements (including preemployment drug testing for cannabis). Additionally, because of Janicki’s work on aerospace products and the high volume of safety sensitive positions, Janicki takes the safety of its employees very seriously and requires that employees pass a preemployment drug test prior to starting employment.