Research Scientist - Autonomous Vehicle World Models

About the Role

We are seeking a Research Scientist - Autonomous Vehicle World Models to join our innovative team at Kodiak Robotics, Inc. As a leader in autonomous ground transportation, we are committed to creating a safer and more efficient future. In this role, you will focus on developing generative world models that predict realistic driving scenarios, enhancing our autonomous vehicle technology.

What You'll Do

• Design and train generative world models that synthesize realistic multi-camera video and LiDAR conditioned on ego trajectories, 3D scene context, and text.
• Research and implement conditional diffusion architectures for driving, including spatiotemporal attention, latent space design, and action-conditioned generation.
• Develop techniques for multi-view geometric consistency in generated outputs, utilizing neural rendering, cross-view attention, and 3D-aware generative approaches.
• Build methods for joint multimodal generation that maintain cross-sensor consistency between camera, LiDAR, and radar outputs.
• Design evaluation frameworks that measure world model quality beyond pixel-level metrics, including scenario fidelity and autoregressive stability.
• Scale training pipelines to learn from thousands of hours of real-world driving data across multiple sensor modalities.

Requirements

• MS or PhD in Computer Science, AI, Robotics, or a related field, with a focus on generative modeling, neural rendering, or video synthesis.
• Strong publication record or demonstrated research contributions in diffusion models, video generation, neural radiance fields, 3D-aware generative models, or world models.
• Experience with neural rendering and view synthesis and an understanding of multi-view geometric consistency.
• Proficiency working with multimodal sensor data (camera, LiDAR, radar) and familiarity with 3D representations such as BEV grids, voxel fields, or tri-planes.
• Strong implementation skills in Python and PyTorch, with experience training large generative models at scale using distributed training.
• Passion for building AI that understands and predicts the physical world to enable safe autonomous driving.

Nice to Have

• Experience in developing AI systems for real-world applications.
• Knowledge of autonomous vehicle regulations and safety standards.
• Familiarity with cloud computing platforms for model training.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation package including equity and annual bonuses.
• Excellent Medical, Dental, and Vision plans through Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, and MetLife.
• Flexible PTO, 10 paid holidays, and generous parental leave policies.
• Office perks: dog-friendly, free catered lunch, a fully stocked kitchen, and free EV charging.
• Wellbeing Benefits - Headspace through Cigna, Calm through Kaiser, One Medical, Gympass, Spring Health through Cigna.
• Fidelity 401(k) and various incentive programs (referral bonuses, patent bonuses, etc.).

Join us as a Research Scientist - Autonomous Vehicle World Models and contribute to the future of autonomous driving technology. Apply now for this exciting opportunity!