AI Researcher

The future of defense will be decided by those who field intelligent machines at scale. At Scout AI, we’re developing Fury, the first robotic foundation model for defense, to give U.S. forces overwhelming, adaptable, and autonomous power across every domain. Fury enables human operators to command fleets of robots through natural language, and empowers those machines to sense, decide, and act together as one. This mission will ask everything of us: urgency, precision, and relentless work.

• The Role
• We’re hiring an AI Researcher on the Fury Team to help push the frontiers of embodied intelligence for autonomous defense systems. You will lead research in core areas including reinforcement learning, vision-language-action modeling, sim-to-real transfer, dynamic AI memory, and multi-agent coordination. Your work will be foundational to the development, training, and deployment of Fury.

This role sits at the intersection of cutting-edge ML research, real-world robotics, and defense. You'll translate foundational research into scalable, robust models that operate in unstructured, contested environments, from concept to deployment. We’re a startup. You’ll be moving fast, context-switching daily, and helping define the culture and process as we go. This is a rare opportunity to come in early and architect the future of defense.

Responsibilities

Conduct original research in embodied AI, including learning from warfighter demonstration, reinforcement learning, memory, reward, vision-language modeling, and world modeling

Build, test, and benchmark large-scale models for perception, decision-making, and control in simulated and physical environments

Investigate transfer learning and continual learning paradigms across diverse robotic domains

Collaborate with engineering, robotics, and field teams to integrate research into operational systems

Lead research strategy and roadmap across key areas of autonomy and machine learning

Support field tests and data collection campaigns to evaluate system performance in realistic environments

Qualifications

PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Machine Learning, or a related field (or equivalent industry research experience)

Strong publication record in top-tier venues

Deep expertise in one or more of the following: reinforcement learning, imitation learning, vision-language models, sim-to-real, world modeling, or agentic AI

Hands-on experience building and evaluating models for embodied agents or autonomous systems

Proficiency in Python and frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX

Experience working with large-scale datasets and high-dimensional sensor inputs

Demonstrated ability to take ideas from research concept to deployed prototype

Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export controlled information or facilities

Passion about defense of the United States and its allies

May be expected to obtain and hold a U.S. Top Secret security clearance

Why Join Scout

Work on the world’s most important frontier, ensuring U.S. and allied dominance in the age of intelligent machines

Be a core part of a team building the first defense-specific robotic foundation model

Collaborate with some of the top engineers in autonomy, AI, and national security

See your work deployed on real systems

Help define the future of intelligent defense systems

Backed by Draper Associates, Booz Allen Ventures, and other top investors

Benefits

Competitive compensation package including base salary and bonus

Meaningful equity

Premium medical, dental, and vision plans with $0 paycheck contribution

Competitive PTO and company holiday calendar

Catered lunch daily and fully stocked kitchen

EV charging

Relocation assistance (depending on role eligibility)

The stated salary range below represents an estimated base pay only and reflects consideration of multiple compensation factors. Final salary offers may differ depending on factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience or training background, specialized skills, and business needs. Most full-time positions also include highly competitive equity awards, which form part of Scout AI's overall compensation package. In addition, Scout AI provides comprehensive, top-tier benefits to full-time employees.

US Salary Range

$160,000 — $400,000 USD