Job Summary:
Ludo Robotics is dedicated to building general-purpose robotic intelligence systems that are robust and adaptive. The Postdoctoral Fellowship focuses on independent and collaborative research in Robotics, AI, and Human-Robot Interaction, allowing fellows to drive meaningful research contributions that advance the state of the art.
Responsibilities:
โข Design and lead an independent research agenda within the fellowship scope, in collaboration with Ludo's research team.
โข Conduct experiments, user studies, and field deployments to evaluate hypotheses on real hardware.
โข Develop theoretical frameworks and translate them into prototype robot behaviors that bridge research with real-world system implementation.
โข Synthesize findings from academic literature across HRI, HCI, social robotics, cognitive science, robot learning, and AI to inform research direction.
โข Integrate developed models and algorithms into robot control pipelines and evaluate their real-world performance.
โข Collaborate cross-functionally with engineers, designers, and product teams to translate research insights into deployable systems.
โข Contribute to establishing metrics and evaluation frameworks for robot behavior and system performance.
โข Publicize and disseminate research findings through publications, preprints, talks, and open-source releases.
โข Actively participate in team seminars, design reviews, and knowledge-sharing sessions.
Qualifications:
Required:
โข PhD (completed or expected by start date) in Human-Robot Interaction, Human-Computer Interaction, Robotics, Computer Science, Cognitive Science, or a closely related field.
โข A strong record of research contributions demonstrated through publications, preprints, or equivalent technical output.
โข Experience conducting rigorous experimentsโuser studies, ablations, or system evaluationsโand interpreting results clearly.
โข Ability to work independently and drive a research agenda with minimal supervision while remaining collaborative and communicative.
Preferred:
โข Hands-on prototyping experience with physical robots (humanoid, mobile, or custom platforms) or virtual agents.
โข Experience designing and running controlled user studies and participatory design sessions.
โข Comfort working across disciplines, translating between user insights, theoretical models, and engineering constraints.
โข Familiarity with ROS, Python, or related robotics software tools.
โข Experience with large language models (LLMs), particularly in building conversational AI, dialog systems, or applying LLMs to robot behavior such as natural language understanding and task planning.
โข Genuine curiosity about people and what makes interactions feel natural, safe, and engaging.
Company:
Ludo Robotics is an AI company that develops robotic intelligence systems for perception, learning, manipulation, and task execution. Founded in 2026, the company is headquartered in San Francisco, USA, with a team of 11-50 employees. The company is currently Early Stage.