Research Associate Robotics Jobs in Arizona (NOW HIRING)

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Electrical and Computer Engineering

The Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at the University of Arizona is seeking a qualified and highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Associate to work with Dr. Ehsan Azimi. We invite qualified candidates to join our group and participate in cutting-edge research. The chosen candidate will advance research at the intersection of robotics, control & prototyping, and AI/ML. The Postdoc will design, implement, and evaluate robotic systems - including real-time control stacks - and develop learning-enabled perception, planning, and vision-language model (VLM) pipelines. The role includes disseminating results via publications, patents, demos, and grants, in addition to mentoring students and contributing to course modules/workshops in robotics and related topics.

Outstanding UA benefits include health, dental, vision, and life insurance; paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; UA/ASU/NAU tuition reduction for the employee and qualified family members; access to UA recreation and cultural activities; and more! The University of Arizona has been recognized for our innovative work-life programs.

Duties & Responsibilities - Lead, design, build and test cycles for robotic platforms and experimental rigs; develop real-time control (e.g., model-based, optimal, learning-augmented control), perception, and planning modules; run structured experiments and benchmarking. Architect high-quality research codebases in C++/Python/C# (e.g., ROS/ROS 2, RT frameworks, Unity/Unreal integration as needed); implement data pipelines, simulation, and CI/testing; maintain reproducible artifacts and documentation.

Mentor undergraduate and graduate students; develop short course modules and/or run workshops in Robotics/AI/Control; support inclusive team culture and lab best practices. Lead and co-author journal/conference papers; prepare manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals; create compelling presentations/demos and contribute to IP (invention disclosures and patents); present research at national and international conferences.

Contribute to proposal development and grant writing (including preliminary data, methods, budgets text); prepare progress reports, and coordination with internal/external collaborators; interface with sponsors where applicable. Foster collaborations within the Department, with other units across the University, and with team members at other institutes. Participate and contribute to meetings with industry, academia and sponsors. Additional duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Strong analysis skills, research, and technical writing skills. Ability to communicate professionally in a clear, concise manner orally and in writing. Knowledge of prototyping, specifically control (PID, MPC, optimal/robust, learning-augmented); perception & planning; sensor fusion; calibration; system identification. Programming skills, including C++, Python, C#; ROS/ROS 2; Git; Linux; build systems (CMake); real-time/latency-aware coding; simulation (Gazebo/Isaac/Unity/Unreal as applicable). Knowledge of experimental design, statistics, ablation studies, replicable pipelines, technical writing. Ability to create clear presentations and use strong interpersonal skills with a collaborative mindset; effective mentoring.

Minimum Qualifications - PhD in Robotics, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, or closely related field. Must have PhD conferred upon hire.

Preferred Qualifications - Hands-on experience integrating hardware + software for robots (arms, mobile, mechatronics) and real-time control. Experience in computer vision, multimodal perception, or foundation models (VLMs/LLMs) applied to robotics. Track record of patent contributions and/or technology transfer. Experience preparing grants (NSF/NIH/DoD/industry) and coordinating collaborative deliverables. Prior experience mentoring/teaching, curriculum or workshop development. Experience with safety standards for robotics labs and human–robot interaction studies. Experience with CUDA/accelerators; optimization; SLAM; tactile/force control; AR/XR interfaces; Unity/C# for robotics visualization; DevOps/containers. Experience with AI/ML: Deep learning for vision/perception; VLMs and LLM tooling; dataset curation; evaluation/benchmarks; basic MLOps.

FLSA - Exempt

Full Time/Part Time - Full Time

Number of Hours Worked per Week - 40

Job FTE - 1.00

Work Calendar - Fiscal

Job Category - Research

Benefits Eligible - Yes - Full Benefits

Rate of Pay - NIH salary guidelines-Depends on Experience

Compensation Type - salary at 1.0 full-time equivalency (FTE)

Type of criminal background check required: - Name-based criminal background check (non-security sensitive)

Number of Vacancies - 1

Contact Information for Candidates - Ehsan Azimi