Engineer (Physical AI)

Ottawa, Canada - Hybrid

We are seeking an entry level Engineer (Physical AI) to join the Pathfinding Studio within the Engineering Innovation Office. In this role, you will research and develop next generation physical AI dataflow algorithms, architectures, and virtual system models for humanoid robotics contributing to pathfinding research. You will work across perception, planning, control, and learning to enable intelligent humanoid behaviors, with particular emphasis on hand and arm manipulation.

Responsibilities:

• Research, design, develop, and maintain end-to-end physical AI dataflows for humanoid robotics, connecting simulation, data generation, model training, evaluation, and deployment.
• Develop, deploy and evaluate algorithms and models for humanoid perception, motion planning, manipulation, and learning.
• Build humanoid simulations using MuJoCo, NVIDIA Isaac Sim, or comparable tools, including models of articulated hands, arms, sensors, and environments.
• Create and curate simulation and real-world datasets; define interfaces, schemas, synchronization methods, and quality checks for multimodal robotics data.
• Develop domain-randomization, synthetic-data, imitation-learning, reinforcement-learning, sim-to-real and real-to-sim workflows.
• Analyze model and controller behavior, establish performance metrics, identify failure modes, and document results.
• Collaborate with software, AI, robotics, and hardware teams to translate research concepts into reproducible prototypes and deployable solutions.

• Bachelor’s degree with relevant experience, or an advanced degree, in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong experience in algorithm design and mathematical modeling for humanoid robots or other highly articulated robotic systems.
• Hands-on experience with MuJoCo, NVIDIA Isaac Sim, or similar physics-based robotics simulation platforms.
• Experience modeling and controlling humanoid hands and arms, including kinematics, dynamics, grasping, manipulation, trajectory generation, and contact rich interaction.
• Experience with data collection/teleop based sim2real and real2sim pipeline and framework.
• Experience developing robotics software and models in Python and/or C/C++ on Linux.
• Ability to design experiments, analyze model and controller performance, and communicate findings through clear technical documentation.
• Experience working with CPU- and GPU-based development environments and version-controlled software workflows.
• Experience with physical humanoid hand and arm manipulation is a plus.

This posting is for a new vacancy.  The expected annual pay range for this position is $65,500 - $82,000. This position is also eligible for bonus opportunities.  Please note that the final offer amount will be dependent on geographic location, applicable experience, and skillset of the candidate. 

Renesas is an embedded semiconductor solution provider driven by its Purpose, To Make Our Lives Easier. With a global team of over 21,000 engineers and problem solvers in more than 30 countries, we offer the opportunity to work on world‑leading technology for Automotive, Industrial, Infrastructure, and IoT, shaping a safer, healthier, greener, and smarter future.

At Renesas, TAGIE is our culture, grounded in being Transparent, Agile, Global, Innovative, and Entrepreneurial. It shapes how we work, grow and deliver on our purpose together. This collaborative spirit and mindset drive our semiconductor technology to transform industries and impact millions of lives.

We believe in rewarding our employees with a competitive benefits package alongside their salary. More information will be provided during the hiring process.

Are you ready to join our team and shape the future with us?

Export Control Compliance Condition

Renesas Canada must at all times comply with U.S. and Canadian export control legislative requirements. Current U.S. export control laws require that Renesas Canada obtain a U.S. government export license prior to employing persons in positions with access to certain technology. All positions at Renesas Canada have direct or indirect access to this technology.   As a result, it is necessary for Renesas Canada to determine if it would need an export license for new employees. To do so, we ask all candidates for employment whether their most recent country of citizenship or permanent residence is one of the countries specified in the export controls laws or regulations.

Renesas recognizes that you are entitled to human rights and privacy protections in the workplace and takes these obligations seriously. As such, we want you to know that your decision to complete the export control questions is entirely voluntary. Regrettably, should you choose not to complete these questions, we cannot consider you for employment because doing so would jeopardize our ability to comply with the applicable export controls laws. Should you choose to complete the questions, we will use the information collected only to determine if we would need an export license to employ you and not for any other purpose. 

Successful candidates must be eligible to meet the requirements of U.S. export control regulations, including (if applicable) the issuance of any required export license prior to starting employment at Renesas Canada. The decision whether to or not to file or pursue an export license application is at the sole discretion of Renesas Canada.