PhD Research Internship – Robotics Engineer (VLM / VLA Models)

About the role

We are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate to join sensmore as a Research Intern focusing on General‑Purpose AI for industrial robotics. The role centers on developing Vision‑Language‑Action (VLA) systems that enable heavy‑industry robots to perceive, reason and act autonomously in complex environments.

Key responsibilities

• Design and develop novel Vision‑Language‑Action approaches and scalable multi‑modal architectures for real‑world industrial settings.
• Lead the creation and analysis of large‑scale multi‑modal datasets (video, radar, lidar, sensor fusion) and build self‑supervised pipelines for VLA training.
• Build, adapt and fine‑tune cutting‑edge GenAI models (e.g., VLMs, VLA frameworks) using parameter‑efficient and alignment techniques.
• Define rigorous evaluation protocols, run large‑scale experiments, benchmark against state‑of‑the‑art baselines and iterate on performance.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to transition research prototypes into production‑ready systems, optimizing for real‑time inference, robustness and safety.
• Document findings, contribute to research publications, technical reports or patents, and present results internally or at conferences.

Required profile

• Current enrollment in a PhD program in Robotics, Computer Science, Machine Learning, Electrical Engineering or a related field.
• Strong programming skills in Python and experience with deep‑learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
• Solid understanding of machine learning, deep learning and multi‑modal models.
• Proven ability to conduct independent research and drive projects from idea to results.
• Analytical thinking and problem‑solving capabilities.

Required skills

• Python
• PyTorch
• Vision‑Language Models (VLMs)
• GenAI tooling (Hugging Face ecosystem, Gemini, Unsloth)
• Multi‑modal data handling (video, radar, lidar, sensor fusion)
• Large‑scale model training and distributed systems
• Model optimization and parameter‑efficient fine‑tuning

What we offer

• Attractive compensation package with stock options.
• On‑site beverages, regular social events and a collaborative office environment.
• Relocation assistance to Berlin.
• Opportunities to publish research, work with top‑tier researchers and shape long‑term AI‑driven robotics directions.