Robotics Research Internship, Humanoid Manipulation (Spring 2027) | PhD Internship

Location: Boston, MA, United States; on-site

Salary: $40–$60 per hour

Company

hirify.global develops risk-aware, reliable, field-ready AI and robotics systems for unstructured real-world environments.

What you will do

• Design, implement, and evaluate manipulation strategies for humanoid robots across diverse tasks.
• Research loco-manipulation combining perception, planning, and control to improve robotic dexterity.
• Support data collection pipelines and scalable learning frameworks for robotics foundation models.
• Develop embodiment-agnostic representations that transfer across robot platforms.
• Collaborate with researchers, engineers, teleoperators, and field teams on experiments, interfaces, and hardware integration.
• Prepare research for publication in leading robotics conferences or journals.

Requirements

• Current PhD student in robotics, computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, AI/ML, or a related field.
• Research experience in robotic manipulation, loco-manipulation, or related robotics domains.
• Strong foundation in robot kinematics, dynamics, and control.
• Proficiency in Python and/or C++, with experience using robotics or machine learning tools.
• Experience designing experiments and evaluating results in simulation or on robotic hardware.
• Publications in leading robotics journals or conferences are expected.

Nice to have

• Experience with humanoid robots or dexterous robotic hands.
• Background in imitation learning or reinforcement learning for manipulation.
• Hands-on experience with real robot hardware.
• Familiarity with ROS or ROS 2.
• Robotics or AI publications, preprints, or open-source contributions.

Culture & Benefits

• Research is connected to real-world robot deployments and field-ready system development.
• Close collaboration with teams in Boston, Southern California, across the United States, and globally.
• Work alongside researchers and engineers with experience from leading robotics, AI, aerospace, and automotive organizations.
• Opportunity to advance embodied intelligence through practical experimentation and academic research.