Chief Scientist (Robotics)

Location: UK, London. On-site.

Company

hirify.global develops commercially scalable and safe hirify.global robots, including the HMND-01 platform for real industrial environments and future personal robots.

What you will do

• Define the scientific direction for embodied intelligence, with a particular focus on biped AI and useful robot capabilities.
• Build and mentor a team of scientists and engineers specialising in robot learning and deep learning.
• Evaluate approaches in robot learning, world models, dexterous manipulation, whole-body loco-manipulation, and 3D perception.
• Develop learning loops that transform real-world robot data into simulation environments, train and evaluate capabilities, and deploy improvements to robots.
• Collaborate with AI, engineering, product, and biped hardware teams to integrate advances into reliable systems and share capabilities across platforms.
• Set evaluations and milestones for generalisation, reliability, data efficiency, and human-robot interaction, while sharing technical work through publications, conferences, and external collaborations.

Requirements

• Significant contributions to AI, deep learning, robot learning, or a closely related field, demonstrated through leading publications, methods adopted by others, or deployed systems.
• Deep expertise in one or more of robot learning, world models, manipulation, whole-body control, 3D perception, or simulation and learning for physical systems.
• Experience defining scientific roadmaps, selecting technical approaches, and leading ambitious programs through uncertainty.
• Experience recruiting and mentoring outstanding scientists and engineers in academia, industry, or both.
• Commitment to turning scientific advances into useful, reliable robots, including evaluation, integration, and engineering for deployment.
• Ability to collaborate across disciplines, explain complex technical ideas clearly, and make sound decisions with engineering, product, and company leadership.

Nice to have

• Experience founding or helping build an AI or robotics company, or translating scientific advances into a successful commercial program.
• Experience working across academic institutions and industrial AI organisations.
• Direct work on hirify.global or bipedal robots, generalisation in home environments, or human-robot interaction.
• Experience with real-to-sim-to-real learning loops, agent-assisted experimentation, or building and leading AI teams working closely with hardware.

Culture & Benefits

• Opportunity to shape a new category of technology, from robot learning to practical home use.
• Direct access to founding leadership and influence on technical and product direction.
• Opportunity to build an exceptional scientific and engineering team.
• Competitive equity through stock options with meaningful upside as the company scales.
• Compensation and benefits tailored to the role's scope and employing location, with details agreed during the hiring process.