About Elysium Robotics

Elysium Robotics is an early-stage company headquartered in Austin, Texas, developing revolutionary low-cost, highly capable robotic systems with dexterity and natural grace. Our proprietary muscle-like elastic actuator technology addresses a decades-old challenge in robotics, enabling automation for tasks current robots cannot do. These microfiber actuators enable real bio-mimetic design opportunities based on the same muscle fiber actuation principles biology engineers with. We are building a world-class team to revolutionize robotics.

We are opening a software-focused office in London that will support and collaborate with the core team in Austin, TX. This UK-based team will be responsible for Lab Data and Analytics Systems, and for Robotic System Design, Simulation, Task Control, and Training.

Location: Initial hires will work from home with the expectation that a central office will be established in the coming months. This office will likely be in Central or East London, and a flexible hybrid schedule of in-person and remote work will be established.  There is also the  possibility of locating in Cambridge, depending on various factors including team member locations.

Role Overview

As the Senior Robotic Controls & Reinforcement Learning Simulation Engineer you will develop the "brains" that drive early simulations of robotic systems built with our breakthrough elastic synthetic muscle actuators. You will focus on designing, training, and exploring control concepts using both emerging methods for variable stiffness control and advanced reinforcement learning within the VSim physics environment. Given the highly elastic nature of our synthetic muscles, your deep understanding of compliance, stiffness control, and antagonistic/reciprocal actuation will be critical to designing the reward functions and noise models that allow RL policies to successfully bridge the sim-to-real gap.

Our Collaborative Approach: You will work in a tight-knit, two-person simulation unit alongside our Senior Robotics Design & Simulation Engineer. While they architect the physical models, CAD, and environmental physics, you will lead the charge on how those systems are controlled, trained, and optimized. We expect both roles to creatively overlap and share the total scope of bringing our synthetic muscle technology to life in simulation. As our first two simulation hires, your combined skillsets will dictate the specific focus of our future team expansion.

Key Responsibilities

• RL & Policy Training: Use Reinforcement Learning and added noise models to train robust control policies that are tolerant of hardware uncertainty and the nuances of highly elastic components.
• Bio-inspired Control Architectures: Design control strategies for reciprocal elastic muscle systems to independently manage torque and stiffness across complex robotic joints.
• Simulation Infrastructure: Develop and manage the computational data infrastructure required to launch hundreds of parallel simulation campaigns for rapid policy learning.
• Dynamics & Quasi-statics: Develop control approaches for both quasi-static tasks like dexterous manipulation and also explore algorithms for dynamically controlled resonance in rhythmic tasks (e.g., walking, swimming, flying, hammering, sawing,, etc) within the simulation environment.
• High-DOF Scalability: Develop control strategies that can eventually scale to systems utilizing hundreds or thousands of elastic actuators.
• Validation: Constantly assess the sim-to-real gap and work to minimize it.

Qualifications

• Strong background in Reinforcement Learning, ML-based robotic control, and system identification.
• Deep expertise in Variable Stiffness / Impedance Control, active/passive compliance, and control of reciprocal / antagonistic actuation.
• Experience with tendon driven robotic systems.
• Ability to manage large-scale computational workloads for parallel simulation campaigns.
• A keen eye for algorithmic complexity and computationally efficient methods.

Why Join Elysium Robotics UK?

• High Impact: Help build a new team in the UK from the ground up, supported by the leadership of our US HQ.
• Complex Challenges: Solve deep-tech problems at the frontier of materials science, ML, robotics, and physics simulation.
• Flexibility: We offer a bias towards remote work while maintaining a key hub in the UK's premier tech corridors.
• Elite Talent: Work alongside senior, self-directing engineers in a flat, fast-moving organization.

How to Apply 

Create a Cover Letter that is specific to this opportunity and address the following questions. You can combine the cover letter with the resume in one pdf when applying.

1. Show Us Your Work - Send at least three outstanding projects that showcase your mastery. Pictures and videos, please.
2. Tell Us Why You Built It - What problem were you solving? What did you learn? We admire good ideas executed well and bad ideas executed brilliantly if they pushed boundaries.
3. Tell Us What You Did - If it was a team project, clarify your role. Were you the one who lost sleep to make it happen?
4. Do Your Research - Read up on what we do, where we are, and how your skills fit. If your cover letter could be sent to any startup, don't send it to us. Be specific about why we need you and why you are excited about what we are creating.
5. What's Your Favorite Robot? - Real or sci-fi, doesn't matter. Why does it fascinate you?
6. Are You Using AI? - How? What excites you? What frustrates you?

Applications submitted without the requested personalized cover letter are unlikely to be reviewed.

We are an equal opportunity employer. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the application or interview process, please let us know.

UK Work Permit Required:
We are a small startup and are not setup to sponsor a visa. You must already have your own right to work in the UK. Any applicants from outside of the UK must clearly demonstrate that they have the right to work in the UK.