Location: Germany (Remote-first within Germany, on-site in Frankfurt every 2–4 weeks)
About the Role
We are partnering with a global automotive OEM building a core AI research and algorithm team responsible for the foundational intelligence behind next-generation automated driving systems.
This role is research-driven and sits upstream of product teams. The focus is on inventing, validating, and transitioning new perception and world-modeling algorithms from research into production-ready systems. The team operates similarly to a big-tech research lab, but with a clear path to real-world deployment.
Research Focus Areas
Depending on background and interest, you may work on topics such as:
- 3D scene understanding and world modeling
- Occupancy, motion forecasting, and dynamic scene reconstruction
- Multi-sensor perception (camera, LiDAR, radar)
- Representation learning for autonomous systems (BEV, implicit / generative 3D, Gaussian models, foundation models)
- Robustness, generalization, and long-tail perception
- Learning under weak, sparse, or noisy supervision
- Bridging offline training with real-world deployment constraints
Key Responsibilities
- Conduct original research in perception and autonomous systems with clear technical ownership
- Design and prototype novel algorithms and learning frameworks
- Publish at or contribute toward top-tier conferences and journals (e.g., CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, ICRA, IROS)
- Translate research ideas into scalable, production-oriented implementations
- Collaborate with applied ML, systems, and hardware teams to ensure feasibility
- Shape the long-term technical roadmap of the core AI organization
- Mentor junior researchers and engineers where appropriate
Required Background
- PhD (or equivalent research experience) in Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Robotics, or a related field
- Strong publication record at top-tier conferences or journals
- Experience conducting research within an industrial or applied setting
- Excellent understanding of modern deep learning methods and 3D perception
- Strong programming skills in Python and/or C
- Ability to work across the full spectrum from theory to implementation
Strongly Preferred
- Research experience in autonomous driving, robotics, or embodied AI
- Work on 3D perception, tracking, SLAM, or world models
- Experience at big-tech research labs, industrial AI labs, or advanced OEM R&D
- Familiarity with real-world constraints such as runtime, memory, and system integration
- Prior collaboration with product or engineering teams
What’s on Offer
- A research-first role with real influence on production systems
- The opportunity to define core algorithms, not just incremental improvements
- A team culture that values publications, patents, and long-term thinking
- Remote-first working model within Germany, with regular in-person collaboration in Frankfurt
- Competitive compensation aligned with senior / principal research profiles
Who This Role Is For
- Researchers who want their work to ship into real vehicles
- Industry researchers seeking greater technical ownership
- PhD-level candidates who enjoy both publishing and building
- Profiles combining academic depth with practical engineering maturity
Looking forward to seeing your profile!
