Robot Learning Engineer

The job

LIVE Employer public job feed (private-sector employer) Source: the employer's public careers feed · Data: listed 2026-09-30

Job description

About LightSpeed

LightSpeed Build Technologies is revolutionizing the construction industry through AI-powered robotics. Our flagship systems—BRUTE for automated wall panel manufacturing and DEX for on-site collaborative construction—are addressing the global housing crisis by delivering unprecedented speed, precision, and affordability in homebuilding.

Position Overview

As a Robot Learning Engineer, you will teach our robots to perform complex manipulation tasks from human demonstration. You will own the path from demonstration to deployed behavior: building the teleoperation systems that capture how skilled people do the work, turning that data into trained policies, and proving those policies on real robots with dexterous hands and custom tooling. You'll also shape how we learn from video of people doing the work itself. This role is hands-on, fast-moving, and measured by one thing: robots that reliably do the job.

What you'll work on

Teleoperation & Demonstration Data

• Build and improve teleoperation pipelines using leader arms for bulk arm motion and VR hand tracking for fine, finger-level interaction

• Retarget human hand motion to a dexterous robot hand, developing in simulation first and validating on hardware

• Design data collection protocols so demonstrations are consistent, well-structured, and train well

• Define what data is worth collecting and how much, and guide technicians who run collection sessions

Policy Learning

• Train and fine-tune manipulation policies using imitation learning and vision-language-action (VLA) models

• Choose policy architectures and action representations suited to multi-step, contact-rich tasks

• Combine teleoperation data with human demonstration video to improve policies

• Iterate quickly from data to trained policy to real-robot trial

Evaluation & Deployment

• Define and run evaluation protocols on real robots, measuring success rate per task step

• Diagnose failures across data, model, and hardware, and fix the right one

• Deploy policies on robots with ROS2-based control and optimize inference for real-time performance

• Work with integration engineers to run policies across a full task sequence

Data Pipeline & Vendor Oversight

• Define dataset formats and data quality standards for training

• Supervise external partners who build data pipeline infrastructure and label human demonstration video, and set specs and accept deliveries

• Prototype extraction of useful training signals from egocentric (head-mounted camera) video in-house before scaling it out

Required Qualifications

Robot Learning

• 3+ years of hands-on experience in robot learning, ML for robotics, or closely related production ML

• Experience training policies from demonstrations on physical robots using imitation learning (e.g., ACT, Diffusion Policy, or similar)

• Experience collecting teleoperation or demonstration data for robot learning

• Strong PyTorch skills and experience running training, evaluation, and debugging end to end

• Track record of evaluating models in the real world and diagnosing failures

Robotics & Software

• Strong Python; working C++

• Experience with ROS or ROS2 and real robot hardware

• Understanding of manipulator kinematics and control fundamentals

• Proficiency with Linux, Docker, and Git

Preferred Qualifications

• MS or PhD in Robotics, Machine Learning, Computer Science, or a related field

• Experience fine-tuning VLA or foundation models for robot control

• Experience with dexterous hands, VR hand tracking, or motion retargeting

• Experience building or using leader-follower teleoperation systems

• Experience learning from human video or egocentric data

• Experience building and maintaining large-scale robotics datasets

• Robotics simulation experience with MuJoCo, Isaac Sim, or similar

• Experience with robot learning datasets and tooling (e.g., LeRobot, rosbag, MCAP)

• Experience managing data vendors or labeling workflows

• Background in manufacturing, industrial automation, or construction technology

Why Join LightSpeed

• Teach real robots to do skilled work that addresses the housing crisis

• Own the full loop from human demonstration to deployed robot behavior

• Work with dexterous hands, custom tooling, and human demonstration data at scale

• Hands-on culture with direct access to robots, sensors, and manufacturing environments

• Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits

Employment Relationship

This position is at-will, meaning either you or the Company may terminate employment at any time, with or without cause or notice.

Equal Opportunity

LightSpeed Build Technologies is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and experiences.

Explore around this job

Field: Engineering, Construction and Energy Sub-niche: Manufacturing and hardware engineering All jobs at Lightspeed Jobs in Illinois Jobs in Northbrook, IL Northbrook city guide Illinois state guide Cook County economy

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About the role

This is a — role in the Engineering, Construction and Energy field (Manufacturing and hardware engineering) at Lightspeed.

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The city

The job is in Northbrook, IL. Below is what the official statistics say about living and working there.

How Northbrook compares. Among the 100 largest places in Illinois, Northbrook is #54 by population, #100 for rent (#1 = cheapest), #3 for household income (#1 = highest), #3 for college degrees (#1 = most). Its county, Cook County, is #2 of 102 counties for average pay ($86,931).

The place in numbers

Northbrook has 34,585 residents (ACS 2020–2024), about 0.3% of the population of Illinois. It covers 13 square miles of land, which works out to roughly 2,611 people per square mile. The median age is 49.6, 27% older than the state median (49.6 against 39.0).

Housing

The median gross rent is $2,463 a month (rent plus utilities), 93% above the state median ($2,463 against $1,274). Over a year that is 18.7% of the median household income. US housing guidance treats housing as affordable when it takes 30% of income or less, so the typical household is under that line. The median home value is $652,300, which is 4.1 times the median household income ($157,782). 87.2% of households own their home, 30% above the state average (87.2% against 67.1%).

Work and pay

The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area has 4,513,280 jobs in the BLS wage survey, and the median pay across all occupations is $54,720 a year, 7% above the national median ($54,720 against $50,980). The biggest occupation groups are office and administrative support (488,940 jobs, median $48,840); transportation and material moving (484,580 jobs, median $45,920); management (404,010 jobs, median $131,890). The area is most specialised in management (1.2 times) and transportation and material moving (1.2 times), where the share of workers is above the national share. The best-paying groups with at least 5,000 jobs are management ($131,890) and legal ($112,440). In 2026M09 the unemployment rate of Cook County was 4.7%. 59.2% of residents aged 16 and over are in the labour force. The city lies in Cook County; its jobs, pay by industry and GDP are on the county page.

Getting around

Among workers, 53.8% drive alone, 5.8% use public transit, 2.0% walk, 32.4% work from home. 20.7% of workers commute 45 minutes or more, 5% above the state average (20.7% against 19.7%). Remote work is more common than in the state as a whole, which widens the set of employers a resident can work for without moving.

People and education

72.6% of adults aged 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 92% above the state share (72.6% against 37.9%). 20.7% of residents were born outside the United States, 40% above the state share (20.7% against 14.8%). The poverty rate is 4.3%, 63% below the state rate (4.3% against 11.8%).

Climate

The warmest month is Jul, averaging 74°F (23.5°C), and the coolest is Jan at 22°F (-5.6°C). About 984 mm (39 inches) of precipitation falls in a year; May is the wettest month (120 mm) and Jan the driest (44 mm). These values come from NASA satellite-based climatology on a grid of about 50 km, so they describe the wider area, not a weather station in the city.

Nearby cities to compare

Closest cities in this guide: Glenview (3 miles, rent 13% lower); Highland Park (4 miles, rent 22% lower); Wheeling (4 miles, rent 32% lower); Morton Grove (6 miles, rent 12% lower). Rent differences are against Northbrook; use the Compare tab to put any two cities side by side.

Full guide to Northbrook →Illinois guideAll jobs in Northbrook

Official links for Northbrook

• Census Bureau data profile for Northbrook
• Official state website: illinois.gov
• BLS Economy at a Glance: Illinois

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Where to live

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Career paths

We could not match this title to one occupation, so here are the other sub-niches in Engineering, Construction and Energy, where your skills may carry over:

Construction and field engineering (462) Energy and utilities (625)

Distances

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The employer

Lightspeed is the employer in this listing. See all its open jobs here →

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What it is like to work at a company (culture, schedules, benefits) is not in the source data, so we do not describe it. Read the description and ask the questions under "How to prepare".

Other open jobs at Lightspeed

Similar jobs

Same sub-niche: Manufacturing and hardware engineering

More jobs in Northbrook, IL

All Manufacturing and hardware engineering jobs → · All Engineering, Construction and Energy sub-niches →

FAQ

What is the Robot Learning Engineer job at Lightspeed?

A private-sector role in engineering, construction and energy (manufacturing and hardware engineering) listed 41 days ago. The full description is on this page and on the employer's page.

Where is this job?

Northbrook, IL.

How do I apply?

Use the "View this job and apply on the employer's page" button. AtiveSite does not receive applications.

How much does it pay?

The listing does not publish pay, and we could not match the title to one official occupation.

What is the cost of living there?

Median rent in Northbrook is $2,463 a month and median household income $157,782 (ACS 2020–2024).

How old is this listing?

It was posted on 2026-09-30 (41 days ago). Jobs older than 90 days are not shown.

Are there similar jobs?

Yes: browse manufacturing and hardware engineering jobs in Illinois.

Sources and terms

• Job data: Lightspeed careers page public feed (listing dated 2026-09-30). The job disappears from this site when it disappears from the source.
• Wages and projections: BLS OEWS (May 2025) and Employment Projections 2025–35.
• City and county figures: Census Bureau ACS 2020–2024, BEA, BLS QCEW and LAUS, NASA POWER climatology; distances from Census Gazetteer coordinates.

AtiveSite is not affiliated with or endorsed by the employer or any government agency, and does not process applications. Verify every detail with the employer before acting.

Sources

• BLS OEWS (wages and employment by occupation, May 2025)
• BLS Employment Projections 2025–35
• BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
• BLS JOLTS
• BLS State and Metro Area Employment
• Census Bureau American Community Survey (via Census Reporter)
• BEA GDP by state and Regional Price Parities
• IRS 2026 tax adjustments
• U.S. Department of Labor, minimum wage by state
• Tax Foundation state income tax rates 2026
• USAJOBS
• USCIS
• U.S. Department of State, visas
• NASA POWER climatology
• GeoNames / Census Gazetteer (coordinates)