Research Scientist, Mechanical Engineering

Job overview

The Research Scientist, Mechanical Engineering role is onsite in Pittsburgh, PA, and compensation is not specified. Carnegie Mellon University's Safe AI Lab conducts research on scenario generation, simulation, and digital twins for embodied AI. The role leads research on digital twins and safety-critical scenarios for industrial work cells and assembly processes. It evaluates robot policies in physics simulators, develops quantitative safety evidence, validates sim-to-real transfer, and coordinates student researchers and research publications.

What you'll do

• Build digital twins of industrial work cells and assembly processes from CAD, point clouds, and video
• maintain simulation-ready asset and layout libraries
• develop scenario-generation pipelines from incident reports, safety standards, and human-motion recordings
• evaluate robot policies in NVIDIA Isaac Sim and MuJoCo using safety metrics and importance sampling
• validate sim-to-real transfer on lab robot platforms
• lead research goals, coordinate student researchers, co-write papers and reports, and present at conferences.

What we're looking for

Skills & competencies

research scientist

mechanical engineering

safe ai lab

digital twins

embodied ai

robot simulation

nvidia isaac sim

mujoco

scenario generation

pittsburgh pa

carnegie mellon university

Work arrangement

• Weekend coverage required

Benefits & perks

• Medical, prescription, dental, and vision insurance
• retirement savings with employer contributions
• tuition benefits
• paid time off and holidays
• life and accidental death and disability insurance
• transit pass
• family concierge
• fitness center access.

Why this role

Leads the Safe AI Lab research program on digital twins, safety-critical scenario generation, and simulation-based evaluation for embodied AI.

About the employer

Carnegie Mellon University is hiring for this role. Industry: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools. Sector: 61.