Research Assistant/Associate (f/m/d) PostDoc

At LFB, we believe the most transformative breakthroughs happen where diverse perspectives converge. Our mission is to bridge the gap between complex raw data and real-world clinical and robotic applications, turning abstract sensor signals into life-changing insights. We foster a collaborative and inclusive research culture — a vibrant community where pioneering work in imaging instrumentation, computational science, and embodied intelligence comes to life. 

Join a visionary research team at the Chair of Imaging and Computer Vision (LFB), RWTH Aachen University. We are developing Physical AI systems - robots and embodied agents that perceive, reason, and act in the physical world. Inspired by state-of-the-art vision-language-action (VLA) models, we are pushing the boundaries of robot learning, reinforcement learning from experience, and real-world deployment of foundation models on robotic platforms. This PostDoc role is central to a founding moment: launching a new Physical AI research group within one of Europe's top technical universities, embedded in a network of leading industry and clinical partners. 

What We Offer:
• A founding role in a new Physical AI group, with direct influence on its research agenda and culture - supported by an established industry partner in humanoid robotics
• A leading research environment at one of Europe's top technical universities, with access to robotic platforms and unique clinical and industrial datasets
• Mentorship toward independent research leadership, including support for grant applications (DFG, BMBF, EU Horizon) and future professorship positioning
• Active collaborations with industry and medical technology partners, with pathways to genuine real-world impact
• Opportunities for high-impact publications, invited talks, and international conference participation
• Flexible, family-friendly working conditions in line with RWTH Aachen University policies 

• Master`s degree or equivalent and PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Physics, or a related field
• Strong background in deep learning, with experience in reinforcement learning, imitation learning
• Hands-on experience with PyTorch and large-scale model training; familiarity with VLA or foundation model architectures is a strong advantage
• Publication record in top-tier venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CoRL, ICRA, or equivalent)
• Drive to work at the intersection of Physical AI, embodied intelligence, and real-world deployment
• Excellent communication skills in English; German is advantageous but not required 

As a PostDoc researcher and co-founder of the Physical AI group, you will develop methods that enable robots to learn from demonstrations, corrections, and  autonomous experience, and deploy them in real-world settings.

• Vision-Language-Action (VLA) Models: Design and implement VLA architectures integrating vision, language, and action for dexterous manipulation, building on large pre-trained vision-language backbones (e.g., 5B-parameter VLMs).
• Reinforcement Learning from Experience: Develop RL pipelines - offline RL, advantage-conditioned policies - enabling robots to grow beyond pure imitation, achieving human-level and superhuman robustness through autonomous experience.
• Long-Horizon Task Mastery: Investigate credit assignment across extended tasks via learned value functions, enabling robots to detect and correct compounding errors in complex real-world scenarios.
• Sim-to-Real Transfer & World Models: Bridge simulation and deployment using world models, self-supervised representations (JEPA, DINOv3), and transfer techniques for robust generalization.
• Medical & Clinical Robotics: Partner with imaging and clinical groups to apply Physical AI in healthcare robotics, combining LFB's sensor expertise with embodied intelligence.

The successful candidate will be employed under a regular employment contract.
The position is to be filled at the earliest possible date and offered for a fixed term up to 3 years.
There is an option to extend the position for a further three years.
The fixed-term employment is possible as it constitutes one of the fixed-term options of the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (German Act on Fixed-term Scientific Contracts).
This is a full-time position.
The salary is based on the German public service salary scale (TV-L).
The position corresponds to a pay grade of EG 13 TV-L.

RWTH is a certified family-friendly University. We support our employees in maintaining a good work-life balance with a wide range of health, advising, and prevention services, for example university sports. Employees who are covered by collective bargaining agreements and civil servants have access to an extensive range of further training courses and the opportunity to purchase a job ticket.
RWTH is an equal opportunities employer. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from all suitably qualified candidates, particularly from groups that are underrepresented at the University. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability or age. RWTH is strongly committed to encouraging women in their careers. Female applicants are given preference if they are equally suitable, competent, and professionally qualified, unless a fellow candidate is favored for a specific reason.
As RWTH is committed to equality of opportunity, we ask you not to include a photo in your application.
You can find information on the personal data we collect from applicants in accordance with Articles 13 and 14 of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at http://www.rwth-aachen.de/dsgvo-information-bewerbung.