Job Specifications
Head of Vision – Language – Action (VLA) Development – Manipulation
Location: London – 5 days in the office
Our Clients
They are the UK’s first AI and robotics company dedicated to building advanced, reliable, and commercially scalable humanoid robots. Their flagship platform, HMND-01, is a next-generation labour automation system designed to deliver efficient, adaptable performance across real-world environments, beginning with industrial applications.
Responsibilities
Lead the strategy and execution of representation learning, behaviour cloning, and reinforcement learning programs.
Drive large-scale post-training for multi-modal LLM / VLM / VLA systems, integrating vision, audio, proprioception, LiDAR, and point cloud data.
Build pipelines to continuously collect, version, label, and evaluate simulation and tele-operation data.
Partner with MLOps and platform teams to scale distributed training and optimise models for real-time edge inference.
Grow, mentor, and unblock a high-performing team of researchers and engineers.
Requirements
6+ years developing deep learning systems, with 2+ years in technical leadership.
Hands-on experience with LLM/VLM architecture design and large-scale training.
Proven expertise in robotics or autonomous systems (behaviour cloning, actor-critic, offline RL).
Experience deploying to humanoid or legged robots.
Track record of shipping to real hardware and refining via data flywheels.
Background in autonomous control and planning.
Contributions to research or open-source in multi-modal transformers, diffusion control, or world models.
Familiarity with OpenVLA, π models, or other VLA frameworks.
Benefits
Competitive compensation and stock options.
Paid vacation (aligned with local labour regulations).
Opportunities to collaborate across our teams in Vancouver and Boston.
Office perks including meals, snacks, and team events.
High autonomy and direct ownership of impactful initiatives.
Work with leading experts across AI, robotics, and engineering.
A fast-moving, transparent, low-bureaucracy startup environment.
About the Company
'Your IT Infrastructure, Cloud & Software Engineering headhunting Specialists'
Shaw Daniels Solutions (SDS) leads the charge in reshaping the recruitment and staffing landscape across Europe, with a dedicated focus on Cloud & IT Infrastructure, Software Engineering, and related technology sectors. Our unwavering commitment to excellence is fortified by our strategic headquarters in Hampshire, supported by renowned industry experts in the technology realm.
Boasting an impressive collective experience of over forty-seven yea...
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