World Model Research Scientist- Physical AI
Kodiak · Mountain View, CA
$190,000–$250,000
Jul 20, 2026
Mountain View, CA
Jul 22, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A research scientist role focused on building generative world models for autonomous trucking. The work centers on designing and training systems that synthesize realistic multi-camera video and LiDAR outputs conditioned on vehicle trajectories, 3D scene context, and text — spanning diffusion architectures, multi-view geometric consistency, and joint multimodal generation. Suits researchers with a strong background in generative modeling, neural rendering, or video synthesis and experience scaling large models on real-world sensor data.
Senior level · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Doctorate required · Full-time
Pay in the description: $190,000–$250,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 760 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (data scientists). range 160–1,150
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $189,150 (middle half $152,859–$224,286). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
This role sits at the boundary between research science (15-2051) and software development (15-1252). The title is 'Research Scientist' with a strong emphasis on designing and publishing novel generative models, which favors 15-2051; however, the role also involves substantial implementation and scaling of training pipelines, making 15-1252 a credible alternative.
A PhD in Computer Science, AI, Robotics, or a related field is explicitly required — not merely preferred — and is listed under 'What you'll bring' with no 'or equivalent experience' escape clause.
The compensation range ($190,000–$250,000/year) is stated as a base salary range for the SF/Silicon Valley location and spans 'several internal levels'; actual pay will vary by experience and interview performance.
No overall years-of-experience floor is stated; seniority is inferred from the PhD requirement, expected publication record, and the scope of leading world-model design end-to-end.
Skills such as BEV grids, voxel fields, tri-planes, radar, spatiotemporal attention, and autoregressive stability appear in the 'What you'll bring' section but are framed with softer language ('familiarity with', implied context) compared to the firmly gated core skills; they are marked preferred accordingly.
The posting notes that certain roles may require export-license review or U.S. person/citizenship verification due to DoD work, but no formal security clearance is explicitly required.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): 3D-aware generative models.
Read the full posting
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