--- title: 'Applied AI Scientist, Simulation & Reinforcement Learning at Locus Robotics' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/applied-ai-scientist-simulation-reinforcement-learning-locus-robotics-london-a5g2nzy3n91v' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-07' --- # Applied AI Scientist, Simulation & Reinforcement Learning at Locus Robotics - **Company:** Locus Robotics - **Location:** London, United Kingdom - **Posted:** 2026-11-06 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-07 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/locusrobotics/jobs/5259931007 ## Job description At Locus Robotics, we build AI-powered systems and intelligent robots that keep global supply chains running. Our platform combines advanced AI, real-time decision-making, and autonomous robotics to help leading companies improve efficiency, scale operations, and adapt to constant change. Locus Robotics is a place to do meaningful work with real-world impact, where your ideas move quickly from concept to deployment. We invest in our people, encourage continuous learning, and give you the opportunity to grow your career while building technology that is used every day at global scale. As an Applied AI Scientist, Simulation & Reinforcement Learning, you'll own the simulator behind SDL, our programme building a world-first, reinforcement-learning-driven orchestration framework for people and robots. That framework needs a simulator that is trustworthy enough to develop, tune and validate it before it touches a live warehouse. You will take over day-to-day ownership of our discrete-event simulation (built on SimPy), make it measurably closer to reality, and use it as the training and evaluation ground for learning-based policies. Simulation comes first; reinforcement learning grows to be the larger part of the role as the simulator matures. You'll compare your simulations against live operational data from some of the world's largest fulfilment sites, and your work will decide what is validated and shipped to fleets of robots in customer sites worldwide. This is not a notebook role. The simulator you own is the foundation that decides what ships to customer sites worldwide. You will work in a small, collaborative team where research meets production, as part of Applied Data Science (ADS), reporting to Oscar Mendez. - Location: This is a remote position based in the United Kingdom. Candidates must reside in the UK. Right to Work: Candidates must have the legal right to work in the UK. Locus Robotics is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position, now or in the future. ## Responsibilities Own the simulator - Own and develop our SimPy-based discrete-event simulator, including its logic, design choices and the fragile areas that need care. - Pay down technical debt: improve test coverage, code quality, reproducibility and developer tooling. - Build the experiment infrastructure around the simulator: orchestration, study management, reporting and automated runs across benchmark sites. - Generate and maintain site data (e.g. distance files, configs) needed to simulate customer warehouses. - Support scenario testing and sensitivity analysis for our order-engine and orchestration teams. Tune and close the sim2real gap - Define, measure and reduce the sim-to-real gap against real site data. - Run parameter optimisation and tuning studies (e.g. Optuna), and diagnose anomalies and non-determinism. - Model warehouse processes such as congestion, picker behaviour and queueing at the right level of fidelity. - Communicate results and confidence clearly to engineering, product and operations stakeholders. - Use Optimization, RL & DL to tune the simulator Grow into reinforcement learning - Turn the simulator into a proper RL environment (Gymnasium/Gym-style interfaces) with fast, repeatable, scalable training runs. - Design, train and evaluate RL policies, starting with guidance generation, and benchmark them against current heuristic algorithms. - Guard against overfitting to simulator artefacts, and design experiments that show what transfers to the real world. - Prototype, evaluate and productionise learning-based components alongside the wider ML, MLOps and OE teams. - Stay current with RL, multi-agent systems and simulation research, and assess what is applicable to Locus. - Contribute to internal technical papers, patents and, where appropriate, publications. ## Qualifications - A PhD in Computer Science, AI/ML, Robotics, Mathematics, Physics, Operations Research or a related quantitative field, or MSc and 5+ years of industry experience applying AI/ML or simulation to real-world problems. - Hands-on experience building, extending or validating simulators, ideally discrete-event simulation (SimPy or similar). - Practical experience with reinforcement learning and training simulation-based agents, including simulation for RL and Gym-style environments. - Strong Python and software engineering fundamentals: testing, code review, maintainable and reproducible code. - Rigorous experimental and statistical thinking: benchmarking, tuning, ablations, uncertainty. - Experience in robotics, logistics, warehouse or other operations-heavy domains. - Publications in major AI, ML, robotics or vision venues (e.g. NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, RSS, CoRL, ICRA, IROS, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV). - Excellent English communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to engage diverse audiences effectively and explain uncertain results clearly to technical and non-technical audiences in a multidisciplinary environment. The expected base salary range for this role is GBP 70,000 - 120,000  based on external market data, plus bonus and equity. Actual offers will depend on factors such as the candidate's experience, education, training, key or critical skills, geographic location, and current market and business conditions. Additional Information Locus Robotics is an equal opportunity employer. Application Fraud Detection Notice: To help maintain a fair and secure hiring process, Locus Robotics may use AI-assisted and other automated tools to detect suspected fraud, misrepresentation, or misuse of the application process. Hiring decisions are not made solely by automated means unless otherwise disclosed where required by law. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. ## About Locus Robotics ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Locus Robotics provides a complete, end-to-end warehouse automation system using autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and a Physical AI orchestration layer (LocusONE) to help warehouses and 3PLs fulfill orders more efficiently. - **Entity Type**: Private (Growth-stage) - **Headquarters**: Wilmington, Massachusetts, USA - **Founded**: 2014 - **Founders**: Bruce Welty, Mike Johnson, and Sean Moran ## Core Business - **Primary Industry**: Warehouse Automation, Robotics, Logistics Technology - **Target Customers**: B2B — global 3PLs, enterprise retailers, healthcare distributors, and e-commerce fulfillment centers - **Mission/Purpose**: To empower warehouse workers and optimize fulfillment through collaborative, intelligent robotics that adapts to real-world variability. ## Products & Services - **LocusONE™**: The intelligence layer (Physical AI) that coordinates work across people, autonomous robots, and workflows in real time. It rebalances priorities, labor, and throughput as conditions change. - **Locus Array**: A fully autonomous, high-density Robots-to-Goods (R2G) system for picking, putaway, induction, drop-off, slotting, and replenishment. Can reduce picking and putaway labor by 90%+. - **Locus Origin & Locus Vector**: Collaborative AMRs that work alongside associates to support picking, transport, and fulfillment workflows. - **Adaptive Point-to-Point Transport**: Flexible movement of goods without fixed paths or permanent infrastructure. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Total Funding**: Over $500 million raised (latest round: Series F in 2022 at a $2 billion valuation). Exact current valuation is not publicly disclosed. - **Key Metric**: Over 500+ facilities deployed globally (as of 2025). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Citi Ventures, Goldman Sachs, G2 Venture Partners, Scale Venture Partners, and others. Key customers include DHL, GEODIS, and other major 3PLs. - **Growth Signals**: Sustained high growth in e-commerce fulfillment; expansion into healthcare and retail verticals; global presence across US, EMEA, and APAC; continuous product innovation with Locus Array and LocusONE. ## Competitive Advantages - **Physical AI Orchestration**: LocusONE dynamically coordinates humans and robots, adapting to real-time changes in demand, labor, and inventory — unlike rigid fixed automation. - **Collaborative, Not Replacement**: Robots work safely alongside people, enhancing productivity without requiring facility reconfiguration or grid-based layouts. - **Proven at Scale**: Hundreds of facilities worldwide, trusted by top 3PLs and retailers. - **Deep Warehouse Heritage**: Founders were among the first to integrate robotics into warehouse operations, giving them deep domain expertise. ## Strategic Focus - **Automation Phasing**: Enabling warehouses to automate in phases — starting with collaborative AMRs and scaling to fully autonomous systems like Locus Array — without locking into a single path. - **Physical AI Leadership**: Continuing to invest in AI, computer vision, and real-time orchestration to handle increasing complexity and volume. - **Global Expansion**: Growing presence in EMEA and APAC to serve multinational customers. - **New Verticals**: Expanding beyond core e-commerce into healthcare, retail, and multi-level/mezzanine fulfillment. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Described as “Work hard and have fun” — a collaborative, inclusive, and dynamic environment. Core values include acting decisively, operating with trust and integrity, delivering results, being inclusive, and innovating. - **Remote/Hybrid**: Offers flexible work arrangements; global offices in Wilmington, MA (HQ) and Amsterdam (European HQ). Many roles are remote or hybrid. - **Notable Perks**: Strong global team spirit, collaborative leadership, opportunity to work with cutting-edge robotics and AI, career growth opportunities, and a focus on positive impact for customers and communities. - **Engineering Culture**: Emphasis on innovation, AI, big data, and robotics. Internships and PhD research roles available (e.g., AI & Computer Vision). Engineers work on real-world problems at scale. ## Sources 1. [locusrobotics.com](https://locusrobotics.com/) 2. [locusrobotics.com/company](https://locusrobotics.com/company) 3. [locusrobotics.com/company/careers](https://locusrobotics.com/company/careers) 4. [job-boards.greenhouse.io/locusrobotics](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/locusrobotics) 5. [locusrobotics.com/company/leadership](https://locusrobotics.com/company/leadership) ## Other roles at Locus Robotics - [Customer Success Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-success-manager-locus-robotics-united-states-t23c508xg382) — United States - [Senior Customer Support Manager, Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-customer-support-manager-robotics-locus-robotics-wilmington-ap7rad05mr0b) — Wilmington, MA - [Social and Multimedia Content Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/social-and-multimedia-content-manager-locus-robotics-wilmington-rjrg1gvjbmh6) — Wilmington, MA - [Forward Deployed AI Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-ai-engineer-locus-robotics-wilmington-paek2j8zg17c) — Wilmington, MA - [Lead, Robotics Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-robotics-software-engineer-locus-robotics-north-vancouver-98ae134sdwfh) — North Vancouver, Canada - [General Resume Submittal](https://feeny.ai/job/general-resume-submittal-locus-robotics-united-states-united-kingdom-and-65hpv5km0wrc) — United States / United Kingdom and Ireland / European Union