--- title: 'Robotics Software Engineer Vision-Language-Action Models at Trener' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-software-engineer-vision-language-action-models-trener-trondheim-6244hmbs3jv5' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-12' --- # Robotics Software Engineer Vision-Language-Action Models at Trener - **Company:** Trener - **Location:** Trondheim, Norway - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-06-30 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/trener-robotics/7bb455c7-5e69-49f3-9c7c-935821c5aef4 ## Job description Robotics Software Engineer Vision-Language-Action Models Location Trondheim, Norway or San Jose, California, US. ## Role As a Robotics Software Engineer specializing in robot learning and manipulation, you will drive the design, training, validation, and deployment of contact-rich manipulation skills on real robots. Your focus will be on solving dexterous, contact-rich manipulation tasks. You will develop and integrate sensor-based control strategies and Vision-Language-Action (VLA) policies, managing the full model lifecycle, from architecture and large-scale data collection through training, validation, and reliable deployment on industrial and collaborative robots. This is a hands-on engineering role. You will spend significant time in the lab, running trials on hardware, curating high-quality datasets, and getting models to work on real robotic systems. ## How you'll move the mission forward - Develop, train, and deploy multimodal VLA and learned manipulation policies that solve contact-rich tasks, integrating sensor-based control strategies that combine vision, force-torque, and tactile feedback. - Run the manipulation model lifecycle, conducting regular trials on real hardware to evaluate algorithmic changes and curate high-quality training datasets. - Architect and build modular components for imitation and reinforcement learning, continuously improving the robustness of contact-rich tasks. - Build pipelines for continual learning, enabling policies to keep improving from new demonstrations and real-world deployment data over time. - Stress-test and optimize the real-time execution framework for learned policies running on the robot. ## Skills you will need to be successful - A Master’s or PhD degree in robotics, computer science, machine learning, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience in robot learning and manipulation (e.g. visuomotor policy learning, imitation learning, applied reinforcement learning,, Vision-Language-Action models). - Professional experience in Python and C++, with a proven track record of shipping production-quality code. - Deep expertise with a modern ML framework (PyTorch preferred; JAX or TensorFlow also welcome). - Direct experience testing and iterating on physical robots integrated with vision, force-torque, and tactile sensors. - Experience with robotic simulation environments (MuJoCo, Isaac Sim, Drake, or similar). - You thrive in the lab, spending significant time running hardware experiments and troubleshooting real-world edge cases. - Business fluency in English. ## Skills that will differentiate your candidacy - Experience manipulating and analyzing complex, large-scale, high-dimensional multimodal data from varying sources, with proficiency training models at scale on cloud-based workflows. - Experience with edge deployment and model optimization for real-time control: low-latency inference, quantization, distillation, and pruning to meet tight control-loop rates on resource-constrained, on-robot hardware and accelerators. - Contributions to robot learning through publications or open-source projects. - Familiarity with ROS 2 and hands-on experience using industrial and collaborative robots from vendors such as Universal Robots, ABB, Fanuc, and KUKA. - Experience with multibody dynamics simulators such as Adams. ## About Trener ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Industrial robotics automation / Physical AI software - **Target customers**: B2B – manufacturing companies, system integrators, and shop-floor operations running high-mix, low-volume production - **Mission**: Replace rigid, scripted robot programming with training-based, autonomous execution to make industrial automation more flexible and scalable. ## Products & Services - **Acteris**: The core intelligence layer for industrial robots – a vendor-agnostic platform that provides vision, language, and action understanding to enable skills-based programming, natural language task specification, real-time adaptation, and production monitoring. Compatible with ABB, Universal Robots, and FANUC, with more brands planned. - **T-Labs**: Dedicated R&D engine that develops new robot skills using vision-language-action models, simulation, and data-efficient training pipelines. Feeds production-ready capabilities into Acteris. - **T-Job, T-Agents, T-Vision, T-Sim, T-Monitor, T-Skill, T-Sense (coming soon)**: Specific modules within Acteris for job orchestration, agentic control, vision perception, simulation, monitoring, skill execution, and haptic sensing. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed - **Key Metric**: Total funding of $38.2M across four rounds (Pre-Seed, Seed, Seed extension, Series A) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Engine Ventures, IAG Capital Partners, Emergent Ventures - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount grew 350% year-over-year to 31 employees (LinkedIn data) - Won the Industry Startup Forum Award at Advanced Factories 2026 - Winner of ABB Startup Challenge 2024 - Expanding to additional robot brands beyond ABB, Universal Robots, and FANUC - Opened offices in San Jose (US HQ) and Barcelona (new hybrid location) ## Competitive Advantages - **Robot-agnostic intelligence layer**: Works across multiple robot brands (ABB, UR, FANUC) without requiring hardware replacement – can retrofit existing workcells. - **Physical AI approach**: Replaces traditional point-to-point programming with Vision-Language-Action models, enabling robots to handle variability and changeovers autonomously. - **Skills, not scripts**: Deployable, reusable robot skills that can be commissioned and scaled across cells, reducing deployment time and maintenance. - **Partner-led commissioning**: Standardized integration suite allows trusted partners to deploy consistently, enabling faster scaling. ## Strategic Focus - Scale deployment of Acteris across more production environments, particularly high-mix, low-volume manufacturing. - Expand robot brand compatibility to additional leading industrial robot manufacturers. - Continue building T-Labs to advance embodied intelligence and skill learning. - Grow the partner ecosystem and sales channels (recent hires like VP of Sales Jacob Pascual Pape indicate commercial acceleration). ## Why Work Here - **Cutting-edge technology**: Work on Physical AI, foundation models, and real-world robotics – a rare intersection of AI and industrial automation. - **Global team**: Offices in San Jose (US), Trondheim (Norway), and Barcelona (Spain) with employees across 6 countries. Hybrid work model (in-office in San Jose and Barcelona, with remote flexibility in some roles). - **Growth trajectory**: Young company (founded 2024) with rapid headcount growth and strong investor backing – opportunity to shape the product and culture early. - **Award-winning environment**: Recognized at Advanced Factories 2026 and ABB Startup Challenge, signaling industry credibility. - **Open roles**: Currently hiring for Integration Engineers (software and field), Technical Sales Engineers, QA Engineers, Business Development Managers, Channel Managers, and Application Engineers – indicating scaling across engineering, sales, and operations. ## Sources 1. [trener.ai](https://trener.ai/) 2. [trener.ai/company](https://trener.ai/company) 3. [trener.ai/platform](https://trener.ai/platform) 4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/trener-robotics) 5. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/trener-robotics) ## Other roles at Trener - [Robotic Research Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/robotic-research-engineer-trener-san-jose-y9b25v6nz46g) — San Jose, CA - [Senior Cloud Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-cloud-infrastructure-engineer-trener-san-jose-24qjfesc8wsz) — San Jose, CA - [Product Marketing Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/product-marketing-manager-trener-san-jose-rjkrg2f9h6w0) — San Jose, CA - [Senior Software Engineer, Integration Suite](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-integration-suite-trener-trondheim-vsxa47w0tmbb) — Trondheim, Norway - [Business Development Manager / Lead or Director](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-manager-lead-or-director-trener-san-jose-qm2edrkzw8g5) — San Jose, CA