World Model Research Scientist- Physical AI at kodiakkodiak · Mountain View, CA

Posted: 2026-10-20

Skills: Python, AWSKodiak AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: KDK), founded in 2018, is a leader in Physical AI, developing driverless technology that powers machines that move. Its Kodiak Driver is a vehicle-agnostic autonomous driving system that combines AI-powered software with modular hardware. Today it operates in long-haul trucking, industrial trucking, and defense. In 2024, Kodiak launched commercial Driver-as-a-Service operations with no one in the cab, and plans to launch driverless long-haul service between Dallas and Houston by the end of 2026. Kodiak has partnered with many of the biggest names in freight, including Bosch for scaled hardware production, AWS, and leading customers including Atlas Energy Solutions, IKEA, Bridgestone, Werner Enterprises, C.R. England, Roehl Transport, and General Dynamics Land Systems. Kodiak is building AI that doesn't just perceive the world, it learns how the physics of the world works. We are developing large-scale generative world models that learn to predict realistic, physically consistent futures from real-world sensor data. This capability serves as the foundation for scalable closed-loop training, validation, and long-tail scenario generation, and is distilled into the onboard models that drive our autonomous trucks. We are looking for a research scientist to lead the design and development of world models capable of generating multi-sensor, multi-view, temporally coherent driving scenarios conditioned on actions, 3D scene context, and text. In this role, you will: Design and train generative world models that synthesize realistic multi-camera video and LiDAR conditioned on ego trajectories, 3D scene context, and text Research and implement conditional diffusion architectures for driving, including spatiotemporal attention, latent space design, and action-conditioned generation Develop techniques for multi-view geometric consistency in generated outputs, drawing on neural rendering, cross-view attention, and 3D-aware generative approaches Build meth…Sign in to see the original postingBrowse more developer jobs on RoleBurst