Research Scientist Intern, State Estimation for Dexterous Manipulation — PhD

Company: Meta
Team: Reality Labs Research
Internship Duration: 12–24 weeks
Compensation: $7,650/month – $12,134/month + benefits

About Reality Labs Research

At Reality Labs Research, our goal is to explore, innovate, and design novel interfaces and hardware for the next generation of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality experiences.

We are driving research toward a vision of natural, seamless experiences in XR environments that are effective, enjoyable, and functionally indistinguishable from those in the real world.

About the Role

As a Research Scientist Intern, you will work at the intersection of representation learning, physics-based estimation, and robotic manipulation.

Your primary focus will be developing latent space representations of object physical state with learned, high-dimensional embeddings that can capture time-varying object properties during dexterous manipulation. You will design experiments to validate these representations and demonstrate their value in practical multi-sensory setups and applications.

Our internships are 12 to 24 weeks long, with various start dates throughout the year.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement latent space representations for object physical state during robotics manipulation tasks that go beyond fixed parameter sets

• Design and execute controlled experiments to validate the representation, including measuring adaptation speed, property decoding fidelity, and downstream control performance against baselines such as no object state, explicit physical parameters, and raw sensor history

• Benchmark the latent state representation on practical dexterous manipulation tasks

• Collaborate with researchers and cross-functional partners, including communicating research plans, progress, and results

• Showcase the value of the work in simulated or physical demos

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently has, or is in the process of obtaining, a PhD degree in Robotics, Machine Learning, Computer Science, or a relevant technical field

• Strong background in representation learning, generative models, or neural implicit representations, such as Gaussian Splatting, NeRF, or structured latent variable models

• Experience with physics-based estimation, state estimation, or system identification in robotic or dynamical systems, such as Bayesian filtering, online adaptation, or meta-learning for system identification

• Experience with Python and PyTorch

• Must obtain work authorization in the country of employment at the time of hire and maintain ongoing work authorization during employment

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with tactile sensing, force/torque sensors, or robot hand manipulation

• Familiarity with model-based control, including MPC, reinforcement learning, or imitation learning for manipulation

• Experience with Bayesian filtering, online adaptation, or meta-learning for system identification

• Experience with experimental design and statistical evaluation of robotic systems

• Experience working and communicating cross-functionally in a team environment

• Proven track record of achieving significant results as demonstrated by grants, fellowships, patents, and first-authored publications at leading workshops or conferences, including:

  • Robotics: RSS, ICRA, IROS, CoRL, T-RO, IJRR

  • Machine Learning: NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, JMLR

  • Computer Vision: CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, TPAMI

  • Similar venues

• Intent to return to the degree program after the completion of the internship or co-op

About Meta

Meta builds technologies that help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses.

When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology.

People who choose to build their careers by building with Meta help shape a future that will take us beyond what digital connection makes possible today, beyond the constraints of screens, the limits of distance, and even the rules of physics.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Meta is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer.

Meta does not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex, including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

Meta also considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law.

Meta participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law.

Please note that Meta may leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in connection with applications for employment.

Meta is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in the recruiting process. Candidates who need assistance or accommodations due to a disability may contact accommodations-ext@meta.com.

Compensation and Benefits

The compensation range for this role is $7,650/month to $12,134/month + benefits.

Individual compensation is determined by skills, qualifications, experience, and location. Compensation details listed in this posting reflect the base hourly rate, monthly rate, or annual salary only and do not include bonus, equity, or sales incentives, if applicable.

In addition to base compensation, Meta offers benefits.