Science and Technology Lead - Robot Locomotion

ARIA is a new R&D funding agency built to unlock technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. We fund scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of the possible.

From climate change to AI, society faces enormous challenges and opportunities that can be uniquely addressed by science and technology. ARIA was created to activate the UK’s world-class R&D in new ways, so we can meet these head on.

Our success is shaped by one question: how will ARIA transform the lives of the UK’s future generations? Whether that’s a life-changing new technology or a burgeoning new industry, it should be obvious that ARIA played a catalytic role.

If you want to help make breakthroughs like these possible, come and build ARIA with us.

Learn more here.

 

Role Summary

As an ARIA Science and Technology Lead, you will have the rare chance to catalyse breakthroughs that could change the world. work closely with Programme Director Jenny Read, Programme Specialist Celia Choimet, and the Science and Technology Lead, Radhika Gudipati, on ARIA's existing programme on Robot Dexterity. You’ll be exposed to every aspect of the programme's technical management from design through approval, project selection, and delivery.

Your impact will extend beyond a single programme; you will play a key role in strengthening the wider Smarter Robot Bodies opportunity space, with a deep, evolving understanding of programmes and projects over time. As Programme Directors join the opportunity space and new programmes are launched, you will surface insights that build on existing ARIA-funded technologies, accelerate discovery, and turn past lessons into future breakthroughs, maximising impact across the portfolio.

We’re looking for an adaptable technical professional who’s strongly motivated by the opportunity to catalyse a technological step change. You’ll be working in a bold, talented, and agile team, funding projects (‘Creators’) across the entire R&D ecosystem, from startups to universities, in the pursuit of groundbreaking advancements that will shape the future of science and technology.

Meet Jenny Read

Jenny Read is one of ARIA’s first cohort of Programme Directors. Jenny originally trained as a physicist but has spent most of her career in computational neuroscience and vision science before starting ARIA’s robotics work in 2023. Her ongoing programme on Robot Dexterity is funding projects that are developing novel actuators, tactile sensors and co-designing hardware and control aimed at unlocking more capable robot manipulation. 

Jenny is now developing a second programme on efficient robot locomotion. Current robots are energetically inefficient because they rely on stiff, heavy motors that fight physics; this programme shifts the focus from better batteries to improved actuators and morphological intelligence - using elasticity, resonance, and musculoskeletal designs to recycle energy like biological systems. You’ll be supporting all technical aspects of the workload and facilitating the successful execution of projects within the programme portfolio.

Explore Jenny’s early thinking on this new programme here.

Jenny Read, Programme Director