Head of AI (Robotics)
About
This is a VC-backed robotics company building the intelligence layer for industrial machines — forklifts, cranes, excavators and other heavy equipment. The approach is pragmatic: start with remote teleoperation to generate real-world operator data at scale, then train Vision-Language-Action models toward increasing autonomy.
The teleoperation system is live and generating data. The autonomy stack is being built on top of it now. The near-term approach is imitation learning on open VLA foundations, adapted to proprietary operator data. RL follows once the baseline is proven.
This is a founding hire to lead the research efforts, working alongside the CTO and CEO — setting technical direction, owning the model stack, and hiring a team of 6–7 over the coming months.
What you’ll do
- Own the model stack end-to-end — architecture, training, evaluation, and iteration
- Adapt and fine-tune open VLA foundations on proprietary operator data from live teleoperation
- Define and execute the near-term AI roadmap, starting with imitation learning
- Build toward RL-based methods once the imitation learning baseline is validated
- Translate research ideas into production-ready systems running on physical machines
- Set technical direction for the AI team and hire into it as the company scales
- Work directly with the CTO on strategy, roadmap, and team structure
What you’ll need
- Strongbackgroundinrobotics,embodiedAI,orphysicalautonomy
- Hands-onRLexperience—appliedtorealsystems,notjustsimulation
- Experiencebuildingorfine-tuningfoundationmodelsatscale(ideallyVLA-stylearchitectures)
- Trackrecorddeployingmodelsinreal-worldenvironments,notjustbenchmarks
- Comfortableoperatingasaplayer-coach:technicallyhands-on,capableofleadingateam
- Appliedresearchfocus—youdelivertoproduction,notpapers
- Backgroundataroboticslab,autonomousvehiclecompany,orembodiedAIteam
Shortlisted candidates will be contacted within 48 hours.
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