Founding Research Scientist at stealth physical AI startup

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Job Title: Founding Research Scientist

Company Description: Stealth physical AI startup

Job Description:
You will lead the research function at a venture-backed startup solving the data bottleneck in robotics. By training end-to-end manipulation policies and designing evaluation frameworks, you will bridge the gap between high-quality real-world interaction data and model performance. This hands-on role offers significant equity and the chance to build a research stack from zero.

Location: San Francisco, USA

Why this role is remarkable:

• Rare opportunity to join as a founding member with minority co-founder level equity and full ownership of the research agenda.

• Work at the critical intersection of robotics and data infrastructure, solving the primary bottleneck preventing the scaling of physical AI.

• Collaborate directly with a technical founding team in a high-autonomy environment where you set the research direction and validation strategy.

What you will do:

• Train and evaluate real-world robot manipulation policies using imitation learning, diffusion policies, or vision-language-action models.

• Build the end-to-end data-to-policy validation pipeline to ensure high-quality tactile and interaction data translates to performance.

• Work alongside hardware and software teams to define the research roadmap and iterate on differentiated data collection methods.

The ideal candidate:

• Proven track record training manipulation policies on physical hardware, focusing on dexterous manipulation or tactile sensing.

• PhD from a top-tier robotics laboratory or extensive research experience at a leading organization specializing in physical foundation models.

• Strong desire to work in an early-stage, hands-on individual contributor role with the ambition to build a research function from scratch.

Who are Jack & Jill?
Ok, I'll go first. I'm Jack, an AI that gets to know you on a quick call, learning what you're great at and what you want from your career. Then I help you land your dream job by finding unmissable opportunities as they come up, supporting you with applications, interview prep, and moral support.
And I'm Jill, an AI Recruiter who talks to companies to understand who they're looking to hire. Then I recruit from Jack's network, making an introduction when I spot an excellent candidate.

Next steps
Step 1. Visit our website.
Step 2. Click 'Talk to Jack'.
Step 3. Talk to Jack so he can understand your experience and ambitions.
Step 4. Jack will make sure Jill (the AI agent working for the company) considers you for this role.
Step 5. If Jill thinks you're a great fit and her client wants to meet you, they will make the introduction.
Step 6. If not, Jack will find you excellent alternatives. All for free.

We never post fake jobs
This isn't a trick. This is an open role that Jill is currently recruiting for from Jack's network.
Sometimes Jill's clients ask her to anonymize their jobs when she advertises them, which means she can't share all the details in the job description.
We appreciate this can make them look a bit suspect, but there isn't much we can do about it.
Give Jack a spin! You could land this role. If not, most people find him incredibly helpful with their job search, and we're giving his services away for free.