Applied Researcher
About this role
Physical Intelligence is hiring a Applied Researcher, full-time, on-site in San Francisco, in the ROBOTICS sector.
Who We Are
Physical Intelligence is bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world. We are a group of engineers, scientists, roboticists, and company builders developing foundation models and learning algorithms to power the robots of today and the physically-actuated devices of the future.
The Team
The Deployments team is responsible for solving real world problems with our models and robots. We tackle the full problem space: integrating with customer workflows, training models to solve their dexterous tasks, and ensuring the on-site reliability of the system. This breadth of problem space is why we’re a full-stack robotics team - whether it’s thinking about customer facing experiences or fine-tuning models for tasks no robot has done before, we put forth the best solution Pi has to offer.
In This Role You Will
- Deploy and debug learned policies on physical robots, diagnosing failures across the full stack (perception, policy, control, hardware).
- Train and tune policies, curate data, and iterate to improve real-world performance.
- Write production-quality code that interfaces with Pi’s infrastructure.
- Work with operators to set up tests, evals, and data collection pipelines.
- Engage with partners to understand use cases and observe robots in deployment contexts.
- Bridge research and operations: translate research advances into deployable systems, and surface real-world failure modes back to researchers and (software and hardware!) engineers.
- Define and shape a vision for what real-world deployments will look like in the long-term
What We Hope You’ll Bring
- Hands-on experience deploying robots or autonomous systems in real-world environments
- Strong engineering skills: clean Python, ability to interface with infrastructure, debugging instincts
- Ability to debug the full stack from perception to control
- Practical mindset: motivated by making things work, not by open-ended research
- Clear communication with researchers, operators, and occasionally partners
Bonus Points If You Have
- Founded or worked at an early-stage robotics or AV company
- PhD in relevant field
- Intuition for policy training, neural network debugging, and data curation
- Experience with robot manipulation platforms
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Description from Physical Intelligence's official posting. Always confirm details on the company careers page.
About Physical Intelligence
Physical Intelligence
Company in the mobility sector tracked nightly on the Mobility Jobs board.
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About Larry Sherwood Jr.
Talent Acquisition Leader specializing in mobility, EV, and frontier tech. 1,000+ hires across roles ranging from production technicians to VPs, including 48 hires for the AFEELA U.S. launch at Sony Honda Mobility (98% offer acceptance, $1.5M+ agency savings). SHRM-CP certified. Build recruiting functions from scratch, no agencies.
Currently open to senior TA leadership roles in the United States. larrysherwoodjr.com · Resume (PDF)
Read Larry's guides →Curated by Larry Sherwood Jr. on the free Mobility Jobs board. Pulled nightly from company applicant tracking systems. Apply directly on the source link above to be considered.