Founding Research Engineer, Robot Learning (US)

Physicl builds the data layer for physical AI: we evaluate world models and robot policies against physics and generate the synthetic training data that fixes what breaks. Today, the proof that our data makes robots better lives inside our customers' labs. You'll bring that proof in-house as our first robot learning hire. You'll train robot policies on Physicl data, measure what improves, and turn the answer into both a public result and a product requirement. You report to our VP of R&D and work daily with the engineering and product teams in Paris and the US team forming around you in the Bay.

You'll feel at home here if you'd rather design the experiment yourself than wait for someone to hand it to you.

What You'll Do

• Train policies on Physicl data. VLA fine-tuning, imitation learning, or RL inside Isaac-class simulation, starting with manipulation and grasping.

• Measure the delta. Establish baselines on public eval suites, retrain with Physicl data under the same seeds and protocol, and report what moved and what didn't.

• Turn results into specs. Write the requirements for the data team: what to generate, at what fidelity, with what variation.

• Publish and demo. Share results with the robotics community and join customer technical conversations.

• Build the team. Start as an IC and hire the Bay Area robotics team as it grows.What will you be doing?

• Train robot policies (VLA fine-tuning, imitation learning, diffusion policy) on Physicl-generated synthetic data and run rigorous experiments to quantify where the data moves the needle on manipulation and grasping tasks

• Establish baselines on public evaluation suites and open policy architectures, then measure deltas when Physicl data is added, reporting results including failures

• Translate experimental findings into written data specifications and requirements for the data team in Paris, driving what to generate, at what fidelity, and with what variation

• Publish and demo results to the robotics community (CoRL, RSS, ICRA) and participate in customer technical conversations

• Hire and lead the Bay Area robotics team as it scales around you