Physical AI Founding Engineer

Deplace is the deployment layer for Physical AI. We evaluate the latest Physical AI models from leading research labs and robotics companies on clients’ real-world tasks, and collect targeted data to enable rapid model improvement and iteration. We are a VC-funded, well-capitalized startup working at the intersection of Physical AI research and real-world robotics deployment.

We are looking for a Founding Engineer to help build our evaluation and data collection platform, working closely with our CTO and the core technical team. This is a hands-on role with significant ownership, where you will help define both the technical foundations and the product direction of the company.

• Building and operating our data flywheel, from data collection to evaluation and feedback
• Contributing to our core AI and robotics software stack
• Designing and implementing evaluation frameworks for Physical AI models in both real-world and simulation settings
• Setting up simulation environments based on client tasks, objects, constraints, and performance requirements
• Supporting real-world deployments, including teleoperation and human-in-the-loop data collection and evaluations
• Representing Deplace at robotics and AI conferences
• Expanding offerings with additional solutions (synthetic data, human-in-the-loop, frontier data, etc.)

• Master’s degree (completed or in progress) in Computer Science, Data Science, Robotics, or a related field
• Strong empirical research skills and solid technical intuition
• Good understanding of machine learning and robotics fundamentals, including VLAs, robotic simulation, robot teleoperation, evaluation methods, and data for Physical AI
• Entrepreneurial builder mindset, comfortable operating in uncharted territory and turning ambiguous problems into working systems
• Availability of 40h a week or more
• And finally, an incredible passion for robotics & AI and the desire to change the world with it

• Contributions to robot learning or robotics research
• Experience training or working with large-scale foundation models
• Software engineering background
• Internship or research experience in robotics and/or AI at a top organization.

• Compensation based on qualifications and experience
• Direct collaboration with the founding team from day one
• High-impact role with real ownership over technical and product decisions
• Opportunity to help shape a company at the core of the Physical AI ecosystem
• Position available in the United States & Europe (Paris, France)