Artificial Intelligence Engineer (Material Science, Thermodynamics)

Job Description

At Autonomous Production, we combine agentic robotics with a new "factory OS" that allows factories to operate like data centers, with software gross margins.

Join us as we build a future where carbon emissions are 60% lower and local economies have access to affordable robotics and AI that materially improve lives across the socioeconomic spectrum. These are the benefits our initial customers are already experiencing.

Our venture-backed company is growing rapidly, help us continue building a version of the future where AI is used to generate outsized value while also creating a more sustainable, equitable, abundant world.

About the Role

You'll design, train, and deploy the perception and control models that power our autonomous factory operations. This includes predictive polymer behavior mapping during material deposition, and physical closed-loop control loops.

This role operates at the intersection of physical science and machine learning, you will routinely bridge the gap between polymer research and live production model architectures.

This is a full-time, on-site role in San Rafael, CA. You will work closely with our hardware and systems teams to translate digital neural frameworks directly into live physical operations.

What You'll Do

• Architect and ship core production models.
• Take complete technical ownership of a major perception or control framework (e.g., defect classification or real-time material behavior prediction).
• Build comprehensive evaluation infrastructure to benchmark model accuracy against actual physical factory outcomes, moving well beyond generic test sets.

Required:

• US citizen
• Able to work completely in-person, full-time, in San Rafael, CA
• Shipped Live Production AI: Proven track record of successfully deploying real-time AI models within a distributed system operating with a significant degree of scale.
• Physics Grounding: Demonstrated structural understanding or professional implementation depth in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, fluid dynamics, numerical heat transfer, or materials science.
• 2 years at an early-stage startup, a founded venture, or an equivalent high-velocity development environment where you owned outcomes (vs only effort).

Preferred:

• A Master's degree or PhD in Physics, Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field is preferred, but we are open to exceptional candidates with other backgrounds.
• Direct experience with Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) supported by published or production-grade work.
• Understanding of advanced world-model architectures (e.g., JEPA, V-JEPA, transformer-based world models, NVIDIA Cosmos).
• Specialized background in polymer physics, rheology, or advanced thermal analysis implemented via ML code.
• Industrial computer vision experience deployed for automated defect detection in real-time environments.

Compensation

• Base Salary: $120,000 – $160,000
• Equity: Foundational early-hire equity grant structured at the 95th percentile of pre-seed peer compensation.
• Benefits: Standard startup benefits package.

Why You’ll Love It Here

At Autonomous Production, you’ll join a team that values innovation, creativity, and a bit of fun. You’ll have a direct impact on our industrial robotics products and be part of shaping the future of automation.

Equal Opportunity

Autonomous Production is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate all qualified candidates without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. US citizenship is required for this role due to the nature of our customer base and applicable export control regulations (ITAR/EAR).