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Head of AI

Job type: Full Time · Department: Software Engineering · Work type: On-Site

Menlo Park, California, United States

The Mission: Enable Global Abundance

Matter is building the world’s first network of autonomous factories. We are moving beyond static, hard-coded automation. We view the factory as a singular, distributed robotic system powered by Physical AI.

We aren't fixing legacy systems; we are building an AI-native manufacturing stack from the ground up to solve America’s supply chain and labor constraints.

The Challenge: Moving Atoms

Most AI happens behind a screen. At Matter, your code moves atoms. You will bridge the Sim-to-Real gap in high-throughput environments where latency and safety are non-negotiable.

Technical Frontiers You will Lead

•⁠  ⁠Foundation Models for Physics: Building models that understand material properties and assembly logic.

•⁠  ⁠Multi-Agent Symphony: Coordinating robots, conveyors, and tools for non-linear assembly.

•⁠  ⁠Sub-millimeter Precision: Vision-driven state estimation in "messy" real-world environments.

•⁠  ⁠The Data Flywheel: Turning every "failed" grasp into training data that makes the global network smarter.

•⁠  ⁠Zero-Touch NPI: Enabling factories to re-program themselves for new products in hours, not months.

What You will Own

•⁠  ⁠The AI Roadmap: Define the boundary between classical control and end-to-end neural networks.

•⁠  ⁠The Physical AI Stack: Architecting everything from edge-sensing to real-time control.

•⁠  ⁠Team Building: Recruiting a "Special Forces" team of robotics and systems engineers.

•⁠  ⁠Production Outcomes: Owning Yield, Throughput, and Uptime.

Who You Are

•⁠  ⁠A "First Principles" Builder: You value shipping production code over publishing research papers.

•⁠  ⁠Deep Domain Expertise: Proven track record in Robotics, RL, CV, or Autonomous Systems (AVs/UAVs).

•⁠  ⁠Hardware Intuition: You understand that AI is only as good as the hardware it controls.

•⁠  ⁠Leadership Grit: You’ve survived the "trough of disillusionment" in hardware-software deployments.

Why Matter?

•⁠  ⁠AI-Native from Day Zero: No legacy baggage. We are designing AI-native hardware and infrastructure from day zero. 

•⁠  ⁠Battle-Tested Team: We’ve built world-class factories for the last decade.

•⁠  ⁠"Lead Bullets" Philosophy: No silver bullets. We win through relentless, compounding technical victories.

•⁠  ⁠True Impact: Lowering the cost of goods and re-industrializing America.

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