Engineer in Residence: Gesture Mobile Games

Mobile input is stale — tap and swipe have been the default for 15 years. This role is to build a new category of mobile games controlled by real-time hand movement through the phone camera, starting with a gesture-driven game that's immediately fun and obviously physical.

• A playable game where gesture interaction is the core mechanic, not a novelty input mode pasted on top.
• A low-latency recognition loop that maps hand movement into responsive gameplay.
• Calibration, feedback, and fail‑state handling so the game remains usable in messy real‑world environments.
• A technical base that could expand into a reusable gesture‑recognition platform over time.

• Own the prototype across game loop, recognition pipeline, UX feedback, and on-device performance.
• Make smart tradeoffs between model quality, latency, battery, and actual game feel.
• Test the experience quickly with real players and learn where delight or frustration shows up.
• Build the first product wedge while keeping an eye on what could become platform IP.
• Work with AI Fund’s build team on gameplay scope, technical feasibility, and expansion paths.

• Experience in computer vision, on-device ML, pose or gesture recognition, or mobile game development.
• Strong engineering ability across inference pipelines, UX responsiveness, and real-time system constraints.
• A feel for interaction design and what makes a game mechanic fun rather than technically clever.
• The ability to ship rough but playable prototypes quickly.
• You know how to use AI coding assistants and modern AI tools to accelerate implementation without shipping brittle game logic.
• US work authorization. We are unable to sponsor visas for this role.

• Experience with Unity, Unreal, CoreML, TFLite, Media Pipe, AR, or motion capture systems.
• Experience shipping mobile games or highly interactive consumer products.
• Experience optimizing real-time pipelines for noisy camera input.

• A builder who likes the combination of ML systems, interaction design, and fast consumer product feedback loops.
• Someone who wants to create a new input pattern instead of incrementally improving an existing category.

• This is a 12-week, full-time, on-site residency in Mountain View, California.
• Not every residency becomes a company. The goal is to pressure-test the idea quickly and honestly with real users and customers.
• You will be building an AI Fund idea, not bringing your own startup idea into the program.
• The process typically includes a Builder Event or equivalent working conversation, then a 48-hour Builder Challenge, then panel review with AI Fund build leadership.
• The compensation is intentionally modest during the residency because the upside, if the idea works, is a founder-level role.

• $10,000/month for 12 weeks ($30,000 total). This is a contract role during the residency. If the build leads to a funded company, the next step is a founder-level role with meaningful equity upside.

$10,000 - $10,000 a month

This is a great opportunity for someone in transition and looking to gain awesome building experience working alongside Andrew Ng. We are only considering candidates within commuting distance from Mountain View.