AI Research Director

Location

San Francisco Bay Area

Full time

Hybrid

AI Engineering

About P-1 AI:

We are building an engineering AGI. We founded P-1 AI with the conviction that the greatest impact of artificial intelligence will be on the built world. Our first product is Archie, an AI engineer capable of quantitative intuition over physical product domains and engineering tool use. Archie initially performs at the level of an entry-level mechanical and electrical engineer, but rapidly gets smarter and more capable.

We aim to put an Archie on every engineering team at every industrial company on earth.

Our founding team includes the top minds in deep learning, model-based engineering, and from the very industries that are our customers. We closed a $23 million seed round led by Radical Ventures that also included a number of AI luminaries (from OpenAI, Deep Mind, etc.).

We believe the magic happens at the intersection of advanced research and an ambitious product application. Your job will be to build and drive a pragmatic agenda of applied research to enable AI capabilities in multiphysics reasoning, spatial reasoning, complex tool use, continual learning, and long-horizon agentic execution that are substantially beyond the current state of the art. You will lead and grow a team of AI researchers who are world experts in each of these areas.

You must be a high-agency visionary leader who motivates the team to make bold bets and execute with alacrity. This role requires significant in-person presence in our San Mateo, Calif. office where most of the AI team is based today. We will support relocation for candidates interested in moving to the Bay Area.

• Work directly with the CEO to develop and then drive the execution of the AI research agenda.
• Attract, recruit, and retain world-class AI research talent to grow the team.
• Roll up your sleeves and execute some of the AI research agenda as an individual contributor.
• Nurture connections with the greater AI ecosystem by representing the company at conferences, in publications, and through work with researchers in academia and research institutions.
• Manage the company’s model training compute resources.
• Stand up an applied AI research capability within the P-1 Defense subsidiary focused on aerospace and defense customers.

• Accomplished AI researcher on the frontier of modern AI, including, for instance, pre-/mid-/post-training large multi-modal models, world models, reinforcement learning, etc. with a track record of projects and publications.
• Clear and cogent philosophy of how to conduct AI research in the current technological epoch.
• Successful track record of leadership and management of small to medium teams of researchers and engineers in a startup, lab, corporate, or academic setting.
• Strong demonstrated interest in AI for the physical world.
• Experience and/or thirst to work in a dynamic startup environment.
• Eligible for a security clearance (prior clearance is a plus).
• Comfortable with a significant in-person presence in our San Mateo, Calif. office.

This role includes a significant equity component. We are an early-stage startup, so we favor equity over cash in our current compensation philosophy. Our benefits include healthcare, dental, and vision insurance, 401k with employer matching, and unlimited PTO.