Technical Lead Manager, Physical AI
Scale AI · San Francisco, CA
Scale AI is the data engine for the entire AI industry. Our mission is to accelerate the development of AI applications by providing organizations with the high-quality data they need. The Physical AI team at Scale is focused on the next frontier: building general AI that can reason and act in the physical world. By leveraging Scale’s massive data infrastructure, we are helping frontier labs build Foundation Models for Physical AI that will redefine the future of automation. Role Overview As the Technical Lead Manager (TLM) for the Physical AI team of Scale , you will bridge the gap between cutting-edge Machine Learning research and physical robot deployment. You will lead a high-performing team of Research Engineers while remaining a hands-on technical contributor (~60% of your time). Your primary focus will be the development and evaluation of Large-Scale Foundation Models (e.g VLAs, World models) that allow robots and AVs to generalize across diverse tasks, environments, and morphologies. Key Responsibilities Technical Leadership & Research Model Scaling: Direct research into scaling laws for Physical AI, determining how to best utilize massive datasets for pre-training and fine-tuning generalist policies. VLA and World model development: Develop novel methods for developing and evaluating models, including new Physical AI industry benchmarks Hands-on Modeling: Actively write code to implement, train and test SOTA architectures. Conduct research on Physical AI data collection, cross-embodiment training, and policy fine-tuning. Data Strategy: Collaborate with internal labeling teams to design "robotic-native" data pipelines, including the use of VLMs for automated trajectory annotation and data synthesis. Collaborate closely with customers to drive the industry forward in using Scale data Team Management & Execution Mentorship: Lead and grow a team of 4-6 elite Physical AI researchers, fostering a culture of high-velocity experimentation and r