General Manager, Research Operations

Physical Intelligence
San Francisco, CA
On-site

Who this role is best for

Aimed at senior operations leaders with technical depth who can manage complex physical systems and adapt to evolving research demands.

Best fit for

  • Senior operations leaders with experience in physical systems and team development
    — “Lead and develop a large operations team and its managers.”
  • Candidates with a track record in scaling operations and improving productivity
    — “A track record of improving quality, productivity, and retention at scale.”
  • Individuals who can build training programs for complex technical environments
    — “Build training and development programs that improve performance and prepare people for more complex research and deployment work.”

Things to consider

  • The role demands a high level of adaptability in a fast-evolving technical environment
    — “The work changes quickly as our research evolves, so the team needs to be both highly organized and adaptable.”

How to stand out

  • Highlight your experience in managing teams that support research or engineering
    — “Experience supporting research or engineering teams.”
  • Showcase your ability to use data for operational improvements
    — “Use data to identify problems and improve quality, productivity, and how the team operates.”
  • Emphasize your background in physical or hands-on operations
    — “7+ years leading large, high-output operations teams, ideally involving physical or hands-on work.”
  • Demonstrate your ability to build and retain strong managers
    — “Experience managing and developing managers and team leads.”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • high-quality data production
  • team performance improvement
  • high retention rates
Typical background
operations managementteam leadership

Skills & requirements

Required

Operations ManagementTeam LeadershipPerformance MetricsResource AllocationTraining And DevelopmentData Analysis

Preferred

Robotics ExperienceHardware OperationsLogisticsManufacturingResearch Support

Stack & domain

Operations ManagementTeam ManagementPerformance ManagementTraining And DevelopmentData AnalysisResearchEngineeringRoboticsAIHardwareManufacturingLogisticsData CollectionEvaluationDeployment OperationsLeadershipCommunicationTeam BuildingGoal SettingCoachingCollaborationCareer Development

About the role

Original posting from Physical Intelligence via Ashby

General Manager, Research Operations

Who We Are

Physical Intelligence is bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world. We are a group of engineers, scientists, roboticists, and company builders developing foundation models and learning algorithms to power the robots of today and the physically-actuated devices of the future.

High-quality data is the fuel for that mission. Our operations teams bring together people, robots, environments, and processes to produce the data our models need.

The Team

Research Operations supports the hands-on work behind our research, from collecting and evaluating data to testing and deploying our own tools and systems. The work changes quickly as our research evolves, so the team needs to be both highly organized and adaptable. The Research Operations GM leads the people and managers doing this work. They ensure teams are staffed effectively, build strong managers, and create an organization where people can perform at a high level and grow.

In this role you will

  • Lead and develop a large operations team and its managers.
  • Own staffing, performance, retention, and day-to-day operations.
  • Make sure people and resources are focused on the highest-priority work.
  • Build training and development programs that improve performance and prepare people for more complex research and deployment work.
  • Use data to identify problems and improve quality, productivity, and how the team operates.
  • Work closely with researchers and engineers to adapt the operation as their needs change.

What We Hope You'll Bring

  • 7+ years leading large, high-output operations teams, ideally involving physical or hands-on work.
  • Experience managing and developing managers and team leads.
  • A track record of improving quality, productivity, and retention at scale.
  • Strong judgment around staffing, prioritization, and performance.
  • Experience building teams where strong people stay and grow.
  • Comfort working in a fast-changing, technical environment.

Bonus Points

  • Experience in robotics, hardware, manufacturing, logistics, or other complex physical operations.
  • Experience supporting research or engineering teams.
  • Experience building training and career development programs.
  • Experience with data collection, eval, or deployment operations.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Source: Physical Intelligence careers (Ashby)

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