Lead AI Native Engineer

Embedding Vc
Milpitas, CA
On-site

Who this role is best for

Strong fit for AI systems engineers who build production agentic systems and have experience with frontier model APIs, working in industrial robotics and requiring in-office collaboration.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with hands-on experience building production agentic systems for industrial environments
    — “shipping production agentic systems that real users depend on
  • Candidates who have led technical teams and shaped architecture in frontier AI labs or companies
    — “Experience at a frontier AI lab, leading AI company, or comparable team working at the edge of current model capabilities

Things to consider

  • Requires full-time in-office presence, which may be a constraint for remote-preference candidates
    — “Requires 5 days/week in-office collaboration with the team
  • Role focuses on technical systems building, not organizational leadership or people management
    — “you will write code, set architecture, and enable agent development—not lead People programs or organizational transformation

How to stand out

  • Highlight end-to-end system development experience, particularly in real-world deployment
    — “Own end-to-end agents for high-value workflows across research, software, hardware, data, and operations
  • Emphasize experience with reusable primitives for AI systems like context, memory, and retrieval
    — “Build reusable primitives for models, tools, orchestration, context, memory, retrieval, permissions, human approval, and long-running execution
  • Showcase fluency in AI-native development tools and your understanding of their limitations
    — “Exceptional fluency with AI-native development workflows using Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, agent SDKs, or equivalent systems
  • Demonstrate ability to create benchmarks and failure-analysis loops for AI systems
    — “Build benchmarks, regression tests, tracing, monitoring, and failure-analysis loops across quality, latency, cost, security, and resilience
  • Demonstrate experience turning ambiguous workflows into measurable systems
    — “able to turn an ambiguous decision or workflow into a useful, secure, measurable system
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

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

What success looks like

  • build vertical agents
  • establish agent foundation
  • create context layer
  • own evaluation and reliability
  • advance frontier agent usage
Typical background
5+ years software engineering, applied AI, ML systemsexperience at a frontier AI lab or leading AI company

Skills & requirements

Required

AIMLRoboticsAutonomous SystemsPhysical AIModel EvaluationRegression TestsObservabilityProduction Failure-analysis LoopsAgent Sdks

Preferred

Post-trainingModel EvaluationInferenceResearch InfrastructureMCP InfrastructureKnowledge GraphsRAGSecure Enterprise Integrations

Stack & domain

AIMLKubernetesAWSClaude CodeCodexCursorAgent SdksTechnical LeadershipProduct JudgmentRobotics

About the role

Original posting from Embedding Vc via Ashby

Why RoboForce

RoboForce is an AI robotics company developing Physical AI–powered Robo-Labor for dull, dirty, and dangerous work. The company's robots are engineered for demanding industrial environments, with a focus on real-world deployment and scalability.

We are hiring a Lead AI Native Engineer to build RoboForce's vertical agents and shared agent foundation. Reporting to the co-founder, you will turn frontier models into systems for strategy and engineering. This is a hands-on technical leadership role: you will write code, set architecture, and enable agent development—not lead People programs or organizational transformation.

Responsibilities

  • Build vertical agents. Own end-to-end agents for high-value workflows across research, software, hardware, data, and operations—from problem definition through production use.
  • Establish the agent foundation. Build reusable primitives for models, tools, orchestration, context, memory, retrieval, permissions, human approval, and long-running execution.
  • Create the context layer. Connect agents to trusted data through APIs, pipelines, MCP servers, and integrations with clear provenance and access control.
  • Own evaluation and reliability. Build benchmarks, regression tests, tracing, monitoring, and failure-analysis loops across quality, latency, cost, security, and resilience.
  • Advance frontier agent usage. Evaluate new models, coding agents, SDKs, and patterns, then turn useful capabilities into maintainable systems rather than demos.
  • Support strategic initiatives. Help company leadership apply agents and analytical systems to market and customer intelligence, partnerships, fundraising, diligence, scenario analysis, and executive decisions.
  • Provide technical leadership. Set architecture and engineering standards, review designs and code, and create reusable patterns for the technical team.

Requirements

  • 5+ years in software engineering, applied AI, ML systems, or a related field, with strong zero-to-one technical judgment.
  • Experience at a frontier AI lab, leading AI company, or comparable team working at the edge of current model capabilities.
  • A track record shipping production agentic systems that real users depend on—not only prompts, prototypes, or demos.
  • Deep experience with frontier model APIs, tool use, orchestration, context engineering, retrieval, memory, and multi-step workflows.
  • Experience building evaluations, regression tests, observability, and production failure-analysis loops for AI systems.
  • Exceptional fluency with AI-native development workflows using Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, agent SDKs, or equivalent systems, with a rigorous understanding of where agents work and fail.
  • Strong product judgment: able to turn an ambiguous decision or workflow into a useful, secure, measurable system.
  • Requires 5 days/week in-office collaboration with the team.

Bonus Qualifications

  • Experience with post-training, model evaluation, inference, or research infrastructure at a frontier lab or model company.
  • Experience with MCP infrastructure, developer platforms, knowledge graphs, RAG, or secure enterprise integrations.
  • Background in robotics, autonomous systems, industrial automation, or another technically complex physical-world domain.

Benefits

  • Competitive stock options/equity programs.
  • Health, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) plan.
  • Visa sponsorship and green card support for qualified candidates.
  • Lunches and dinners, a fully stocked kitchen, and regular team-building events.

Source: Embedding Vc careers (Ashby)

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