Lead AI Native Engineer
RoboForce
Milpitas, CA · Posted June 12, 2026
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Where Milpitas, CA ranks
Where Milpitas, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #12Best cities for mid-career professionals in the West Coast60% · of 71
- #17Best cities for manufacturing and industrial pay after cost of living$132k · of 35
- #19Best cities for pay after cost of living in California$149k · of 32
- #20Best all-round cities for mid-career professionals in the West Coast46 / 100 · of 39
- #20Best all-round cities for AI careers in the West Coast44 / 100 · of 39
- #21Cities with the most jobs that need no experience in the West Coast0.8% · of 66
Rankings about data & analytics jobs
- Best cities for data and analytics jobs #1 New York (1,713 openings)
- Best cities for data and analytics pay after cost of living #1 Foster ($232k)
- Most requested AI skills in data and analytics jobs #1 Machine learning engineering (17.1%)
- AI tools named most often in data and analytics jobs #1 Databricks (7.6%)
- Employers with the most data and analytics jobs #1 Amazon (711 roles)
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How AI is used in this kind of work
Among computer and information research scientists, AI is already used for a large share of the tasks. Measured exposure for computer and information research scientists: 34% (high).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
About the job
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.