Founding Machine Learning Lead - Instawork Robotics

Instawork’s on-demand labor marketplace is uniquely valuable for robotics and physical AI training. We’re working with leading frontier labs to create the highest-quality, highest-diversity dataset for training robotics foundation models. Instawork Robotics is the human advantage in the robotics revolution. 

The Instawork Robotics ML Lead will own the technology strategy for physical AI training data. 

• An mid-career developer, with at least 8 years of programming and/or engineering leadership experience, excluding internships.
• A machine learning expert, with a Master’s or PhD in an AI or ML-related field and at least 2 years of professional experience building ML or CV models for robotics or autonomous vehicle applications.
• Experienced with data pipelines, with expertise in distributed systems, cloud computing on AWS infrastructure, and scalable data processing for large-scale datasets.
• An innovator, with a background in identifying and translating techniques from  academic research and frontier labs into production systems.
• A problem-solver, who enjoys building new-to-world systems, sharing your technical expertise with other builders, and applying creativity and grit to create value for our robotics partners.

• 5+ years experience designing or architecting production distributed systems
• Experience shipping production code at an early-stage or mid-stage startup
• Comfort and presence leading technical discussions with external partners and customers

• →Model Development - plan, architect, and build the data labeling and enrichment pipeline at the foundation of Instawork Robotics’ data offering.
• →Pipeline Optimization - identify and implement continuous improvements to our data pipeline to improve efficiency, scalability, and quality.
• →Dataset Quality - develop methodologies and analytics to measure the quality and performance of our dataset and ML models.
• →Research Reviews - stay on top of academic research and industry best practices related to robotics learning and training.
• →Cross-Functional Collaboration - Work closely with robotics leadership, data ops, QA, and other engineering teams to ensure alignment from concept to deployment.
• →Mentorship & Influence - Guide mid and senior-level engineers through code reviews, pair programming, and architectural discussions, raising the technical bar across the organization.

• The base salary for this position is $240,000 - $260,000
• This position is eligible for equity in the form of stock options
• This position is eligible for Instawork benefits, including: 
  • Variety of medical, dental, and vision plans with coverage beginning on the date of hire
  • Flexible paid time off
  • At least 8 paid company holidays annually
  • Home office stipend
  • Phone stipend
  • Commuter stipend
  • Supplemental pay on qualified leaves
  • Employee health savings accounts (HSA) contribution
  • Flexible spending plans
  • 401K plan
  • Perkspot - discount program through Lumity

A variety of factors are considered when determining someone’s compensation including a candidate’s professional background, experience, and location. Final offer amounts may vary from the amounts listed above.
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Founded in 2015, Instawork is the nation’s leading online labor marketplace for food services, hospitality, light industry, and logistics, connecting more than 7M skilled workers with local restaurants, hotels, warehouses, stadiums, and more. Our AI-powered platform serves thousands of businesses across more than 50 major markets in the United States and Canada. We're not just helping fill shifts, we're supporting local economies—and we're just getting started!

Instawork has been featured by CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press. Forbes included us on their Next Billion Dollar Startups list; RetailTech Breakthrough named us Workforce Hiring Solution of the Year for 2025; and Inc. 5000 recognized us as one of the country's top 10% fastest-growing companies two years in a row. But what matters most is our impact. We're solving real problems for real people, and we’re doing it at scale.

Join our team to help us build something that matters! We’re looking for superstars who want to help us shape the future of work. With hubs in San Francisco, Bangalore, and Chicago, city offices in New York, Phoenix, and Singapore, we're back to working together in-person five days a week because we believe the best ideas happen when great people collaborate face-to-face. We also value diverse perspectives and encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds.

Ready to make an impact? Learn more at www.instawork.com/about.

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