AI Data Operations Lead at RoboForce (Milpitas, CA)AI Data Operations Lead

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 looking for AI Data Operations Lead to lead and own the engineering of systems that turn embodied AI into real-world robot behavior. You will be the technical owner and lead for the full embodied systems stack — the onboard AI system, the data collection system, the teleoperation systems, and the on-robot reinforcement learning system — driving the direction hands-on and closing the loop between data, models, and action in the physical world.

- Own the operational execution of RoboForce's AI learning programs, translating research priorities into scalable execution plans.

- Partner closely with AI researchers and engineers to coordinate cross-functional execution across AI, Hardware, Robotics Software, and Operations.

- Recruit, develop, and retain a 20–50 person team across data collection, annotation, and teleoperation — setting clear performance expectations, building career development pathways, and fostering a culture of ownership, safety, and continuous improvement.

- Define, track, and report operational KPIs — including data collection throughput, robot uptime, and evaluation turnaround — to drive decisions and communicate operational health to leadership.

- Own robot fleet health and readiness — driving preventive and corrective maintenance, and tracking uptime to ensure robots are mission-ready for data collection and evaluation.

- Drive program execution, resolve blockers, manage priorities, and continuously improve operational efficiency.

- Own end-to-end execution of robot data collection and annotation programs, including operational workflows, SOPs, operator training, scheduling, quality assurance, and vendor management.

- Build scalable operational processes that consistently deliver high-quality datasets supporting AI development.

- Partner with AI researchers to organize evaluation resources, execute testing plans, and deliver timely, reliable evaluation results.

- Ensure experiment outcomes, operational learnings, and program progress are accurately captured and communicated across cross-functional teams.

- Foster a culture of operational excellence, ownership, and continuous improvement while establishing scalable operational processes that enable the AI organization to grow.

- Bachelor's degree or above; technical degrees preferred.

- 5+ years of experience in technical operations, program management, or cross-functional operations leadership, ideally in a hardware, robotics, or R&D environment.

- Demonstrated experience managing people, operators, or vendor teams — including hiring, training, scheduling, and performance management.

- Strong ability to translate technical priorities from research and engineering teams into scalable operational workflows, SOPs, and execution plans, without needing to write code or design systems yourself.

- Comfortable partnering closely with AI researchers and engineers, and fluent enough in technical concepts (data pipelines, model training, robot operations) to coordinate effectively — but this is a people and process leadership role, not a hands-on engineering role.

- Excellent communication, organizational, and cross-functional leadership skills.

- Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, ambiguous R&D environment where priorities shift quickly.

- Requires 5 days/week in-office collaboration with the teams.

Bonus Qualifications

- Experience supporting Physical AI, robot learning, imitation learning, or VLA development.

- Experience with teleoperation systems, human demonstration pipelines, or robotics data collection.

- Experience managing large-scale annotation operations and external vendors.

- Familiarity with robot benchmarking and evaluation workflows.

- Experience designing internal operational tools, dashboards, or workflow automation systems.

- 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.

Compensation: $145,000–$205,000 USD + Bonus + Equity

The base salary range above represents the expected compensation for this full-time U.S. position. Final compensation will be determined based on role scope, level, location, job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training, and may fall outside the listed range in exceptional cases.