--- title: 'Applied AI Software Engineer at Kerrigan Robotics' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/applied-ai-software-engineer-kerrigan-robotics-santa-clara-vkmy41eba5mv' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-05' --- # Applied AI Software Engineer at Kerrigan Robotics - **Company:** Kerrigan Robotics - **Location:** Santa Clara, CA - **Compensation:** $175k–$210k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-05-05 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05 - **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/kerrigan-robotics/am9icG9zdDrn_rnNk2vF72C28_L9hvGH ## Job description ## The Role As an Applied AI Software Engineer, you sit at the intersection of Machine Learning and robust Software Engineering. Your goal is to move AI out of notebooks and into production. You will be responsible for building the applications that leverage modern LLMs and Vision models, fine-tuning them for specific industrial use cases, and ensuring they run efficiently on our edge- to-cloud platform. ## Key Responsibilities ● AI Application Building: Develop software that integrates modern AI tooling (Vector DBs, RAG, Agentic frameworks) into the Kerrigan ecosystem. ● Model Optimization: Perform fine-tuning and quantization of open-source models to optimize for specific robotics tasks. ● Deployment: Work with the Platform team to deploy models on NVIDIA Orin/Jetson or cloud GPUs using TorchServe, ONNX, or TensorRT. ● Data Pipelines: Build the infrastructure to collect, clean, and version-control data from physical sensors for model retraining. ## Requirements ● Experience: 4+ years of software engineering, with at least 2 years focused on AI/ML implementation. ● Modern AI Stack: Hands-on experience with frameworks like PyTorch, HuggingFace, and LangChain/LlamaIndex. ● Fine-Tuning: Proven experience fine-tuning LLMs or Vision models (LoRA, QLoRA) for niche domains. ● Software Rigor: Strong coding skills in Python and Go. ● Physical AI (Plus): Experience with Computer Vision (OpenCV), point cloud processing, or deploying AI on physical hardware/edge devices is a significant advantage. What This Role Is Not ● This is not a pure Research Scientist role; we value shipping functional products over publishing papers. ● This is not a data labeling role; you are building the systems that use the data. ## About Kerrigan Robotics ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Kerrigan Robotics builds an AI-powered, robot‑agnostic orchestration platform that unifies and controls heterogeneous factory robots and automation systems, enabling manufacturers to launch robotics in weeks instead of months. - **Entity Type**: Private (Early-stage startup, backed by venture capital) - **Headquarters**: Santa Clara, California, United States - **Founded**: 2025 - **Founders**: Sanjay Lal (Co-Founder & CEO) and Mohamad Fayez Taha (Co-Founder & CTO) ## Core Business - **Primary industries**: Industrial automation, robotics integration, manufacturing software, agentic AI for factory floors. - **Target customers**: B2B – large-scale manufacturers in semiconductor, food & beverage, automotive, and logistics sectors; system integrators. - **Mission/purpose**: To close the “Physical AI Deployment Gap” by providing an agentic AI nervous system for manufacturing that orchestrates all robots and automation systems seamlessly. ## Products & Services - **Kerrigan Overmind Platform**: A unified, vendor-agnostic orchestration layer that manages the entire automation lifecycle – from design to 24/7 operations. It integrates with PLCs, robots (AGVs/AMRs/tuggers/forklifts/drones), MES/WMS/ERP systems, and provides real‑time monitoring, digital twins, and robot traffic optimization. - **Ask the Line AI**: An AI-powered diagnostic and troubleshooting tool that helps operators identify and resolve issues on the factory floor in seconds. - **Custom Dashboards & Analytics**: AI-generated dashboards and analytics for plant performance, fleet management, and uptime optimization. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed. - **Key Metric**: Total funding amount not disclosed; backed by notable venture firms (see below). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Transition Ventures, Overture Ventures, Foothill Ventures, WovenEarth Ventures ([linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kerrigan-robotics_kerrigan-robotics-is-excited-to-announce-activity-7441688199036497920-WmTl)). - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount growth of +4.2% monthly (19 employees as of early 2026) ([linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/kerrigan-robotics)). - LinkedIn followers grew +24.8% to 907 ([linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/kerrigan-robotics)). - Founding team includes veterans from Tesla who previously orchestrated thousands of robots and controlled over $5 billion in equipment with zero downtime ([linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kerrigan-robotics_kerrigan-robotics-is-excited-to-announce-activity-7441688199036497920-WmTl)). - Already serving large clients in semiconductor, food & beverage, and automotive sectors ([linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kerrigan-robotics_kerrigan-robotics-is-excited-to-announce-activity-7441688199036497920-WmTl)). ## Competitive Advantages - **Robot‑agnostic platform**: Works with any brand of mobile robots, PLCs, and industrial equipment – avoids vendor lock-in. - **Rapid deployment**: Reduces custom programming, slashing deployment from months to weeks. - **Industrial AI pedigree**: Core team built and operated large‑scale robotic fleets at Tesla, giving deep domain expertise in high‑stakes manufacturing environments. - **Agentic AI nervous system**: Combines LLMs, vision models, and real‑time orchestration to enable “Industrial Reasoning” – not just automation but intelligent decision‑making on the line. ## Strategic Focus - Scaling the platform from early adopters (semiconductor, F&B, automotive) into broader manufacturing and logistics verticals. - Expanding the engineering team to accelerate product development and customer deployments. - Building out sales and integration capabilities to close the “Physical AI Deployment Gap” for more factories. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Early‑stage startup with a veteran team from Tesla, Google, Rivian, and CARIAD – strong emphasis on technical excellence and real‑world impact. - **Work policy**: Hybrid – employees work from the Santa Clara office with typical on‑site expectations ([builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/kerrigan-robotics)). - **Engineering focus**: Greenfield development of a mission‑critical platform; stack includes Go, Python, Kubernetes, NVIDIA Orin/Jetson, gRPC, NATS/RabbitMQ, PostgreSQL, and AI/ML frameworks. - **Open roles** (as of early 2026): Engineering Lead – Platform & SRE, Backend Software Engineer, Senior Robotics Integration Engineer, Applied AI Software Engineer ([builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/kerrigan-robotics/jobs)). - **Perks**: Opportunity to work on cutting‑edge industrial AI, influence product direction, and collaborate with a globally distributed team (Lebanon, US, France, UK). ## Sources 1. [linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/kerrigan-robotics) – Company profile, workforce data, tech stack 2. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/kerrigan-robotics) – Company overview, culture, office policy 3. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/kerrigan-robotics/jobs) – Job listings and descriptions 4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kerrigan-robotics_kerrigan-robotics-is-excited-to-announce-activity-7441688199036497920-WmTl) – CEO announcement, investor details, product description ## Other roles at Kerrigan Robotics - [Engineering Lead – Platform & SRE](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-lead-platform-sre-kerrigan-robotics-santa-clara-nfw02d3wbdf5) — Santa Clara, CA - [Backend Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/backend-software-engineer-kerrigan-robotics-santa-clara-g8nb7aabjqrg) — Santa Clara, CA - [Senior Robotics Integration Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-integration-engineer-kerrigan-robotics-santa-clara-8nx9kww31qrw) — Santa Clara, CA - [Applied AI Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/applied-ai-software-engineer-blossom-health-new-york-bb95kcqp6z0t) — New York, NY - [Applied AI Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/applied-ai-software-engineer-canvasmedical-san-francisco-a96xabdp0jnz) — San Francisco, CA