Business Operations at Physical Intelligence (San Francisco, CA)
Physical Intelligence· San Francisco, CA·
Role details
Summary
This role involves independently identifying and executing high-leverage business problems across partnerships, operations, infrastructure, and deployment. The candidate will drive data, compute, and infrastructure partnerships while supporting internal scaling initiatives and external communications to support the...
Job description
Who We Are
Physical Intelligence is bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world. We are a group of engineers, scientists, roboticists, and company builders developing foundation models and learning algorithms to power the robots of today and the physically-actuated devices of the future.
As the company scales, success increasingly depends not just on research excellence, but on strong business execution - across partnerships, operations, infrastructure, and deployment.
Success in this role looks like independently identifying the highest-leverage problems, structuring them into executable plans, and driving them to measurable outcomes with minimal founder involvement.
The Team
This role sits close to the founders and works cross-functionally with research, engineering, operations, finance, legal, and external partners. There is no single “lane”, the mandate is to add leverage wherever the company most needs it.
In This Role You Will
- Own and execute cross-functional projects with high ambiguity and real business impact.
- Drive data, compute, and infrastructure partnerships, from sourcing through negotiation and management.
- Plug into deployment efforts: sourcing opportunities, structuring contracts, pricing, and operational setup.
- Assist with and drive internal scaling initiatives such as office expansion, international operations, and company planning.
- Support investor, board, and external communications including decks, analyses, and prep.
- Act as an execution arm for founders and leaders, translating priorities into outcomes.
What We Hope You’ll Bring
- Strong analytical and strategic instincts with a bias toward action.
- Comfort operating independently in ambiguous environments.
- Commercial mindset and basic financial fluency (contracts, pricing, tradeoffs).
- Exceptional written and verbal communication.
- Willingness to do anything, paired with strong prioritization instincts and comfort pushing back when work is low-leverage.
- Strong π-fit: respect for research and engineering culture, curiosity, and intellectual humility.
Bonus Points If You Have
- Background in consulting, venture capital, private equity, or finance.
- Experience negotiating vendor, data, or infrastructure agreements.
- Exposure to startups that have scaled quickly or inflected suddenly.
- International operations or cross-border project experience.
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Why work at Physical Intelligence
- Culture: Described as a “pure company” – internally driven by research needs, not external market demands. Highly collaborative, with a mix of engineers, scientists, and roboticists working together.
- Work Environment: Hybrid/in-office – most roles require on-site presence in San Francisco (396 Treat Ave), though some remote flexibility exists. In-office setting with a “no reception” vibe, open lab space with robot stations.
- Growth: Team has scaled from ~80 (Jan 2026) to 163 (mid-2026) and is still hiring across research, ML infra, hardware, and engineering roles. Plans to grow “as slowly as possible” to maintain quality.
- Perks & Engineering Highlights: Access to cutting-edge robotics hardware and compute resources; opportunity to publish research and open-source code; exposure to a wide variety of real-world automation challenges (e.g., robots learning to fold pants, peel vegetables, make espresso). Employees come from top institutions like Berkeley, Stanford, Google, NVIDIA, and Anduril.