---
title: 'Forward Deployed Engineer at Causal Labs'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-causal-labs-san-francisco-dg3kwn8zwmew'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Forward Deployed Engineer at Causal Labs

- **Company:** Causal Labs
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-20
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/causal/f5b4dc11-806f-4c98-b0e1-811ec337109e

## Job description

Our mission is general causal intelligence; AI that is capable of (1) predicting the future and (2) identifying the actions to alter it.

To achieve this breakthrough, we are building a Large Physics foundation Model (LPM) because physical systems, unlike text or images, are governed by verifiable cause and effect. We believe that scaling on physics will enable an understanding of causality required to predict and control physical systems, starting with weather.

Our founding team has built and deployed AI against the physical world in robotics, drug discovery, and particle physics at institutions like DeepMind, Waymo, Cruise, Insitro, Nabla Bio, and CERN.

## ABOUT THE DEPLOYMENT TEAM

A model only matters if it changes what happens in the real world. Our deployment teams embed directly with the institutions that make the highest-stakes decisions about physical systems. They turn our models into results those institutions can depend on and carry everything we learn in the field back into the product. Deployment works in small, cross-functional pods and partners closely with Product Engineering, which builds the platform the pods deploy.

## FORWARD DEPLOYED ENGINEER

We look for engineers who are excited to tackle unsolved problems. They thrive in high stakes situations, sitting next to the people in the field who depend on the answers. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you embed with the institutions using our models to make consequential decisions about the physical world. Your mission is to make sure we build the right solution for a customer's mission: delivering the data infrastructure, integrations, and AI systems that work in practice, not just in theory — and expanding our core product to solve new problems as you discover them.

Willingness to travel to and spend extended time on-site with customers is required.

## Responsibilities

- Embed with strategic customers to understand their mission and ensure we build the solution that actually solves it
- Deliver scalable data infrastructure and integrations inside real customer environments
- Design and ship AI systems that hold up under real-world conditions, data, and constraints
- Surface new problems as you find them in the field, and extend our core platform to handle them
- Work hands-on across the stack — technical, resourceful, and close to the user

## What we're looking for

We value a relentless approach to problem-solving, rapid execution, and the ability to quickly learn in unfamiliar domains.

- Strong, versatile engineering skills and the resourcefulness to solve unfamiliar problems with whatever it takes
- Experience building and shipping real systems in production — data infrastructure, integrations, applications
- Comfort working directly with customers and adapting fast to their environments and constraints
- Willingness to travel and embed on-site wherever the mission needs you
- A bias toward real-world impact over elegance: solutions that work for the user, under pressure

## About Causal Labs

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Causal Labs is building a Large Physics foundation Model (LPM) to learn causality through physics and weather, aiming to achieve general causal intelligence.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, United States
- **Founded**: 2025
- **Founders**: Dar Mehta and Kelsie (last names not publicly confirmed)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Artificial Intelligence / Research Services
- Target customers: B2B – enterprises in weather-dependent sectors (agriculture, energy, logistics), governments, and climate-focused organizations.
- Mission: To build AI that understands cause and effect in the physical world, starting with predicting and controlling the weather, ultimately enabling humanity to safely shape its environment.

## Products & Services
- **Large Physics Model (LPM)**: A foundational AI model designed to learn causal relationships from physical systems. Initially focused on weather prediction and control, the LPM will provide real-time, high-resolution forecasts and optimal decision-making capabilities. Not yet publicly launched; first generation model anticipated in 2025/2026.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (Seed round of $6M).
- **Key Metric**: Total funding $6M (Seed, April 2025).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Lead investor: Kindred Ventures. Also backed by Refactor, BoxGroup, Factorial, Otherwise, Karman Ventures, and a group of angel investors.
- **Growth Signals**: 160% headcount growth YoY (to 7 employees); strong web traffic growth (+91% monthly); pilot programs underway with key industries.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Causal reasoning focus**: Unlike most AI labs that optimize pattern recognition (LLMs, vision models), Causal Labs targets true causal understanding – a key bottleneck towards superintelligence.
- **Team pedigree**: Founders and early team hail from Cruise, Waymo, Google Brain, drug discovery, and robotics – experienced in deploying safety-critical models at scale.
- **Safety‑first approach**: Building with safety and steerability as core principles, learning from autonomous vehicle safety standards.
- **Unique data advantage**: Weather is the most well‑observed physical system, providing massive, multi‑sensor datasets with rapid ground‑truth feedback – ideal for training causal models.

## Strategic Focus
- **Model development**: Make critical progress on the first‑generation LPM and begin demonstration pilots across agriculture, energy, logistics, and government.
- **Team expansion**: Use the seed funding to grow the team (currently 7 people) – actively hiring researchers and engineers who thrive on unsolved problems.
- **Long‑term vision**: Ultimately enable humanity to predict and responsibly control weather to fight wildfires, alleviate droughts, and reduce hurricane intensity.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission‑driven challenge**: Work on “civilizationally important” problems – general causal intelligence that could transform weather forecasting and climate adaptation.
- **Research lab culture**: Small, high‑autonomy team (7 people) with a flat structure; strong emphasis on experimentation and real‑world feedback loops.
- **Safety emphasis**: Join a team that prioritizes safety from day one, operating with principles used in autonomous vehicle deployment.
- **Location & flexibility**: Headquarters in San Francisco, California; hybrid/remote policy not explicitly stated but likely flexible for a small research lab.
- **Perks**: Opportunity to lead foundational model development from near‑zero stage; equity in a well‑funded seed‑stage startup backed by top‑tier investors.

## Sources
1. [causallabs.ai](https://www.causallabs.ai/)
2. [causallabs.ai/mission](https://www.causallabs.ai/mission)
3. [LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/causallabs)
4. [Causal Labs Blog – Seed Announcement](https://blog.getcausal.ai/p/causal-labs-towards-causal-intelligence)
5. [Causal Labs Blog – About](https://blog.getcausal.ai/about)

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