---
title: 'Head of Data Operations at Maven Robotics'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-data-operations-maven-robotics-santa-clara-4aba3xfsctgc'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-20'
---

# Head of Data Operations at Maven Robotics

- **Company:** Maven Robotics
- **Location:** Santa Clara, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-10-19
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-20
- **Apply:** https://boards.greenhouse.io/mavenrobotics/jobs/5456484008?gh_jid=5456484008

## Job description

## About Maven

Maven Robotics designs, builds, and deploys intelligent robotics for logistics and manufacturing. Maven is building the first general-purpose robotics system for industrial work. Our mission is to activate autonomous labor at scale and build toward infinitely elastic industrial capacity. We’re a team of engineers, researchers, and operators who have spent our careers working on the hardest problems in AI, robotics, engineering, and autonomous systems. We work at the intersection of advanced research and real-world engineering, turning ideas into prototypes and deployed systems.

At Maven, we build around the realities of industrial work. The robots are designed from first principles for complex physical environments and rigorous commercial standards. They master real tasks that deliver immediate impact, industrial-grade reliability, and intelligence that compounds at scale. We’re growing an ambitious team of people who think in systems, move quickly, and are builders at heart.

## About the Role

As Head of Data Operations at Maven Robotics, you will own the strategy, systems, and teams that turn raw robot experience into high-quality training data. You will lead data collection and evaluation operations, define how research priorities translate into data programs, and ensure our models have the right data to improve reliability, generalization, and performance.

You will work closely with robot learning, evaluation, infrastructure, hardware, and data teams to translate model failures and research priorities into scalable collection programs, robust data pipelines, and training-ready datasets. You will also own Maven’s external data strategy, helping determine when we should collect, acquire, license, partner for, or generate data.

## What You’ll Do

- Own Maven’s end-to-end data strategy and operations, spanning data collection, evaluation operations, data quality, dataset development, and delivery of training-ready datasets
- Lead the teams responsible for data collection and evaluation operations, including staffing, processes, quality standards, throughput, and performance
- Translate research priorities, evaluation results, and model failures into clear data requirements, collection strategies, and dataset roadmaps
- Partner with research and infrastructure teams to build scalable pipelines from raw robot data through validation, processing, curation, and training dataset generation
- Define data quality standards and build systems for measuring coverage, diversity, throughput, utilization, cost, and dataset effectiveness
- Own external data partnerships and evaluate opportunities to collect, acquire, license, partner for, or generate data that accelerates model development
- Build operational processes and tooling that make data programs reproducible, measurable, and scalable as Maven’s fleet and research organization grow

## What We’re Looking For

- Experience building and scaling data, operations, or technical programs in robotics, autonomous systems, machine learning, or another data-intensive technical environment
- Experience leading teams and cross-functional programs spanning data collection, evaluation, or dataset development
- Strong technical fluency with machine learning data pipelines, including ingestion, processing, validation, curation, and training dataset generation
- Experience using model evaluation, failure analysis, or research outcomes to inform data collection and dataset priorities
- Strong analytical ability to reason about data quality, coverage, throughput, cost, utilization, and operational bottlenecks
- Ability to work closely with researchers and engineers and translate ambiguous research needs into concrete, scalable operational programs
- Strong ownership and a track record of independently defining and executing strategy in a fast-moving environment

## Nice to Have

- Experience negotiating or managing external data, technology, or research partnerships
- Experience designing dataset versioning, lineage, governance, or provenance systems for machine learning
- Experience building internal tools for data collection, QA, dataset management, evaluation, or operational dashboards
- Familiarity with imitation learning, reinforcement learning, multimodal models, world models, or robot foundation models
- Experience with synthetic data, simulation-generated data, third-party datasets, or hybrid data strategies

## Equal Opportunity

Maven Robotics is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

## About Maven Robotics

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Maven Robotics is building the world's leading general-purpose AI robots, starting with an industrial robot that combines strength, dexterity, mobility, and reliable physical AI to unlock productivity across manufacturing and logistics.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed round raised in September 2024 with 3 investors)
- **Headquarters**: Santa Clara, California, United States (with presence in Germany)
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Hamza Derbas (Co-Founder & CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Robotics Engineering / Industrial Automation / AI Robotics
- **Target customers**: Large global manufacturing and logistics organizations, with a cost-efficient design that also makes automation accessible to businesses of every scale (SMB to Enterprise).
- **Mission**: "We believe the future of technology holds incredible promise, with many kinds of robots unlocking productivity, enhancing creativity, and improving life for humans everywhere. Our first step is to tackle real-world industry challenges, proving value and scalability to establish the foundation for a truly brighter future."

## Products & Services
- **General-purpose industrial robot (prototype)**: A hardware/software/AI system purpose-built for industry, combining strength, adaptive dexterity, fluid mobility, and the most reliable physical AI to work safely alongside people. Designed to be cost-efficient for businesses of all scales.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding amount not publicly available (Seed round with 3 investors, September 2024)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not named in available sources; the company states they are "working with some of the largest global manufacturing and logistics organizations."
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount grew 52.4% year-over-year to 28 employees (as of mid-2025) [linkedin.com]
  - High-profile talent sourcing: alumni from Apple (9), Tesla (1), Ford, Aptiv, Caterpillar, and others [linkedin.com]
  - Active hiring across 14+ roles as of July 2025: robotic AI, ML perception, manipulation, motion planning, embedded software, mechanical and electrical engineering, Data Collection Operator [mavenrobotics.ai]

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-principles, customer-focused approach** – the company prioritizes solving real industrial pain points before generalizing, ensuring near-term traction
- **Small, elite team** – composed of engineers and scientists with deep experience from top tech and robotics companies (Apple, Tesla, Ford, Intuitive Surgical, etc.)
- **Cost-efficiency** – the robot is designed to be affordable enough for SMBs, not just large enterprises, widening the addressable market
- **Full-stack robotics** – in-house capabilities in hardware design (actuators, mechanisms), embedded systems, AI/ML (perception, manipulation, foundation models), motion planning, and simulation

## Strategic Focus
- **Near-term**: Prove value and scalability in industrial manufacturing and logistics through customer deployments; ship the first generation robot
- **Long-term**: Use the industrial foundation to build general-purpose robots that can tackle diverse real-world challenges, ultimately "unlocking human potential through intelligent robotics"

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as a small team of engineers and scientists with "bold ambition, relentless curiosity, and belief in unlocking human potential through intelligent robotics." Emphasis on inventing, creating, and innovating from Silicon Valley.
- **Work model**: On-site or in-office workspace at the Santa Clara, CA headquarters. BuiltIn lists offices as "In-Office or Remote" but also states employees work from physical offices; typical time on-site is not specified. The careers page implies hands-on hardware/software work that likely requires presence. [builtin.com]
- **Notable perks/engineering culture**: Deep technical challenges across AI, perception, controls, embedded, mechanical, and electrical engineering. The team includes world-class experts from Apple, Tesla, Ford, etc. Opportunities to shape a product from prototype to deployment. Open roles include robotic AI, ML engineering, motion planning, embedded software, and hardware engineering.
- **Growth trajectory**: Rapidly growing startup (52% YoY headcount increase) with strong investor interest and a clear industrial go-to-market strategy.

## Sources
1. [mavenrobotics.ai](https://www.mavenrobotics.ai/)
2. [mavenrobotics.ai/join-us](https://www.mavenrobotics.ai/join-us)
3. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/maven-robotics)
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/maven-robotics)
5. [craft.co](https://craft.co/maven-robotics)

## Other roles at Maven Robotics

- [Executive Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-assistant-maven-robotics-santa-clara-jc4jp8n2p7yz) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Manufacturing Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-technician-maven-robotics-santa-clara-mtr1g3g4aft5) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Maintenance Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/maintenance-lead-maven-robotics-santa-clara-akpebsspnvh7) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Evaluation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/evaluation-engineer-maven-robotics-santa-clara-6khcx6x9vkdq) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Senior Engineering Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-engineering-technician-maven-robotics-santa-clara-wm2c4zehya63) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Robot System Testing Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/robot-system-testing-engineer-maven-robotics-santa-clara-c3gq4w3ad5eg) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Robotic System Integration Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/robotic-system-integration-engineer-maven-robotics-santa-clara-h5a1q2h8t9x4) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Robot Field Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/robot-field-engineer-maven-robotics-santa-clara-snmz665ffkcn) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Robot Autonomy Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/robot-autonomy-engineer-maven-robotics-santa-clara-6jscrk7znyzj) — Santa Clara, CA
- [Fleet Operations Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/fleet-operations-software-engineer-maven-robotics-santa-clara-msrbbqrrhw7a) — Santa Clara, CA