---
title: 'Manufacturing Engineer at Physical Intelligence'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineer-physical-intelligence-fremont-30v59z9v8ze2'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-06'
---

# Manufacturing Engineer at Physical Intelligence

- **Company:** Physical Intelligence
- **Location:** Fremont, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-08-05
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/physicalintelligence/77a8ca93-7344-43ed-b215-98ecd95ecf9b

## Job description

Physical Intelligence is bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world. We are a team 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.

We're looking for a Manufacturing Lead who can scale our robotic systems from prototype to production. You'll own the processes, tooling, and systems that enable us to build robots reliably and efficiently. You'll bridge the gap between R&D and production, working closely with design engineers to ensure our robots are manufacturable at scale while maintaining the quality and consistency needed to advance research. You will design assembly and test fixtures, manage the assembly and test flows, BOMs, and work closely with the supply chain team to ensure parts arrive on time and are assembled and tested consistently at scale.

In this role you will

- Design and optimize manufacturing processes for robotic systems, including assembly sequences, work instructions, and cycle-time improvements.
- Collaborate with design engineers to provide DFM/DFA feedback and drive design iterations.
- Develop fixtures, jigs, and tooling from the ground up for novel processes to ensure build quality and efficiency for complex robotic assemblies.
- Establish and maintain Bills of Materials (BOMs), build instructions, assembly flow and all manufacturing documentation.
- Lead the transition of robot designs at various levels of maturity from prototype, to pilot production, to eventually scale.
- Conduct root-cause analysis (RCCA) and failure mode analysis (FMEA) to drive continuous improvement.
- Define and track manufacturing KPIs including yield, throughput, and cost per unit.
- Implement quality control systems including inspection criteria, test protocols, and acceptance standards.

## What we hope you'll bring

- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related field.
- 5+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, preferably in robotics, automotive, aerospace, or consumer electronics.
- Experience with NPI is required.
- Proficiency in CAD software (SolidWorks, NX, or Onshape) and GD&T.
- Experience with manufacturing processes: machining, sheet metal, injection molding, 3D printing, PCB assembly.
- Strong understanding of lean manufacturing principles and continuous improvement methodologies.
- Familiarity with ERP/MRP systems and production planning.
- Experience with quality systems (ISO 9001) and statistical process control.
- Hands-on ability to build and troubleshoot electromechanical systems.
- Excellent project management and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

## About Physical Intelligence

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Physical Intelligence is building general-purpose AI foundation models that can control any robot to perform any physical task, aiming to bring the flexibility of large language models into the physical world.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A/B stage; total funding $1.07B across multiple rounds)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Sergey Levine (UC Berkeley), Chelsea Finn (Stanford), Karol Hausman (CEO, ex-Google DeepMind), Lachy Groom (ex-Stripe), Quan Vuong (ex-Google DeepMind), Brian Ichter, and Adnan Esmail

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Robotics foundation models / Artificial Intelligence / Research Services
- **Target customers**: B2B enterprise – logistics, grocery, manufacturing, and other verticals requiring physical automation (currently testing with a small number of partners)
- **Mission**: “Bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world” – developing learning algorithms and foundation models to power robots and other physically-actuated devices

## Products & Services
- **π0 (pi-zero)**: First generalist policy released in October 2024; a vision-language-action (VLA) model capable of dexterous multi-task robot control. Open-sourced in February 2025.
- **π0.5**: VLA with open-world generalization (April 2025); can control a mobile manipulator to clean unfamiliar kitchens or bedrooms.
- **π0.7**: Steerable robotic foundation model with emergent capabilities (April 2026); can control a new robot platform without additional training.
- **π*0.6**: VLA trained with reinforcement learning to improve success rate and throughput on real-world tasks (November 2025).
- **FAST**: Efficient robot action tokenizer enabling 5x faster training of generalist policies (January 2025).
- **Multi-Scale Embodied Memory (MEM)**: Gives models long- and short-term memory for tasks exceeding ten minutes (March 2026).
- All offerings are research-stage models; the company does not currently sell a commercial product but partners with select companies for testing.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: $5.6 billion (as of January 2026, per TechCrunch)
- **Total Funding**: $1.07 billion across four rounds:
  - Seed (March 2024): $70M led by Lux Capital and Thrive Capital
  - Series A (November 2024): $400M led by Lux Capital and Thrive Capital
  - Venture Round (November 2025): $600M from 8 investors
  - Venture Round (March 2026): undisclosed amount from 4 investors
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, OpenAI, CapitalG, Redpoint Ventures, Bond
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 183.5% year-over-year to 163 employees (LinkedIn, mid-2026); the company states it has “blown through” its original 5-10 year roadmap in just 18 months; test deployments in logistics, grocery, and food production.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Cross-embodiment learning**: Models can transfer knowledge to any new robot hardware without starting data collection from scratch, lowering the marginal cost of onboarding autonomy.
- **Pure research focus**: Unlike competitors (e.g., Skild AI), Physical Intelligence deliberately avoids near-term commercialization, allowing the team to pursue general intelligence without product pressure.
- **World-class founding team**: Combination of top robotics academics (Levine, Finn) and experienced entrepreneurs/operators (Groom, Hausman).
- **Open-source release**: π0 weights and code are publicly available, fostering community contributions and accelerating research.

## Strategic Focus
- Current priorities include scaling foundation models to more tasks and environments, improving generalization and robustness, and expanding partnerships for real-world testing.
- The company explicitly does not give investors a timeline for monetization; instead it focuses on building general-purpose physical intelligence with a 5-10 year horizon (though progress has been faster than expected).
- Future strategy centers on continuous improvement via a loop of data collection → training → evaluation → more data, rather than rapid deployment.

## Why Work Here
- **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.

## Sources
1. [physicalintelligence.company](https://www.physicalintelligence.company/) – Official website, model releases, and values
2. [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/physical-intelligence-stripe-veteran-lachy-grooms-latest-bet-is-building-silicon-valleys-buzziest-robot-brains/) – In-depth profile including valuation, strategy, and culture
3. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/physical-intelligence) – Company details, headcount, funding, and talent sources
4. [Built In](https://builtin.com/company/physical-intelligence) – Career page, employee count, and office policy
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/physicalintelligence](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/physicalintelligence) – Current job openings

## Other roles at Physical Intelligence

- [ML Infra Engineer, Data Systems](https://feeny.ai/job/ml-infra-engineer-data-systems-physical-intelligence-san-francisco-8g386zwjvd64) — San Francisco, CA
- [ML Infra Engineer, Modeling](https://feeny.ai/job/ml-infra-engineer-modeling-physical-intelligence-san-francisco-dt7e182daxxa) — San Francisco, CA
- [Software Engineer, Data Quality](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-data-quality-physical-intelligence-san-francisco-p7f1n4g3j35e) — San Francisco, CA
- [Shift Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/shift-lead-physical-intelligence-san-francisco-23rb2r5nr82f) — San Francisco, CA
- [Fullstack Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/fullstack-software-engineer-physical-intelligence-san-francisco-4d81qeq8e7hy) — San Francisco, CA
- [People Ops](https://feeny.ai/job/people-ops-physical-intelligence-san-francisco-k10k2h0mgp8j) — San Francisco, CA
- [NPI Technical Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/npi-technical-program-manager-physical-intelligence-san-francisco-8grzx6hq5pm4) — San Francisco, CA
- [Robot Operator](https://feeny.ai/job/robot-operator-physical-intelligence-san-francisco-gq9jsnxd3s5g) — San Francisco, CA
- [Production Test Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/production-test-engineer-physical-intelligence-san-francisco-8ngeahchx0hx) — San Francisco, CA
- [Supply Chain Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/supply-chain-lead-physical-intelligence-san-francisco-9n0bq8qkcvzm) — San Francisco, CA