---
title: 'Member of Technical Staff, Data Engineering at Odyssey'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-data-engineering-odyssey-palo-alto-n16zsqmcv70j'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Member of Technical Staff, Data Engineering at Odyssey

- **Company:** Odyssey
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-08-12
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/odysseyml/7d8ba104-9c38-4d0f-9a63-fab022ae5f13

## Job description

## Who we are

[Odyssey](https://odyssey.ml) is an AI lab pioneering general world models: causal, multimodal systems that learn to predict and interact with the world over long horizons. This foundational technology promises to revolutionize robotics, science, healthcare, education, gaming, defense, and beyond. Odyssey’s founders previously pioneered the most complex application of physical AI: self-driving cars. They’ve now brought together a world-class research team from DeepMind, Tesla, Waymo, Meta, Apple, and Wayve, who have made significant contributions to language models (DeepMind Gemini), video models (DeepMind Veo), world models (Wayve GAIA), and autonomous systems (Tesla FSD). Odyssey has raised significant venture capital from GV, Amazon, AMD, EQT, NVIDIA, Natural Capital, In-Q-Tel, Elad Gil, Jeff Dean, Guillermo Rauch, Garry Tan, Kyle Vogt, and researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, MSL, Recursive, and Thinking Machines.

## What we're looking for

Data is fast becoming one of the biggest bottlenecks in building world models. Our models are only as good as the data behind them, and getting that data right is one of the hardest and most important problems we have. We're looking for a data engineer who wants to be the person figuring it out: building and curating the large-scale multimodal datasets our models train on, across video, robotics, and audio. The work spans research and infrastructure. Some days you'll be tuning the platform that processes millions of hours of video and audio. Other days you'll be in the data itself: pulling out signals, improving captions, and working with researchers on what goes into the training mix. We don't treat those as separate jobs, so we want someone comfortable doing both. We care more about how you think about data than about your years of experience or publication record. You might have started in data engineering and moved toward research, or started in research or data science and moved toward engineering. Either way, you like working on data and you've done hands-on work with video and/or audio.

## What you'll do

- Build and run data pipelines for large-scale multimodal datasets, from raw video, robotics, and audio through to curated, enriched training data.
- Pull useful signals out of raw data: detecting speakers, isolating background audio, tracking points and features in video, and other signals that affect what the models learn.
- Work on the training mix. Dedup, rebalance clusters, and dig into what's actually in the data so we can find gaps and keep it balanced.
- Work directly with researchers, turning model requirements into a data strategy and their questions into pipeline work.
- Improve the platform: storage, database layers, throughput, and deployment, so the whole system runs faster and more reliably.

## Who you are

- You're good at figuring things out. Give you an ambiguous, poorly-defined data problem and you'll work out what actually matters, then go build it. This is the trait we care about most.
- You like the data work itself. Digging through messy multimodal data to find signal is the interesting part for you, not a means to an end.
- You can switch between platform and infrastructure work and research-facing feature work, and you see how the two feed each other.
- You've worked with real video and/or audio data and know what it takes to process it at scale.
- You're comfortable working alongside researchers, translating what they need into concrete data work.
- Roughly 1 to 5 years of relevant experience. We're open on seniority and hire for the person, not the title.

Bonus points

- Computer vision experience, including classic CV like optical flow and feature or point tracking, not only deep models.
- Experience with large-scale video or multimodal pre-training, data mixes, and curating data at that scale.
- A background that mixes statistics or data science with engineering, plus hands-on video and image analysis.
- Exposure to robotics data, human-movement data, or other emerging modalities like wearables or audio-heavy domains.
- Audio experience specifically, which is hard to find and we value highly.

## About Odyssey

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Odyssey is an AI lab pioneering general-purpose world models—causal, interactive, real-time simulations that learn from video and multimodal data to enable new forms of intelligence.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, raised $310M)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States (also offices in London, England and Zurich, Switzerland) [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/odyssey-odysseyml)
- **Founded**: 2023 [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/odyssey-odysseyml)
- **Founders**: Oliver Cameron (Co-Founder & CEO), Jeff Hawke (Co-Founder & CTO) [odyssey.ml/careers](https://odyssey.ml/careers)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Artificial intelligence, machine learning, world modeling, robotics, simulation.
- **Target customers**: B2B (developers, enterprises in robotics, gaming, healthcare, advertising, retail, defense) and B2C (future consumer applications like interactive entertainment, personal assistants, immersive fitness).
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "We learn the world to make it better." [odyssey.ml/about](https://odyssey.ml/about)

## Products & Services
- **[Odyssey-2](https://odyssey.ml/)**: A general-purpose world model that generates minutes-long, interactive, real-time simulations from text or image prompts. It streams frame-by-frame and can be interacted with by multiple participants (human or AI). Designed for applications in robotics rehearsal, gaming, interactive advertising, virtual try-ons, and more.
- **[Agora-1](https://odyssey.ml/about)**: A multi-agent world model enabling multiple participants—human or AI—to share and interact within the same world simulation in real-time. Built on a novel RL-driven adversarial framework to improve world model performance.
- **[Starchild-1](https://odyssey.ml/about)**: The first real-time multimodal world model, going beyond visual observation to learn from richer multimodal interaction with the world.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: $310M Series B funding (latest round) [odyssey.ml/about](https://odyssey.ml/about)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Backed by Jeff Dean (Chief Scientist, DeepMind), Soumith Chintala (CTO, Thinking Machines), Max Jaderberg (President, Isomorphic Labs) [odyssey.ml/careers](https://odyssey.ml/careers); also advised/invested by Tim Rocktäschel (Co-Founder, Recursive) [odyssey.ml/careers](https://odyssey.ml/careers)
- **Growth Signals**: Rapid hiring (16+ open roles across research, engineering, product, policy, HR, and operations) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/odysseyml); launched breakthrough world models (Odyssey-2, Agora-1, Starchild-1); offices in 3 global tech hubs; employee headcount growing ~33% year-over-year (approx. 37–46 employees) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/odysseyml) [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/odyssey-odysseyml)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Pioneering approach**: Odyssey is one of the first labs to focus exclusively on general-purpose world models, shifting beyond language models to simulate physics, causality, and intelligence.
- **Top-tier talent**: Team recruited from leading AI labs (DeepMind, Meta, Waymo, Cruise, Wayve) and companies like Apple and Roblox [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/odysseyml).
- **Compute & infrastructure**: Building inference infrastructure capable of scaling to hundreds of thousands of users within a year while minimizing TFLOPS per user [odyssey.ml/careers](https://odyssey.ml/careers).
- **Research output**: Publicly released state-of-the-art models (Odyssey-2, Agora-1, Starchild-1) that materially advance physical accuracy and interactivity in world models [odyssey.ml](https://odyssey.ml/).

## Strategic Focus
- **Current priorities**: Scaling world model inference for real-time, interactive consumer and enterprise products; pushing research boundaries in multimodal learning, reinforcement learning, and multi-agent simulation; building the "financial engine" for a compute-intensive AI business (capital allocation, unit economics) [odyssey.ml/careers](https://odyssey.ml/careers).
- **Direction for growth**: Applying world models to robotics (sim-to-real rehearsal), gaming, healthcare, advertising, retail, defense, education, and personal assistant systems. Aiming to "proliferate interactive intelligence into the world" [odyssey.ml](https://odyssey.ml/).

## Why Work Here
- **Culture and autonomy**: Odyssey prizes "autonomy and ownership" – deep work with accountability, and the freedom to tackle meaningful, open-ended scientific problems [odyssey.ml/careers](https://odyssey.ml/careers).
- **Team**: Collaborate with researchers and engineers from leading labs who have driven major AI advancements. Strong peer group focused on original science [odyssey.ml/careers](https://odyssey.ml/careers).
- **Work policy**: Hybrid model – employees work from physical offices in Palo Alto, London, or Zurich. No remote-only option; typical time on-site not specified [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/odyssey-odysseyml).
- **Compensation & benefits**: Competitive salary and equity grants reflecting the demands of breakthrough AI research. Benefits include healthcare, disability insurance, 401(k), generous parental leave, PTO, company socials, and wellness initiatives [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/odyssey-odysseyml).
- **Notable for job seekers**: Rapidly scaling (raised $310M, hiring across research, engineering, product, and operations). Opportunity to shape a nascent category (world models) from the ground up.

## Sources
1. [odyssey.ml/careers](https://odyssey.ml/careers) – Careers page with team, culture, and benefits details.
2. [odyssey.ml/about](https://odyssey.ml/about) – About page with mission, funding, and model announcements.
3. [odyssey.ml](https://odyssey.ml/) – Homepage with product descriptions and applications.
4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/odyssey-odysseyml) – Built In company profile with employee count, perks, and office locations.
5. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/odysseyml) – LinkedIn company page with headcount, growth, and talent sources.

## Other roles at Odyssey

- [Controller](https://feeny.ai/job/controller-odyssey-palo-alto-1anypxk5yk02) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Member of Technical Staff, Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-infrastructure-engineer-odyssey-palo-alto-78e1qwcgzrya) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Research Internship](https://feeny.ai/job/research-internship-odyssey-palo-alto-v0rv7s8cfzfd) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Executive Business Partner](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-business-partner-odyssey-london-dgfbmxp8z5zn) — London, United Kingdom
- [Member of Technical Staff, Applied Research](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-applied-research-odyssey-palo-alto-k90agz5z47tm) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Member of Technical Staff, Foundation Models](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-foundation-models-odyssey-palo-alto-0h5g5ayn20dg) — Palo Alto, CA
- [VP, Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/vp-engineering-odyssey-palo-alto-tka73j1qbv60) — Palo Alto, CA
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- [AI Resident](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-resident-odyssey-palo-alto-rkf461yxgdzs) — Palo Alto, CA
- [VP, Research](https://feeny.ai/job/vp-research-odyssey-london-dsxjptdqvpfn) — London, United Kingdom