--- title: 'Senior AI Compute Engineer at Trener' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-ai-compute-engineer-trener-san-jose-vje7vp5xmka8' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-07' --- # Senior AI Compute Engineer at Trener - **Company:** Trener - **Location:** San Jose, CA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-10-07 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-07 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/trener-robotics/b11629ca-dbfa-4b22-8366-fdfb678d556e ## Job description ## About Us Help make physical AI a reality. At Trener Robotics, we are building the future of industrial automation through intelligent agents that understand natural language and control robotic stations. Our product, Acteris, bridges AI and robotics to deliver flexible, user-friendly automation. We are a fast-growing, venture-backed company entering a phase of rapid scale. Our mission is to make AI-powered robotics accessible, and we are looking for a Senior AI Compute Engineer to own the deployment and execution of complex models across our physical edge hardware. ## Your Mission Own the compute software stack that enables our robots to process heavy AI workloads and real-time control algorithms seamlessly at the edge. You will deeply understand the underlying hardware to build software that extracts maximum performance from it, without being responsible for hardware design itself. You will actively collaborate with and support the external partners designing our compute platforms. In this role, you will own outcomes for a critical product area, bringing structured judgment to complex problems as you bridge the gap between theoretical model performance and physical, real-world deployment. ## Key Responsibilities - Design software systems spanning multiple services to run Physical AI processes across heterogeneous architectures (CPU, GPU, NPU, FPGA). - Build, optimize, and test software pipelines for deploying neural networks, large language models (LLMs), vision transformers, VLMs, and VLAs directly to edge devices. - Deploy and accelerate deterministic robotics algorithms, ensuring they meet strict real-time execution constraints alongside machine learning workloads. - Set code quality standards for the team and design test strategies for entire features, ensuring that your definition of "done" means it works on the floor, not just in CI. - Drive alignment across cross-functional teams by proactively coordinating handoffs across roles (e.g., firmware, software, deployment) instead of waiting to be looped in. - Plan across projects with clarity and confidence, breaking large initiatives into independently shippable increments and flagging schedule risk early. - Push back on requirements that seem technically infeasible and run scoped spikes to de-risk hard problems rather than just flagging concerns. ## What We Are Looking For - Proven experience working with state-of-the-art algorithms used in autonomous systems or advanced robotics. - Proven experience deploying complex algorithms onto embedded and edge devices (specifically beyond standard laptops and desktop PCs). - Deep understanding of hardware execution models (e.g., memory hierarchies, compute pipelines) to write software that maximally exploits the underlying compute and anticipates bottlenecks. - Experience accelerating workloads on CPUs, GPUs (e.g., CUDA, TensorRT, ROCm) or FPGAs. - Familiarity using Altera's Quartus and/or AMD's Vitis. - Strong proficiency in writing production-grade, highly optimized C++ and Python. Particularly strong candidates will have: - An understanding of robot kinematics (forward and inverse), numerical optimization, and constraint-based programming. - Knowledge of the inner workings of modern AI models and their specific hardware requirements. - A background in electronics engineering to effectively interface software with edge hardware. ## What You Will Get - Ownership of the AI compute software layer for a category-defining automation platform. - The opportunity to work hands-on with real robots and cutting-edge edge compute hardware from day one. - Collaboration with a high-caliber team across AI, robotics, systems engineering, and product. - A fast-moving, mission-driven environment where rigorous engineering and research-informed thinking are equally valued. ## About Trener ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Industrial robotics automation / Physical AI software - **Target customers**: B2B – manufacturing companies, system integrators, and shop-floor operations running high-mix, low-volume production - **Mission**: Replace rigid, scripted robot programming with training-based, autonomous execution to make industrial automation more flexible and scalable. ## Products & Services - **Acteris**: The core intelligence layer for industrial robots – a vendor-agnostic platform that provides vision, language, and action understanding to enable skills-based programming, natural language task specification, real-time adaptation, and production monitoring. Compatible with ABB, Universal Robots, and FANUC, with more brands planned. - **T-Labs**: Dedicated R&D engine that develops new robot skills using vision-language-action models, simulation, and data-efficient training pipelines. Feeds production-ready capabilities into Acteris. - **T-Job, T-Agents, T-Vision, T-Sim, T-Monitor, T-Skill, T-Sense (coming soon)**: Specific modules within Acteris for job orchestration, agentic control, vision perception, simulation, monitoring, skill execution, and haptic sensing. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed - **Key Metric**: Total funding of $38.2M across four rounds (Pre-Seed, Seed, Seed extension, Series A) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Engine Ventures, IAG Capital Partners, Emergent Ventures - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount grew 350% year-over-year to 31 employees (LinkedIn data) - Won the Industry Startup Forum Award at Advanced Factories 2026 - Winner of ABB Startup Challenge 2024 - Expanding to additional robot brands beyond ABB, Universal Robots, and FANUC - Opened offices in San Jose (US HQ) and Barcelona (new hybrid location) ## Competitive Advantages - **Robot-agnostic intelligence layer**: Works across multiple robot brands (ABB, UR, FANUC) without requiring hardware replacement – can retrofit existing workcells. - **Physical AI approach**: Replaces traditional point-to-point programming with Vision-Language-Action models, enabling robots to handle variability and changeovers autonomously. - **Skills, not scripts**: Deployable, reusable robot skills that can be commissioned and scaled across cells, reducing deployment time and maintenance. - **Partner-led commissioning**: Standardized integration suite allows trusted partners to deploy consistently, enabling faster scaling. ## Strategic Focus - Scale deployment of Acteris across more production environments, particularly high-mix, low-volume manufacturing. - Expand robot brand compatibility to additional leading industrial robot manufacturers. - Continue building T-Labs to advance embodied intelligence and skill learning. - Grow the partner ecosystem and sales channels (recent hires like VP of Sales Jacob Pascual Pape indicate commercial acceleration). ## Why Work Here - **Cutting-edge technology**: Work on Physical AI, foundation models, and real-world robotics – a rare intersection of AI and industrial automation. - **Global team**: Offices in San Jose (US), Trondheim (Norway), and Barcelona (Spain) with employees across 6 countries. Hybrid work model (in-office in San Jose and Barcelona, with remote flexibility in some roles). - **Growth trajectory**: Young company (founded 2024) with rapid headcount growth and strong investor backing – opportunity to shape the product and culture early. - **Award-winning environment**: Recognized at Advanced Factories 2026 and ABB Startup Challenge, signaling industry credibility. - **Open roles**: Currently hiring for Integration Engineers (software and field), Technical Sales Engineers, QA Engineers, Business Development Managers, Channel Managers, and Application Engineers – indicating scaling across engineering, sales, and operations. ## Sources 1. [trener.ai](https://trener.ai/) 2. [trener.ai/company](https://trener.ai/company) 3. [trener.ai/platform](https://trener.ai/platform) 4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/trener-robotics) 5. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/trener-robotics) ## Other roles at Trener - [Senior Cloud Infrastructure Engineer - Product](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-cloud-infrastructure-engineer-product-trener-san-jose-24qjfesc8wsz) — San Jose, CA - [Robotics Integration Engineer (Field-Focused)](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-integration-engineer-field-focused-trener-san-jose-1smm4d5h0wsc) — San Jose, CA - [Vision Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/vision-systems-engineer-trener-trondheim-n6b6ypz15x3q) — Trondheim, Norway