Robot Operator Lead

Mind Robotics is building the operational backbone behind general-purpose industrial robots — the data, the procedures, and the people who teach machines how to move through the real world. Our operators are the human side of that loop: they pilot robots, generate the demonstration data that trains our models, and surface the edge cases the AI team needs to see.

We're hiring several Teleoperations Leads to drive that function end-to-end. This is a hands-on lead role, not a desk job. You'll spend a meaningful share of your week teleoperating robots, running collection sessions, and working through new tasks yourself before anyone else does. Then you'll turn what you learned into SOPs, train the operators behind you, and raise the bar on data quality across the team.

Responsibilities

Operate. You'll pilot our robots through new and existing behaviors — household manipulation, commercial workflows, dexterous tasks, recovery maneuvers. You're the person who figures out how a new task should be performed before it's written down.

Write the playbook. Every recurring task, bring-up procedure, shutdown sequence, safety check, and data-collection protocol becomes an SOP under your ownership. You'll define what "good" looks like — pose conventions, framing, retry behavior, when to abort a take — and keep those documents alive as the platform evolves.

Train the team. You'll onboard new operators, run shadowing sessions, certify them on each task class, and run periodic calibration reviews to catch drift. When a new behavior comes online, you're the one who teaches it.

Own data quality. You'll spot-check collected episodes, flag bad data before it hits training, and partner with the AI team on what's working and what isn't. You're the closed-loop signal between what we collect and what the models actually learn.

Run the floor. Daily collection planning, shift coordination, equipment readiness, robot uptime, safety incidents — the operations rhythm runs through you. You'll work cross-functionally with AI, hardware, and safety to keep collection unblocked.

Improve the process. Cycle time, take success rate, hours-to-usable-data, operator ramp time — you'll instrument these and push them in the right direction.

Qualifications

• 3–6 years in a hands-on operational role where physical skill, repeatability, and judgment all mattered — robotics teleoperation, motion capture, simulation/VR studios, surgical robotics, drone operations, stunt work, advanced manufacturing, professional gaming/esports coaching, or similar.

• Demonstrated experience writing SOPs, training materials, or operator certifications that other people actually used — not just personal notes.

• Track record of training or mentoring peers, even informally. You can teach a physical skill, not just perform it.

• Excellent physical coordination, spatial awareness, and stamina.

• Master new physical tasks quickly and can articulate why one approach beats another.

• Strong written communication — your SOPs should be clear enough that a new operator can follow them on day one.

• Comfortable giving and receiving direct feedback. The job is partly quality control; tact and honesty both matter.

• Thrives in an early, fast-moving environment where the process you wrote last month gets rewritten this month.

• Prior experience with humanoid or mobile-manipulation robots, VR/AR teleoperation rigs, or motion capture stages. (Preferred)

• Familiarity with data-collection pipelines for ML — what makes a demonstration usable vs. noise. (Preferred)

• Light scripting or tooling experience (Python, basic shell) for logging, tagging, or QA workflows. (Preferred)

• Background in athletic coaching, physical therapy, martial arts instruction, or another domain where teaching motor skill is the job. (Preferred)

• Experience running shifts or coordinating small teams in a regulated or safety-sensitive environment. (Preferred)

Logistics

• On-site at Mind Robotics in Palo Alto. Flexibility across shifts including occasional nights and weekends as collection demands.

• Travel up to ~20%, ranging from day trips to multi-week offsite collection stays.