Operations Associate

DeepAware (Silicon Valley Robotics Center) builds the full stack for physical AI — spanning hardware, data, and training.

We source and ship robots and robotics parts across the US within 72 hours: humanoid robots, quadrupeds, robotic arms, tactile sensors, cameras, and dexterous hands. Beyond hardware, we help enterprises collect teleoperation data, build reinforcement learning environments, and deploy robots into production.

Our early customers include AI data centers, industrial operations, research labs, and event producers. We're solving real problems at the intersection of AI, robotics, and supply chain — and we're moving fast.

If you're excited about building the physical automation layer for the AI era, and want to work across software, hardware, and real-world deployment — you'll fit right in at DeepAware.

About us Robotics Center of Silicon Valley is the full-stack robotics supply chain — hardware, data, AI training, and live deployment under one roof. Backed by Y Combinator (S25) and NVIDIA Inception, our San Francisco lab puts 60+ robot platforms within reach and powers one of the largest real-robot datasets anywhere. We're building the infrastructure layer for physical AI.

About the role We're looking for an Operations Associate to run and scale the day-to-day operations of a fast-growing robotics company from the ground up. You'll work directly with leadership across everything it takes to keep the lab running — people operations, logistics, events, vendors, and internal systems — and own the foundation a startup is built on. This is a hands-on role with real ownership from day one.

What you'll do

• Manage lab logistics — inventory, shipping/receiving, and hardware tracking across 60+ robot platforms
• Coordinate with vendors, suppliers, and partners
• Own facilities and keep the lab running smoothly day to day
• Handle finance and administrative tasks such as invoicing, expense tracking, and record-keeping
• Plan and run culture and community events, including our monthly community meetups
• Build and document operational and people-ops processes as we scale

What we're looking for

• Bachelor's degree (any major — we care more about drive than field of study)
• 0–3 years of experience in operations or ops-heavy roles, a comparable track record of getting things done, or current enrollment in a degree program for internship candidates
• Strong organization and communication skills, and discretion with sensitive information
• A proactive, "write it down and figure it out" mindset
• Comfort juggling multiple workstreams and shifting priorities in a fast-paced environment
• Genuine interest in startups, robotics, or AI is a plus
• Able to work on-site in San Francisco

Why join us You'll shape how a YC-backed robotics company runs and scales, work alongside engineers and researchers building real robots, and gain broad operations experience across people, logistics, and events that you can't get at a big company. As one of our early operations hires, you'll have real ownership and a direct line to leadership.

DeepAware (Silicon Valley Robotics Center) operates across three layers of the robotics stack:

Hardware supply chain. We source robots and parts from leading global manufacturers (Unitree, Deep Robotics, Paxini, Intel Realsense, OpenArm, and more) and run a fast-turn inventory and logistics operation — getting any SKU into US customers' hands within 72 hours.

Data and training. We build teleoperation data collection pipelines, simulation environments in Isaac Gym / MuJoCo, and reinforcement learning policies for manipulation and locomotion. Much of this lives at the sim-to-real boundary, which is where most of the hard engineering is.

Deployment. We integrate robots into real-world environments — AI data centers (cable management, inspection, thermal monitoring), industrial floors (quality inspection, material handling), and live events (interactive humanoid demos with scripted interaction flows).

Our stack includes Python, ROS2, PyTorch, Isaac Sim/Lab, custom teleoperation rigs, and integrations with inventory/logistics systems. We're a small, fast-moving team that ships.