About the role
About Preload
Preload builds the data layer for physical AI. Robots learn mostly from video, but human interaction is much richer: touch, force, and muscle activity. We build a wearable multimodal stack (egocentric video, tactile gloves, EMG) to capture how people actually interact with the physical world, and turn it into datasets robotics teams can train on. We're a YC (F26) team of PhD founders from Johns Hopkins and Caltech with backgrounds at Neuralink, Paradromics, and other neurotech companies.
Don't see your role? Pitch us.
We're early, and some of our best hires won't fit neatly into a job description. If you're exceptional and believe you can help us build the data layer for physical AI, we want to hear from you, whatever your background.
Areas where we'd love to hear from you
- Robotics, manipulation, and robot learning
- Biosignals, neuroengineering, and wearable sensing
- Hardware, mechanical design, and manufacturing
- ML research, multimodal modeling, and data infrastructure
- Surgery, clinical research, and medical devices
- Operations, partnerships, and go-to-market
How to apply
In your application, tell us:
- What you'd own at Preload and why it matters now
- The most impressive thing you've built or done
- What you'd accomplish in your first 90 days
What we're looking for
- A track record of building real things, fast
- Comfort with ambiguity and owning problems end to end
- Genuine excitement about robotics and physical AI
Why join
Early, in-person team in San Francisco. You'll shape the product, the stack, and the culture from day one. Compensation depends on the role and experience.
About Preload
Designing and iterating a multimodal hardware stack (currently ego + tactile gloves + EMG) to collect rich and scalable datasets for physical AI. Also interested in how we can use this technology to advance surgery.
Built by PhD founders (Johns Hopkins, Caltech) with world-class expertise in brain-computer interfaces (Neuralink, Meta, Paradromics)
Other roles at Preload
Biosignal ML Engineer / Data Scientist
San Francisco, CAFull-timeRobotics Scientist (Policy Learning)
San Francisco, CAFull-timeSensor Engineer (Wearables)
San Francisco, CAFull-timeSoftware Engineer, Data Platform
San Francisco, CAFull-timeField Engineer, Surgical Data Collection
San Francisco, CAFull-time
Refer someone
Know someone great for this role?
Share your link. If they get hired through Standout, you get $3,000.
Job details
Salary
$150,000 - $225,000
Equity
0.25% - 1.5%
Location
San Francisco, CA
Founders
Leo Li
What happens next.
No applications, no recruiter spam. Just the intro.
Confirm the fit
A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.
I pitch you to the company
I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.
A meeting lands on your calendar
If they’re a yes, I book the chat. You show up — that’s the whole job-hunt.
