Senior Data Operations Engineer

Boston, MA

Pay: USD 110,000–140,000/year — pay source
Salary 110,000 – 140,000 USD per year Why Join FieldAI?
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Work setting: On-site — work setting source
Work setup in the employer’s listing: onsite
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Employment: Full-time — employment source
Employment type Full time
Employment type in the employer’s listing: Full time
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What you’ll work on

Full posting

Field AI is transforming how robots interact with the real world.

Build and maintain sensor harnesses, camera arrays and wearable sensor stacks
Write and maintain QA scripts for in-house and vendor data drops
Run motion capture, teleoperation and human-subjects data collection sessions
Manage and schedule interns and contractors, owning throughput and quality
Write and maintain SOPs for data collection, annotation and lab operations

From the employer’s posting

Field AI is transforming how robots interact with the real world. Our R&D team, the FieldAI Research Institute (FAIRI), is based in Cambridge, MA, where we build risk-aware, field-ready AI systems that unlock general purpose intelligence for robotics.

FAIRI is looking for a Senior Data Operations Engineer to run the day-to-day of our data operations function: building the tooling the pipeline runs on, staying hands-on enough to dogfood and stress-test that tooling yourself, and managing the interns and contractors who carry out the bulk of day-to-day collection and annotation. You’ll work directly with the Research Operations Partner to scale FAIRI’s in-house data function, and you’ll set the technical and operational bar the rest of the Data Operations Engineering team is built around.

Build and maintain hardware sensor suites — sensor harnesses, camera arrays, mounting fixtures, wearable sensor stacks (including soldering and cable assembly).

Write and maintain QA scripts for in-house and vendor data drops.

Run motion capture, teleoperation, and human-subjects data collection sessions yourself

Manage and schedule data collection interns and contractors; own day-to-day throughput and quality.

Write and maintain SOPs and other supporting documentation for data collection, annotation, and lab operations.

What you’ll bring

All qualifications

Core experience

Python, Java, or equivalent scripting

Qualification wording

Python, Java, or equivalent scripting

Tools in this posting

Java
Python

Source

- AR/VR development or production - Python, Java, or equivalent scripting - LIDAR

Posting record

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Open 3 monthsWe first saw this listing 92 days ago and it is still up. Roles open this long are often slow to fill or kept open to collect applications.

Status in our records: Live
First seen by us: Jul 24, 2026 · 92 days ago
Recorded sightings: 71
Last seen by us: Oct 24, 2026

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Job description

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FieldAI is transforming how robots interact with the real world. Our growing R&D team is based in Boston, where we develop risk-aware, reliable, field-ready AI systems that tackle the hardest problems in robotics and unlock the potential of embodied intelligence. We take a pragmatic approach that goes beyond off-the-shelf, purely data-driven methods or transformer-only architectures, combining cutting-edge research with real-world deployment. Our solutions are already deployed globally, and we continuously improve model performance through rapid iteration driven by real field use.

About the Role

Field AI is transforming how robots interact with the real world. Our R&D team, the FieldAI Research Institute (FAIRI), is based in Cambridge, MA, where we build risk-aware, field-ready AI systems that unlock general purpose intelligence for robotics.

FAIRI is looking for a Senior Data Operations Engineer to run the day-to-day of our data operations function: building the tooling the pipeline runs on, staying hands-on enough to dogfood and stress-test that tooling yourself, and managing the interns and contractors who carry out the bulk of day-to-day collection and annotation. You’ll work directly with the Research Operations Partner to scale FAIRI’s in-house data function, and you’ll set the technical and operational bar the rest of the Data Operations Engineering team is built around.

What You’ll Do

Data Tooling & Infrastructure — 25%

Build and maintain hardware sensor suites — sensor harnesses, camera arrays, mounting fixtures, wearable sensor stacks (including soldering and cable assembly).
Write and maintain QA scripts for in-house and vendor data drops.
Build and maintain annotation software and other internal data tooling.

Data Collection & Annotation — 25%

Run motion capture, teleoperation, and human-subjects data collection sessions yourself — the fastest way to dogfood and stress-test tooling and protocols before handing them to the team.
Annotate robotics/AV datasets (object interaction, contact state, multi-agent) against FAIRI’s evaluation framework.
Use hands-on collection and annotation work to surface tooling gaps and drive the tooling roadmap above.

Team Management & Documentation — 25%

Manage and schedule data collection interns and contractors; own day-to-day throughput and quality.
Onboard and train interns/contractors on equipment, SOPs, and the informed-consent process.
Write and maintain SOPs and other supporting documentation for data collection, annotation, and lab operations.
Own first-level QC and escalation for intern/contractor output; flag protocol or safety issues.

Technical Demo Support — 25%

Learn the product stack and operate various robotic platforms to demonstrate FieldAI FFM (Field Foundation Model) capabilities.
Support demo planning and execution, coordinating with the Research Operations Partner
Help produce content showcasing FieldAI’s ability to deploy robots on dull, dirty,

and dangerous jobs.

Troubleshoot hardware and software issues live during demos with important stakeholders.

What You Bring

You don’t need every skill below, but you should bring real, hands-on depth in several of them:

Soldering and cable assembly
Motion capture systems (e.g., Vicon, OptiTrack, markerless/IMU)
Data annotation for robotics or autonomous vehicles
QA for hardware and/or software
3D scanning and 3D printing
Data collection and human subjects research (IRB/consent familiarity a plus)
AR/VR development or production
Python, Java, or equivalent scripting
LIDAR
Robotics (platforms, sensors, or control)
Linux command line
Blender or Unity
Film/TV production

Beyond the toolkit:

Comfortable moving between hardware and software in the same day: genuinely hands-on, not hands-off.
High ownership: you can take an open-ended ask (“troubleshoot why this data had issues ”) and run with it without much hand-holding.
Strong documentation habits: you leave SOPs and processes better than you found them.

What Sets You Apart

Background in film/TV production, game development, data operations, or another field where wearing every hat is normal
Interest in humanoid robotics and how machines learn from human movement

Why FAIRI

This role sits inside FAIRI’s Research Operations function, supporting the Humanoid Program. It’s built to grow: the Data Operations Engineering track is expected to scale from one person today to a small team over the next 12–18 months, and this hire is a leading candidate for Data Operations Engineering Lead as that team stands up.

Salary

110,000 – 140,000 USD per year

Why Join FieldAI?

FieldAI is tackling one of robotics’ hardest problems: deploying robots in unstructured, previously unknown environments. Our Field Foundational Models™ advance perception, planning, localization, and manipulation with an emphasis on explainability and safety, so our systems can be trusted where it matters most.

You will work alongside a world-class team that values creativity, resilience, and bold thinking. We bring a decade-long track record of real-world deployments, strong performance in DARPA challenges, and experience from organizations such as DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA, Amazon, Tesla Autopilot, Cruise, Zoox, Toyota Research Institute, and SpaceX.

Our R&D organization is growing and anchored in Boston, with close collaboration across our teams in Southern California and with colleagues around the US and globally.

Be Part of the Next Robotics Revolution

Solving problems at this scale takes a team as unique as the mission. We are looking for people who push beyond conventional approaches, enjoy tackling tough and ambiguous questions, and bring interdisciplinary perspective. Our success depends on exceptional AI researchers and engineers, as well as strong software developers, product designers, field deployment experts, and communicators who can turn breakthroughs into real capability.

We are headquartered in Irvine, Southern California, with teammates across the US and around the world. Join us to shape the future of embodied intelligence as part of a fun, close-knit team building systems that work in the real world.

Equal Opportunity

FieldAI celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Candidates and employees are evaluated based on merit, qualifications, and performance. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or any other legally protected status.

Employment type

Full time

Source details

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Pay

Salary 110,000 – 140,000 USD per year Why Join FieldAI?

Location & working pattern

Boston, MA

Working pattern and location restrictions need checking in the full posting.

Work authorization

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