You will own the development of real-time vision-language models and agentic AI systems that provide hands-free guidance to datacenter and energy infrastructure technicians. This role involves turning raw visual perception into actionable field intelligence, working directly with founders to ship production-ready AI that interacts with the physical world for multi-billion-dollar customers.
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Research Assistant (Founding Team) at Alcor Labs
Join a high-growth startup founded by NASA, Harvard, and MIT researchers building the first AI co-pilot for the physical world. This isn't just a research project—the team is already live with multi-billion-dollar customers in the energy and datacenter sectors. As a founding team member, you'll bridge the gap between cutting-edge vision-language models and real-world execution, deploying smart-glass AI that guides technicians through complex procedures in real-time. If you were a top-tier research assistant who chose building over a PhD, this is your chance to own a core part of the agentic AI stack in San Francisco.
About this role
Role overview
About the company
Alcor Labs
Vision AI, Wearable AI, field services, Robotics2–10+ employees
Stealth-mode physical AI startup founded by Harvard/NASA and MIT researchers, building AI smart glasses for critical infrastructure technicians.
What you'll do
What you will do
- Develop and optimize custom vision-language models (VLMs) and perception systems that process real-time video feeds from smart glasses.
- Build agentic AI frameworks capable of understanding complex manual procedures and delivering step-by-step guidance to technicians in the field.
- Collaborate directly with founders to iterate on core AI architecture and ship production updates to enterprise customers on a weekly basis.
Who you are
Who this is a fit for
- Former undergraduate or master's research assistant under top-tier AI professors (e.g., Pieter Abbeel, Lerrel Pinto, or Chris Ré) with a bias toward building.
- Hands-on experience training vision-language models, robotics perception systems, or agentic AI that has been deployed in real environments.
- High-autonomy startup DNA with the ability to define technical roadmaps and solve ambiguous problems without needing a pre-defined spec.
Why this role
Why this role is remarkable
- Work at the frontier of physical AI with founders from Harvard, NASA, and MIT who have deep experience in CV and ML research.
- Join a well-funded startup already live with two multi-billion-dollar customers, ensuring your research translates directly to real-world industrial impact.
- Receive significant founding-level equity and the opportunity to define the architectural stack of a product category-defining AI co-pilot.
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