Associate, AI & Robotics

Marble; Paris (TX); Hybrid; USD 68,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance (Alan)

Meal and mobility vouchers (Swile)

Stock options

Office in Paris

Job summary

Marble is seeking an Associate to drive venture creation in physical AI, robotics and autonomy across multiple sectors in Paris. You will lead opportunity research, talent sourcing, and founder recruitment while collaborating with Partners and building ventures from idea to seed-stage with robust diligence.

You will work with Founders in Residence, de-risk ventures, and help shape product, go-to-market and funding strategies for a portfolio of Early-Stage climate-tech ventures.

Qualifications

• Engineer with PhD or MS in CS or Engineering focusing on ML/RL, Robotics, or related fields.
• Experience shipping systems in real-world environments with safety, uptime and latency considerations.
• Strong commercial orientation: product, customers, deployment, manufacturing or supply chains.
• Ability to break problems into core constituents using first principles.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to persuade and present.
• Talent intuition: identify founders and motivate them to join ventures.
• Proven track record of delivering high-quality results with ownership.

Responsibilities

• Own venture creation activities for Marble's opportunity areas, including research and evaluation.
• Source and recruit founders in residence and guide them through the venture process.
• Collaborate with Founders to develop ideas, de-risk concepts, and build seed-stage ventures.
• Perform robust due diligence, supporting decisions and portfolio progression.

Skills

AI/ML for physical systems

Robotics & autonomy

First principles thinking

Clear communicator

Talent intuition

Execution & ownership

Commercial orientation

Education

PhD or MS in CS/Engineering (ML/RL)

Tools

Startup/Applied R&D tooling

Job description

About Marble

Marble creates hard tech companies for the New Climate Era, across energy, industry and resilience. Since 2021, we have launched 15 companies backed by some of the best investors across Europe and North America.

About the role

We are hiring an Associate to drive venture creation across multiple opportunity areas in physical AI, robotics, and autonomy in a broad range of sectors (e.g. energy, logistics, construction, manufacturing, mining, etc)

Reporting to Partners, this role gives exposure to every aspect of venture creation: opportunity research, founder recruitment, tech and product development, economic analysis, go-to-market, fundraising, investment decisions, portfolio management.

Because we work at pre-company stage, the job requires to identify what will be relevant and fundable in 2-3 years, not just what is hype today.

Location: Paris, France (occasional travel for events)

Language: Fluent English required. French or German is a plus.

Responsibilities

As part of the Venture Lead team, you will be responsible for driving our venture creation process on the opportunity areas that you own:

• Opportunity research: build conviction on priority areas where Marble should create new companies, based on deep technical and market analysis.

• Talent sourcing: identify talent with high founder potential and relevant domain expertise and hire them as Founders in Residence to build with Marble.

• Building: work with Founders to develop venture ideas, systematically de-risk them, and turn them into new companies with team, funding and a roadmap to seed. You'll ensure robust diligence to support progress / stop decisions.

Alongside these, you will take on supporting work and special projects based on priorities and your profile, such as: external content creation, events, founder resources development, portfolio support, ecosystem relations, etc.

Requirements

This role is ideal for an engineer or computer scientist who can build, reason from first principles, with enough technical foundations to navigate various domains where intelligent systems interact with the physical world:

• Technical expertise in AI/ML applied to physical systems, robotics and autonomy. You hold a PhD or MS in Computer Science (ML/RL), Robotics, or related (EEng, MechEng), with applied experience in startup or industry.

• Experience shipping systems in a real-world environment. You understand operational constraints such as safety, uptime and latency, human-in-the-loop workflows, and integrations with other systems.

• Commercial orientation. Beyond tech alone, you enjoy thinking about product, customers, economics, deployment, manufacturing or supply chains.

• First principles reasoning. You can break down a problem into its core constituents to understand what needs to be true for things to work.

• Clear communicator. You can articulate complex ideas and defend a conviction with sharp memos and engaging presentations.

• Talent intuition. You know a great founder when you meet them, and if you want to work with them, you know how to persuade them.

• Makes things happen. Team player who moves fast, with high standards for excellence, and high ownership on projects from start to finish.

We would love to hear from you if this sounds like you:

• You have prior experience working with early stage startups, deep tech commercialisation, applied R&D, or industrial tech development.

• You are AI native. You can combine frontier tools and human judgment to maximise productivity and leverage in your work.

• You are relentlessly curious. You stay current in your own field, you enjoy learning about new domains, and you learn very fast.

• You have a superpower. For example: technical mastery in a field, the ability to see patterns where others cannot, truly original ideas, high EQ and energy level, strong network in a relevant domain, extraordinary writing skills, etc.

• You are playing to win. You know that venture is competitive and follows a power law, and the challenge motivates you.

• You are a pragmatic optimist with a driving motivation to solve the hardest problems in physical industries, AI and climate infrastructure.

Your ability to learn on the job matters more than ticking every box.

What We Offer

• Full-time (CDI) contract, Associate level*

• €60-70k gross annual base salary + 10% target bonus + stock options

• Office in Paris. Occasional remote days are possible

• Health insurance (Alan), meal and mobility vouchers (Swile)

• Exposure to our network of top founders, investors, and advisors

• Working with the brightest, most driven individuals you'll meet

• Rapid learning curve and personal development

• Enhanced parental support

What is hard to capture just with the above is the unique opportunity this role offers to join Marble in the early days of our journey, and shape the future of what we hope will become a top institution in climate and hard tech in Europe and beyond.

(* We're opportunistically open to more experienced candidates who could potentially join at the Senior Associate level.)

We believe that a diverse group of minds creates an unfair team advantage when building high impact companies. Hence, we actively encourage candidates from all backgrounds, genders and perspective to apply.

Studies have shown that under-represented candidates are less likely to apply unless they feel they meet every single qualification. If you are excited about the opportunity but your experience does not align perfectly - please apply anyway!