ML Engineer - Instawork Robotics

Instawork; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible paid time off

Medical, dental, and vision plans

Commuter stipend

401K plan

Equity in the form of stock options

Job summary

Instawork, based in San Francisco, is seeking a Machine Learning Engineer to design and maintain crucial pipelines for our robotics data offering. The role requires strong expertise in machine learning, cloud computing, and experience with large-scale datasets.

With a competitive salary between $170,000 - $200,000 and equity options, this position offers flexible paid time off and comprehensive benefits, aimed at fostering a collaborative environment. Join us in revolutionizing how the world works!

Qualifications

• 4+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• 1+ years of professional experience building ML or computer vision models for robotics.
• Experience with data pipelines and large-scale datasets.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain the data labeling and enrichment pipeline.
• Identify and implement continuous improvements to the data pipeline.
• Develop methodologies to measure dataset quality and performance.

Skills

Professional software engineering experience

Machine learning and computer vision

Data pipelines expertise

Distributed systems

Cloud computing on AWS

Education

Master's or PhD in AI or ML

Tools

AWS

Job description

Instawork is on a mission to create meaningful economic opportunities for skilled hourly professionals in communities around the globe. Our AI‑powered labor marketplace helps local businesses scale, and enables global technology companies to push the frontiers of robotics and AI. Backed by world‑class investors like Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, Greylock, Y Combinator, and others, we’re looking for exceptional talent to reimagine the way the world works.

Instawork’s on‑demand labor marketplace is uniquely valuable for robotics and physical AI training. We’re working with leading frontier labs to create the highest‑quality, highest‑diversity dataset for training robotics foundation models. Instawork Robotics is the human advantage in the robotics revolution.

The Instawork Robotics ML Engineer will help build and scale the technology powering physical AI training data.

Ready to make an impact? Learn more at www.instawork.com/about.

Who You Are

• A mid‑career developer, with 4+ years of professional software engineering experience, excluding internships.
• A machine learning engineer with a Master’s or PhD in an AI or ML‑related field and 1+ years of professional experience building ML or computer vision models for robotics or autonomous vehicle applications.
• Experienced with data pipelines, with expertise in distributed systems, cloud computing on AWS infrastructure, and scalable data processing for large‑scale datasets.
• An innovator, with a background in identifying and translating techniques from academic research and frontier labs into production systems.
• A problem‑solver, who enjoys building new‑to‑world systems and applying creativity and grit to create value for our robotics partners.

Nice‑to‑have

• 3+ years experience designing or architecting production distributed systems.
• Experience shipping production code at an early‑stage or mid‑stage startup.
• Experience participating in technical discussions with external partners and customers.

What You’ll Do

• Model Development – design, build, and maintain the data labeling and enrichment pipeline at the foundation of Instawork Robotics’ data offering.
• Pipeline Optimization – identify and implement continuous improvements to our data pipeline to improve efficiency, scalability, and quality.
• Dataset Quality – develop methodologies and analytics to measure the quality and performance of our dataset and ML models.
• Research Reviews – stay on top of academic research and industry best practices related to robotics learning and training.
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration – work closely with robotics leadership, data ops, QA, and other engineering teams to ensure alignment from concept to deployment.

For CA based applicants

• The base salary for this position is $170,000 - $200,000.
• This position is eligible for equity in the form of stock options.
• This position is eligible for Instawork benefits, including:
• Variety of medical, dental, and vision plans with coverage beginning on the date of hire.
• Flexible paid time off.
• At least 8 paid company holidays annually.
• Phone stipend.
• Commuter stipend.
• Supplemental pay on qualified leaves.
• Employee health savings accounts (HSA) contribution.
• Flexible spending plans.
• 401K plan.
• Perkspot – discount program through Lumity.

Our Values

• Empathy, Trust & Candor – We put ourselves in the shoes of our colleagues and customers and don’t shy away from uncomfortable conversations, instead building trust through honest and direct feedback.
• Bias for Action – We practice high‑velocity decision‑making, clear‑eyed that we often operate with incomplete information. Growing quickly means it’s OK to be wrong, so long as we learn from our mistakes and course correct.
• Always Be Learning – We’re a curious bunch, and with AI transforming our workplace we encourage everyone to learn from each others, compounding our knowledge and experience to help us change an entire industry.
• Act Like an Owner – We work long, hard, and smart, building products that delight our users and drive growth. Your ability to impact Instawork is limited only by your courage and conviction, not your job description.

About Instawork

Founded in 2015, Instawork is the nation’s leading online labor marketplace for food services, hospitality, light industry, and logistics, connecting more than 7M skilled workers with local restaurants, hotels, warehouses, stadiums, and more. Our AI‑powered platform serves thousands of businesses across more than 50 major markets in the United States and Canada. We're not just helping fill shifts, we’re supporting local economies—and we’re just getting started! Instawork has been featured by CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press. Forbes included us on their Next Billion Dollar Startups list; RetailTech Breakthrough named us Workforce Hiring Solution of the Year for 2025; and Inc. 5000 recognized us as one of the country’s top 10% fastest‑growing companies two years in a row. But what matters most is our impact. We’re solving real problems for real people, and we’re doing it at scale. Join our team to help us build something that matters! We’re looking for superstars who wants to help us shape the future of work. With hubs in San Francisco, Bangalore, and Chicago, city offices in New York, Phoenix, and Singapore, we’re back to working together in‑person five days a week because we believe the best ideas happen when great people collaborates face‑to‑face. We also value diverse perspectives and encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds.