Research Program Manager

FortyFive; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

FortyFive in Mountain View is looking for a Research Program Manager to bridge cutting-edge research with product development. In this role, you will own the research roadmap, manage academic partnerships, and translate research breakthroughs into customer solutions. We expect candidates to have over 5 years of experience in research operations or program management and a strong academic background, ideally a PhD in machine learning or robotics. Join our team to drive impactful AI advancements in robotics.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in research operations, technical program management, or applied research.
• Strong relationships in the robotics/ML research community.
• Comfort with ambiguity and ability to prioritize.

Responsibilities

• Own the research roadmap and coordinate priorities.
• Manage publication and patent strategy.
• Build and maintain relationships with academic labs.
• Translate research breakthroughs into product capabilities.
• Coordinate research timelines.

Skills

Research operations

Technical program management

Applied research

Machine learning

Robotics

Communication

Education

PhD or strong research background

Job description

Join Us in Building the Future of Physical AI

We build the simulation infrastructure for physical AI. We develop GenAI-powered tools that enable robotics teams to create unlimited, diverse training data and realistic evaluation environments. Our team spun out of MIT CSAIL, where we pioneered techniques that trained robots using only synthetic data. We're helping robotics companies transition to AI-native development workflows.

We're a lean team of researchers and engineers from DeepMind, OpenAI, FAIR, and top universities including MIT, Berkeley, Caltech, Harvard, and Yale. We've published best papers at top robotics conferences, won International Olympiad medals, and built core systems at leading AI labs. We believe in building complex systems that bring simplicity to our customers.

Global Team: We operate across US and China time zones. We value people who communicate proactively, document thoroughly, and take ownership of smooth handoffs across teams.

What to Expect

As our Research Program Manager, you will bridge cutting-edge research and product development. You'll manage the research roadmap, coordinate academic partnerships, and ensure our frontier work translates into customer value. This role requires deep technical understanding combined with exceptional organizational skills.

What You'll Do

• Own the research roadmap and coordinate priorities across research and product teams
• Manage publication and patent strategy for our core technologies
• Build and maintain relationships with academic labs and conference communities
• Translate research breakthroughs into product capabilities and customer solutions
• Coordinate research timelines while preserving space for exploration and discovery

What You'll Bring

• 5+ years in research operations, technical program management, or applied research
• PhD or strong research background in ML, robotics, or related field
• Track record of shipping research into production systems
• Strong relationships in the robotics/ML research community
• Comfort with ambiguity; ability to prioritize research bets with incomplete information
• Excellent written and verbal communication

Nice to Have

• Publications at top venues (CoRL, ICRA, RSS, NeurIPS, ICML)
• Experience at research labs (DeepMind, FAIR, OpenAI, Google Brain)
• Familiarity with simulation, synthetic data, or sim-to-real transfer

We believe diverse teams build better products. Even if you don't meet every requirement listed, we encourage you to apply if you're excited about this role and our mission.