Robot Operator

warp; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Warp is building autonomous laboratories that can run scientific experiments end-to-end. We are starting with chemistry and developing robotic systems that manipulate labware, operate instruments, handle materials, and execute experimental workflows with minimal human intervention.

As a Robot Operator you’ll work directly with our robots and data-collection systems, performing scientific tasks, collecting demonstrations, evaluating robot behavior, and helping us continuously improve the quality

Qualifications

• Exceptional attention to detail and ability to perform precise tasks consistently.
• Ability to quickly learn new procedures, tools, and experimental setups.
• Strong hands-on problem-solving skills and comfort working with physical systems.
• Patience and consistency when performing repeated tasks while maintaining a high quality bar.
• Comfortable working around robots, computers, laboratory equipment, and scientific instruments.
• Ability to recognize when something looks wrong and clearly communicate what happened.
• High ownership and reliability.

Responsibilities

• Operate robotic and teleoperation systems to collect high-quality demonstrations of chemistry and manipulation tasks.
• Perform tasks such as handling labware, weighing and transferring solids, manipulating liquids, opening containers, and operating laboratory equipment while maintaining precision and consistency.
• Set up and reset robot workspaces, lab equipment, consumables, and experiments between data-collection runs.
• Review collected demonstrations, identify failures or poor-quality data, and maintain a high bar for data quality and consistency.
• Work closely with robot learning and hardware teams to identify problems with data-collection interfaces, robot behavior, and task setups and help make the overall system better.

Job description

About Warp

Warp is building autonomous laboratories that can run scientific experiments end-to-end.

We're starting with chemistry. We're building robotic systems that can manipulate labware, operate scientific instruments, handle materials, and execute experimental workflows with minimal human intervention.

High-quality real-world data is at the core of how our robots learn. We're looking for Robot Operators to help teach our robots how to perform the precise, dexterous tasks that happen every day in a chemistry lab.

You’ll work directly with our robots and data-collection systems, performing scientific tasks, collecting demonstrations, evaluating robot behavior, and helping us continuously improve the quality of our data.

What You'll Do

• Operate: robotic and teleoperation systems to collect high-quality demonstrations of chemistry and manipulation tasks.
• Perform tasks such as handling labware, weighing and transferring solids, manipulating liquids, opening containers, and operating laboratory equipment while maintaining precision and consistency.
• Set up and reset robot workspaces, lab equipment, consumables, and experiments between data-collection runs.
• Review collected demonstrations, identify failures or poor-quality data, and maintain a high bar for data quality and consistency.
• Work closely with our robot learning and hardware teams to identify problems with data-collection interfaces, robot behavior, and task setups and help make the overall system better.
  

What We're Looking For

• Exceptional attention to detail and ability to perform precise tasks consistently.

• Ability to quickly learn new procedures, tools, and experimental setups.

• Strong hands-on problem-solving skills and comfort working with physical systems.
• Patience and consistency when performing repeated tasks while maintaining a high quality bar.
• Comfortable working around robots, computers, laboratory equipment, and scientific instruments.
• Ability to recognize when something looks wrong and clearly communicate what happened.
• High ownership and reliability.

Especially Useful

Experience with any of the following is a plus:

• Chemistry, biology, laboratory science, or laboratory operations.
• Working in a chemistry or research laboratory.
• Robotics, teleoperation, or robot data collection.
• Precise hands-on work involving small objects, tools, or instruments.

Following scientific protocols or other detailed technical procedures.

You do not need prior robotics experience.

We care most about your ability to learn quickly, work carefully, and consistently produce high‑quality data.

What Success Looks Like

The demonstrations you collect become training data for our robot learning systems. That means both quality and quantity matter..

A great Robot Operator doesn't just complete tasks—they notice when an interface makes a task unnecessarily difficult, when a demonstration isn't representative of how a chemist would actually work, or when a robot consistently struggles with a particular interaction.

You’ll be one of the people directly teaching our robots how to do science.