Senior Software Engineer, Physical AI

Greylock Partners; New York (NY); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Greylock Partners in New York is looking for engineers to develop an AI-native platform that models and iterates on complex real-world systems. This role involves designing high-fidelity models, improving system correctness, and collaborating with customers to solve technical issues.

The team seeks candidates with experience in robotics, complex systems, and production software development. Ideal candidates enjoy challenging problems and have startup experience.

Qualifications

• Experience with building complex engineering systems.
• Proficient in software development, especially Python.
• Familiarity with robotics, computer vision, or autonomy.

Responsibilities

• Designing high-fidelity software models of physical systems.
• Developing platform capabilities for modeling and testing.
• Translating real-world data into software abstractions.

Skills

Software Development

Engineering System Design

Problem Solving

Robotics

Python

C++

Job description

Seed-stage infrastructure company in New York building core developer tooling for the next generation of physical AI systems.

The company is building an AI-native platform that enables engineering teams to model, validate, and iterate on complex real‑world systems entirely in software before deployment. Their customers solve difficult engineering problems where correctness, fidelity, and iteration speed directly impact real‑world outcomes.

The founding team has deep experience building AI, autonomy, and large‑scale software systems and is assembling an exceptionally technical, in‑person engineering team in NYC.

Summary

This isn't a traditional simulation engineering role. The company is looking for engineers who enjoy taking messy, incomplete real‑world systems and turning them into software that people can trust. You'll work across systems engineering, software infrastructure, sensing, calibration, developer tooling, performance, and customer problems. Some weeks you'll be building core platform capabilities. Others you'll be working directly with customers to understand why reality doesn't quite match the model and building the tooling needed to close that gap. If you enjoy difficult technical problems, high ownership, and building foundational technology from scratch, this is one of the more interesting opportunities we've seen in physical AI.

What You'll Own

• Designing and building high‑fidelity software models of complex physical systems
• Developing platform capabilities for modeling, calibration, validation, and testing
• Translating noisy real‑world data into reliable software abstractions
• Improving system correctness, determinism, scalability, and performance
• Building engineering tooling that accelerates customer onboarding and deployment
• Working directly with customers to solve difficult technical problems
• Helping shape the technical direction of an early platform company

You'll work closely with the founders and early engineering team across platform engineering, infrastructure, AI, and customer deployments.

What We're Looking For

You likely have experience with several of the following:

• Building simulation, robotics, perception, autonomy, computer vision, or other complex engineering systems
• Developing production software in Python (Rust or C++ is a plus)
• Working with physical systems, sensing technologies, calibration, system identification, or quantitative validation
• Building developer tooling, infrastructure, or platform software used by other engineers
• Shipping production‑quality engineering systems rather than research prototypes
• Operating effectively in ambiguous, fast‑moving startup environments

Experience with modern robotics simulation platforms, digital twins, physics engines, or related technologies is highly relevant, but we're primarily looking for exceptional systems engineers who enjoy difficult technical problems and learning new domains. Prior startup experience is a strong plus. Our ideal candidate has high agency, cares deeply about engineering quality, and enjoys owning difficult technical problems from first principles through production.