Engineering Manager/Senior Engineering Manager - Instawork Robotics

About IRL (Instawork Robotics Labs)

Researchers at UC Berkeley have identified a “100,000-year data gap” - the gulf between what trained AI language models and what physical robots actually have to learn from. Closing that gap is the defining infrastructure challenge of the physical AI era. IRL is Instawork’s answer to it. We deploy skilled workers into real commercial and residential environments - kitchens, warehouses, hotel floors, homes - to capture the high-fidelity task data that the world’s leading Robotics labs use to train their foundation models. Read more here.

We are seeking an Engineering Manager – Instawork Robotics to lead and grow a high-performing engineering team building the core video and data platform behind Instawork Robotics, at the intersection of robotics, AI, and the future of work. You will be responsible for driving technical execution from concept to production, partnering closely with Engineering, Operations, Product, and Business teams to translate customer and business requirements into scalable technical solutions.

You’ll combine strong software engineering expertise with people leadership—guiding architecture and technical decisions, mentoring engineers. You’ll work across areas such as distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, observability, and high-throughput data workflows, supporting a platform already processing 50+ PB of data and 600K+ hours of video, and scaling fast across multiple clouds.

You are someone who thrives in ambiguous and fast-moving environments, is proactive and hands-on when needed, and has strong product and business instincts. You’ll play a key role in shaping both the technology and engineering culture at Instawork Robotics.

What You’ll Do

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 5+ engineers, fostering a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous learning.
• Drive technical execution across the full software development lifecycle, from architecture and design to production.
• Partner closely with Product, Operations, Robotics, and Business teams to translate customer and business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Drive initiatives across Ops, QA, ML, and platform teams: keep context across workstreams, track progress, and make sure work lands.
• Stay hands-on (about 20% of your time) and contribute to architecture, design reviews, technical discussions, and complex engineering problems.
• Partner with ML teams on data quality, throughput, and the formats models train on.
• Build and scale engineering teams through proactive hiring, interviewing, onboarding, and talent development.
• Identify and develop strong engineering talent through regular feedback, coaching, and career development.
• Establish strong engineering practices around code quality, system reliability, observability, and operational excellence.
• Protect the team’s focus: set priorities, push back on unplanned requests, and keep delivery commitments.
• Help shape the engineering culture and technical direction as Instawork Robotics continues to scale.
• Technical Mentorship: Act as a technical pillar for the team. Earn the respect of staff engineers and guide mid- and senior-level engineers through code reviews, pair programming, and architectural discussions to raise the bar for engineering excellence.

What We’re Looking For

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with 2+ years in engineering management or people leadership.
• Deep backend and distributed-systems background, with range across the stack, including frontend and ML infrastructure.
• Experience running Kubernetes in production, ideally across more than one cloud, with an eye on storage and compute cost.
• Proven experience managing and mentoring engineering teams and building high-performing teams from the ground up or at scale.
• Strong track record of hiring and building engineering teams, including sourcing, interviewing, and closing strong technical talent.
• Strong technical depth with the ability to engage in architecture and system design discussions and make sound technical decisions.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work across Engineering, Product, Operations, Robotics, and Business teams.
• An AI-first mindset and experience with data-intensive systems such as video, computer vision, or ML training data. Robotics experience is a plus.
• You thrive in ambiguous, fast-paced, 0-1 environments. You act like an owner, practice high-velocity decision-making, and know how to ship product quickly without sacrificing quality.