laundry robots + pi jobs + 12 founding gigs for non-engineers
+ internships at a $5.6 billion š„§ startup
Gobble Gobble,
It may be Thanksgiving week in the U.S., but the job search never sleeps, amirite? So I didnāt want to leave you hanging this week.
Xoxo,
Jordan š¦
A Q&A with Aaron Tan of Syncere
The fine folks over at Syncere are making robots for your home. Letās be clear: these are not dystopian humanoid robots that might kill you in your sleep. Theyāre beautiful robots that do things like fold your laundry. Think: If Luxo Jr. from Pixar crossed wires with the Fairly Odd ParentsšŖāØ robots that fold your laundry but make it fashunz āØ
I talked to CEO and co-founder Aaron Tan about who he wants in his house.
Heās hiring for two roles right now: a robot research scientist and a hardware engineer. Thereās an open-ended application on their site too, so I asked Aaron who he hopes will shimmy in there.
What kind of people work at Syncere?
We have a kind of underdog mentality, but a very competitive nature.
In the home robotic space, itās either startups like us or itās, like, Tesla or Figure or 1Xāsomeone thatās been in the game for 10+ years. Weāre going to be fighting an uphill battle against those with higher resources, more engineers, yada, yada, yada. Weāre taking a very contrarian approach. We want to take basically the not-so-obvious bet, working backwards from making it beautiful.
Are you only looking for full-timers?
Ideally, we are looking for full-time. I know that some folks, especially for the research role, are still in school, wrapping up PhDs. If people are looking for an internship for a semester or two, weāre also open to that.
Why should they want to work with you?
Weāre making a bet against the entire home robotics industry. Itās a big bet. Itās a high-risk, high-upside type of thing. I think we are pioneering quite an interesting angle to the home robotics space that I donāt see many people doing just yet.
Who would you love to see slide in through the general application?
Artistic people. People who are very creative. As much as we are a robotics company- that is core - we are a design-first company. Robotics is a means to deliver the solution. We arenāt trying to sell the robot, weāre trying to sell the service. Our people need to think clearly about consumer sensibility.
Can my friends contact you?
An email to me is best (aaron@syncereai.com). Attach a resume and whatnot, and be very to-the-point on why you want to join and what your skills are.
I want to knowā¦
Iām a personal fan of cover letters. At worst, they get ignored. At best, they could be the difference between being considered or not being considered. I want to know how you feel about them when the employer doesnāt explicitly request them.
It aināt too late for something new
With fewer than 60 days left in 2025, some of you may feel like throwing in the towel. DONāT. I wouldnāt bother putting out a newsletter on Thanksgiving week if I didnāt sincerely think it was worth your time to keep trying.
Hereās more words of encouragement from fellow recruiting maestro Asher Hoffman.
A peek inside Cursorās recruiting process
Brie Wolfson of Positive Sum spent two months embedded with the Cursor team (currently hiring for two dozen roles) and wrote about it for Colossus (a long but very worthwhile read for a peek into the enigmatic decacorn).
Hereās what she had to say about their recruiting process:
Cursorās secret to recruiting is to treat the atomic unit of the hiring process as a person, not a job spec. Let me explain.
At most companies, the recruiting process looks something like this: identify a hole in the companyās ability to execute on some function, open up a job, source a list of people, interview some of those people, hire one, start them a couple months out.
At Cursor, the recruiting process looks like this: post the name of someone really, really good in the #hiring-ideas channel in Slack, swarm that person with attention, conduct team interviews (wide range of āprocessā here), and if the desire is mutual, they start on Monday.
Jobs for the elite pie lover
Sorry, I mean Ļ, or is it Pi, or š„§? The buzziest name in AI startups is also known by its full legal name, Physical Intelligence. Theyāre running with $600 million in backing and a valuation of $5.6 billion. š³
Well, good news: Theyāre hiring.
Worth noting areā¦
A head of creative to tell the story of Physical Intelligence ā¦ beyond the lab.
Internships in mechatronics and hardware system (+ a general internship app)
A robot operator to deliver high-quality, high-volume demonstrations of tasks by teleoperating their robots.
New jobs
The folks at Momentic, the AI-powered testing tool for web and mobile, are hiring at their SF HQ. They have a new $24 million series A as of this week.
Composite is on a mission to finish what traditional software started by turning every professional into the composer of their work, starting in their local browser. Theyāre looking for a founding engineer.
Ambrook, which makes financial tools for indie, family-run businesses, is hiring across product, growth, and engineering, including a founding infrastructure engineer.
AI interpretability research lab Goodfire is hiring for in-person roles at their office in Telegraph Hill in SF. Highlights include a chief of staff ($200Kā$400K) and a technical product marketing manager ($175ā$300K).
Archetype AI, founded by ex-Googlers, is the physical AI company helping humanity make sense of the world. Theyāre hiring in R&D, product & design, GTM, marketing, and sales. All jobs are full-time, on-site in Palo Alto.
Stuut Technologies are taking their new $29.5 million series A and making hires in NYC and SF. Lots of tech staff roles, plus sales, marketing, operations, and design.
OpenHands is an open source, LLM-powered software agent that needs engineers and a product marketing manager. These jobs are REMOTE. They have a fresh $18.5 million series A.
Maxima, the agentic AI platform for enterprise accounting, has a bunch of open jobs in engineering and GTM, most of them on site in San Mateo, but some are REMOTE. Theyāve got a $41 million series A
The AI-native cross-border tax compliance engine Sphere is hiring in engineering, AI, sales, customer success, ops, and tax. They have a brand new $21 million series A. Most of them are on-site in SF, but a few are REMOTE.
Lots of REMOTE jobs at Flex, the finance super app for business owners. Think engineering, finance, legal, marketing, product, and sales. Highlights include a director of underwriting and a director of legal.
Gamma, wizard of a tool for AI-generated presentations, websites, and social media posts has a new valuation of $2.1 billion and $100 million in ARR. Theyāre hiring dozens of new smarty smarts across all departments.
12 founding jobs that arenāt for engineers
Founding engineers get a lot of glory. I mean, they do brilliant work, but letās not forget about the non-technical staff that get startups up and running and out into the world.
Momentic needs a founding marketer and a founding account executive.
Wispr Flow needs a founding account executive.
Lorikeet needs a REMOTE founding talent sourcer/coordinator.
Vanta needs a founding strategic account executive for the EMEA region.
Omnea needs a founding account manager.
Allium needs a founding product designer.
Peec AI needs a founding people ops manager.
Numeric needs a founding business ops and strategy person.
Cogent needs a founding recruiter.
Gradient Labs needs a founding growth marketer.
Dyna Robotics needs a founding creative lead.
Required reading
As you crash into a food coma on your relativesā or friendsā sofa this week, perhaps you might enjoy a little light reading.
Happy Thanksgiving. Iām most grateful for you. Truly.
Okay, maybe Bacon too.
Jordan
Love this!