Field Engineer, Data Collection Operations

About Preload

Preload builds the data layer for physical AI. Robots learn mostly from video, but human interaction is much richer: touch, force, and muscle activity. We build a wearable multimodal stack (egocentric video, tactile gloves, EMG) to capture how people actually interact with the physical world, and turn it into datasets robotics teams can train on. We're a YC (F26) team of PhD founders from Johns Hopkins and Caltech with backgrounds at Neuralink, Paradromics, and other neurotech companies.

The role

You'll run data collection in the field with our partners, turning our hardware into a reliable, high-volume data operation.

What you'll do

• Run on-site data collection sessions with partners and participants
• Set up, calibrate, maintain, and troubleshoot wearable sensors
• Recruit, onboard, and coordinate data collectors
• Track throughput and data quality; build playbooks to scale collection
• Feed field insights back to hardware and software teams

What we're looking for

• 1+ years in field operations, technical support, research operations, or similar
• Hands-on and comfortable troubleshooting hardware and software on the fly
• Highly organized; good at running repeatable processes with many people
• Experience with research studies, data labeling ops, or robotics data collection is a plus
• Willing to travel to partner sites

Why join

Early, in-person team in San Francisco. You'll design how we collect data at scale.