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Transforming industrial operations through physically embodied robotic AI and superhuman autonomy.
The Role
As Director of Matrix Operations, you will design and refine a matrix-based organization, ensuring clarity in roles and staffing while coordinating with leadership to mitigate risks and enhance operational efficiency.
Summary Generated by Built In
Field AI is transforming how robots interact with the real world. We are building risk-aware, reliable, and field-ready AI systems that address the most complex challenges in robotics, unlocking the full potential of embodied intelligence. We go beyond typical data-driven approaches or pure transformer-based architectures, and are charting a new course, with already-globally-deployed solutions delivering real-world results and rapidly improving models through real-field applications.
About the Role
We are looking for a Director of Matrix Operations & Organizational Efficiency to design, operate, and continuously refine a matrix-based organization in a fast-scaling technology company.
This role owns the structure of how the organization works—not the content of the work itself. You will ensure that roles are well-defined, staffing is intentional, capacity matches demand, and organizational complexity does not quietly accumulate over time.
You will work closely with project leaders, functional leaders, recruiting, and executive leadership to maintain a lean, clear, and adaptable organizational system that scales with the business.This is a high-leverage role for someone who thinks in systems, values clarity over comfort, and enjoys operating in ambiguous, founder-driven environments.
What You’ll Do
- Own and Operate a Matrix Organization
- Design, maintain, and evolve a matrix structure across projects and functions
- Work with project leaders to assess staffing adequacy, risk, and capacity needs
- Translate project demand into functional allocation and hiring priorities
- Ensure every project–function intersection has clear ownership and an explicit staffing plan
- Drive Organizational Clarity and Discipline
- Define and maintain clear, non-overlapping role responsibilities across the organization
- Continuously review roles for relevance, redundancy, and necessity
- Actively remove, merge, or simplify roles that no longer justify their existence
- Set a high bar for introducing new roles, requiring clear justification and scoped ownership
- Coordinate OKR and Performance Processes (Process Ownership Only)
- Own the operational execution of the OKR cadence (timelines, inputs, tracking, summaries)
- Ensure alignment between project goals, functional goals, and individual OKRs
- Prepare structured, review-ready materials for leadership using tooling and automation
- Focus on consistency, clarity, and signal—not performance evaluation or technical depth
- Partner with Executive Leadership
- Maintain accurate, forward-looking organizational views by function and by project
- Surface organizational gaps, capacity constraints, and scaling risks early
- Provide leadership with clear, data-backed insights into how the organization is deployed
What You’re Good At
- Designing and running organizational systems, not just managing people
- Thinking in structures, incentives, and interfaces rather than titles and headcount
- Operating comfortably across ambiguity, incomplete data, and fast change
- Asking hard questions about why roles exist—and acting on the answers
- Creating clarity where others tolerate complexity
Experience & Skills
- Experience operating in matrixed or multi-dimensional organizations
- Strong background in operations, organizational design, strategy, or program management
- Proven ability to work cross-functionally with senior leaders
- High operational rigor and attention to detail
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Comfort using tools, dashboards, and automation to scale processes
- Founder-mode mindset: ownership-oriented, pragmatic, and decisive
What This Role Is Not
- Not an HR role
- Not a recruiter
- Not a technical people manager
- Not a traditional project manager shipping deliverables
This role exists to prevent organizational drift, not react to it.
If you are energized by building lean, high-functioning organizations—and believe that structure is a competitive advantage—we’d love to hear from you.
Compensation and Benefits
Our salary range is between ($70,000 - $300,000 annual), but we take into consideration an individual's background and experience in determining final salary; base pay offered may vary considerably depending on geographic location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Also, while we enjoy being together on-site, we are open to exploring a hybrid or remote option.
Why Join Field AI?
We are solving one of the world’s most complex challenges: deploying robots in unstructured, previously unknown environments. Our Field Foundational Models™ set a new standard in perception, planning, localization, and manipulation, ensuring our approach is explainable and safe for deployment.
You will have the opportunity to work with a world-class team that thrives on creativity, resilience, and bold thinking. With a decade-long track record of deploying solutions in the field, winning DARPA challenge segments, and bringing expertise from organizations like DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA, Amazon, Tesla Autopilot, Cruise Self-Driving, Zoox, Toyota Research Institute, and SpaceX, we are set to achieve our ambitious goals.
Be Part of the Next Robotics Revolution
To tackle such ambitious challenges, we need a team as unique as our vision — innovators who go beyond conventional methods and are eager to tackle tough, uncharted questions. We’re seeking individuals who challenge the status quo, dive into uncharted territory, and bring interdisciplinary expertise. Our team requires not only top AI talent but also exceptional software developers, engineers, product designers, field deployment experts, and communicators.
We are headquartered in always-sunny Irvine, Southern California and have US based and global teammates.
Join us, shape the future, and be part of a fun, close-knit team on an exciting journey!
We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Candidates and employees are always evaluated based on merit, qualifications, and performance. We will never discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status.
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The Company
What We Do
FieldAI is pioneering the development of a field-proven, hardware agnostic brain technology that enables many different types of robots to operate autonomously in hazardous, offroad, and potentially harsh industrial settings – all without GPS, maps, or any pre-programmed routes.
