We build foundational world models that can perceive, generate, reason, and interact with the 3D world — unlocking AI's full potential through spatial intelligence by transforming seeing into doing, perceiving into reasoning, and imagining into creating.We believe spatial intelligence will unlock new forms of storytelling, creativity, design, simulation, and immersive experiences across both virtual and physical worlds.
We bring together a world-class team, united by a shared curiosity, passion, and deep backgrounds in technology — from AI research to systems engineering to product design — creating a tight feedback loop between our cutting-edge research and products that empower our users.
Role OverviewWe are looking for a Staff Platform Engineer to own the database and storage foundation of World Labs.
This is a high-impact systems role at the intersection of databases, distributed systems, and AI infrastructure. You will define how core data systems are designed, scaled, and operated in an environment where workloads are evolving quickly and requirements are often ambiguous.
You will be responsible for the architecture and operation of the transactional backbone of the platform, making foundational decisions around data modeling, replication, consistency, and performance.
This role is about turning complex, failure-prone systems into ones that are simple, reliable, and predictable — and setting the technical direction for how we build and operate them.
What You Will Do:- Own the design and evolution of the transactional systems that power the platform
- Define architecture for database and storage systems under high-throughput, low-latency workloads
- Make and drive decisions around data modeling, indexing, replication, and consistency
- Debug and resolve complex production issues, including contention, replication behavior, and performance bottlenecks
- Establish standards for reliability, observability, and operability across the platform
- Partner with product and research teams to support evolving and often ambiguous requirements
- Drive improvements in performance, scalability, and cost across the system
- Mentor engineers and raise the bar for system design and technical decision-making
- 8+ years of experience building and operating production systems at scale, with ownership of critical infrastructure
- Strong experience designing and operating transactional systems and databases (Spanner, Postgres, MySQL, or similar)
- Deep understanding of data modeling, indexing, transactions, concurrency, and consistency tradeoffs
- Experience owning systems with strict reliability and performance requirements in production
- Strong experience debugging complex production issues and reasoning about failure modes
- Experience designing distributed systems or large-scale infrastructure where tradeoffs are non-trivial
- Proven ability to define architecture and drive technical decisions end-to-end
- Strong judgment in balancing performance, reliability, and cost
- Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with high ownership
- Experience with database internals, storage systems, or query engines
- Experience building infrastructure for AI/ML systems or data platforms
- Experience in early-stage or high-growth environments
- Fearless Innovator: We need people who thrive on challenges and aren't afraid to tackle the impossible.
- Resilient Builder: Impacting Large World Models isn't a sprint; it's a marathon with hurdles. We're looking for builders who can weather the storms of groundbreaking research and come out stronger.
- Mission-Driven Mindset: Everything we do is in service of creating the best spatially intelligent AI systems, and using them to empower people.
- Collaborative Spirit: We're building something bigger than any one person. We need team players who can harness the power of collective intelligence.
We're hiring the brightest minds from around the globe to bring diverse perspectives to our cutting-edge work. If you're ready to work on technology that will reshape how machines perceive and interact with the world, World Labs is your launchpad.
Join us, and let's make history together.
Equal Employment Opportunity
World Labs is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable law. We welcome all qualified applicants and are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the hiring process upon request.
California Pay Transparency
In accordance with California law, we disclose the following:
Pay Range
$200-$300k base salary (good-faith estimate for San Francisco Bay Area upon hire; actual offer based on experience, skills, and qualifications)
Total Compensation
Base salary plus equity awards and annual performance bonus
Salary History
We do not request or consider prior compensation in making offers
Compliance: Cal. Lab. Code §432.3 (pay scale disclosure & salary history ban); Cal. Lab. Code §1197.5 (Equal Pay Act); Cal. Gov. Code §12940 (FEHA); 42 U.S.C. §2000e (Title VII); 29 U.S.C. §621 (ADEA); 42 U.S.C. §12101 (ADA)
What We Do
World Labs is a spatial intelligence company building Large World Models (LWMs) to perceive, generate, and interact with the 3D world. We aim to lift AI models from the 2D plane of pixels to full 3D worlds – both virtual and real – endowing them with spatial intelligence as rich as our own. We believe that humans are innovative, curious, and creative; science and technology are both manifestations and drivers of these impulses. Propelling AI forward with spatial intelligence will also propel forward both individuals and humanity as a whole. Toward this goal, World Labs will develop spatially intelligent LWMs that can understand and reason about the 3D world from images and other modalities. Over time, we expect to train increasingly powerful models with broader capabilities that can be applied in a variety of domains, working alongside people. These are ambitious goals, so we are building an ambitious company to tackle them. Our team, led by co-founders Fei-Fei Li, PhD; Justin Johnson, PhD; Christoph Lassner, PhD; and Ben Mildenhall, PhD, has a strong research background, but we are not motivated by exploration for its own sake. Instead, we believe that now is a unique moment where rapid scientific progress has thinned the barrier between research and applications. We aim to seize this opportunity, focusing on the entire throughline from research to engineering to product to people. We are bringing together the most formidable slate of pixel talent ever assembled, creating a tight feedback loop between our spatially intelligent foundation models and products that will empower our users. We invite you to learn more about joining our fast-growing team. You can find open positions at jobs.ashbyhq.com/worldlabs.
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