Head of AI / Reinforcement Learning Engineering
Department: Engineering
Location: Redwood City
Employment Type: FullTime
About Hammerhead
We're unleashing AI with intelligent orchestration while addressing one of the most pressing bottlenecks for AI access to Power. Our cutting-edge platform optimizes data center power infrastructure to maximize AI token generation within existing electrical limits, without requiring new power plants or grid expansions. Our team has optimized over 8 gigawatts of mission-critical power globally, and we're addressing a $64 billion-per-year market opportunity while dramatically reducing the environmental footprint of AI infrastructure.
At Hammerhead, you will:
⚡ Work at the intersection of AI, energy, and compute creating the next generation AI infrastructure
🤝 Collaborate with colleagues that are experts in modern RL and AI, IoT and IIoT software, and infrastructure technologies
🌎 Contribute to building a more efficient and sustainable future for AI compute.
🚀 Join a company at the cutting edge of modern data center design and operation
💰 Receive competitive compensation, equity, and benefits in a high-growth, mission-driven environment.
🚀Learn from an experienced team that has built and sold startups before
Learn more about Hammerhead
Role Description
As the Head of Reinforcement Learning & AI, you will lead the scientific and engineering vision for the "brain" of Hammerhead—ORCA (Orchestrated RL Control Agents). Reporting directly to the CTO, you will build and manage a world-class team of researchers and engineers to develop the autonomous agents that control gigawatt-scale critical infrastructure in real-time. Your mandate is to maximize token generation from fixed power assets by solving complex multi-objective optimization problems that balance thermal limits, power availability, and computational throughput.
This is a high-stakes leadership role where your algorithms will directly dictate the physical operation of multi-million dollar data centers.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic AI Leadership: Define the roadmap for Hammerhead's AI capabilities, moving from single-asset optimization to full-facility autonomous orchestration that coordinates cooling, power, and compute agents.
Team Building & Management: Recruit, mentor, and lead a high-performing team of RL scientists, simulation engineers, and ML infrastructure experts, fostering a culture of rigor and rapid experimentation.
Core Algorithm Development: Oversee the R&D of advanced RL architectures (e.g., Multi-Agent RL, Offline RL, Model-Based RL) capable of safe, sample-efficient learning in environments where failure is not an option.
Simulation-to-Reality Gap: Champion the development of high-fidelity digital twins and "Sim2Real" transfer methodologies to ensure agents trained in simulation perform safely and effectively on physical hardware.
Executive Collaboration: Partner with the executive team to translate business goals (e.g., 30% capacity unlock) into technical metrics and deliverables, while communicating AI strategy to investors and key enterprise customers.
Qualifications
Technical Authority: PhD or equivalent research experience in Computer Science, Control Theory, or Robotics, with a strong publication record in top-tier venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR) focusing on Reinforcement Learning.
Leadership Experience: 7+ years of industry experience, with at least 3 years managing AI/ML teams tackling real-world problems—preferably in robotics, autonomous systems, industrial control, or energy.
Industrial RL Focus: Proven track record of deploying RL or advanced control systems (MPC) into production environments; you understand safety constraints, reward shaping for physical systems, and the challenges of non-stationary environments.
Architectural Vision: Ability to design end-to-end ML systems, from data ingestion (telemetry from SCADA/IoT) to training infrastructure and edge deployment.
Mission Alignment: Passionate about solving the global energy bottleneck for AI; you are driven to use your skills to decarbonize compute and build the sustainable infrastructure of the future
What We Offer
Competitive salary, bonus, 401(k) plan and equity in a rapidly growing startup
Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage
Opportunity to apply the latest AI technologies working with an experienced team
Join our team to shape the foundation of tomorrow’s AI infrastructure
Visit our Careers page at (hammerheadco dot ai / careers) to apply
There are more than 50,000 engineering jobs:
Subscribe to membership and unlock all jobs
Engineering Jobs
60,000+ jobs from 4,500+ well-funded companies
Updated Daily
New jobs are added every day as companies post them
Refined Search
Use filters like skill, location, etc to narrow results
Become a member
🥳🥳🥳 452 happy customers and counting...
Overall, over 80% of customers chose to renew their subscriptions after the initial sign-up.
To try it out
For active job seekers
For those who are passive looking
Cancel anytime
Frequently Asked Questions
- We prioritize job seekers as our customers, unlike bigger job sites, by charging a small fee to provide them with curated access to the best companies and up-to-date jobs. This focus allows us to deliver a more personalized and effective job search experience.
- We've got over 200,000 jobs from 15,000+ vetted companies. No fake or sleazy jobs here!
- We aggregate jobs from 15,000+ companies' career pages, so you can be sure that you're getting the most up-to-date and relevant jobs.
- We're the only job board *for* software engineers, *by* software engineers… in case you needed a reminder! We add thousands of new jobs daily and offer powerful search filters just for you. 🛠️
- Every single hour! We add 2,000-3,000 new jobs daily, so you'll always have fresh opportunities. 🚀
- Typically, job searches take 3-6 months. EchoJobs helps you spend more time applying and less time hunting. 🎯
- Check daily! We're always updating with new jobs. Set up job alerts for even quicker access. 📅
What Fellow Engineers Say