Track record of shipping technical products where the primary challenge was managing complex tradeoffs, not filling out roadmap slides.
Deep enough technical understanding to read a policy evaluation, understand a sim-to-real gap, or participate in complex debug sessions and ask the right questions without needing to write the code yourself.
Strong bias toward the field over the whiteboard, preferring to evaluate a failed pick on a live customer floor over reading ten synthetic benchmark reports.
Exceptional written communication skills to write specs and decision logs that hold up when you're not in the room.
Comfort operating with incomplete information in a fast-moving, pre-paradigm field where answers aren't obvious.
Bonus: Prior experience in robotics, autonomy, or another domain where \"works in the lab\" and \"works in the world\" carry vastly different bars for success.
