Lead AI & Agentic Systems Engineer

Company Description

Yaya Labs is a technology studio born from science fiction.

We build systems at the edge of AI, robotics, biology and culture.

Our current focus is Robot Dog Fights (RDF), a new combat sport and entertainment property built around autonomous quadruped machines.

The first generation of RDF is already here.

The next generation will be different.

We are building towards a future where the dogs are not simply machines controlled by humans. They have identities, behaviours, memories, instincts and personalities.

Starting with agentic AI, we are developing the intelligence layer that will eventually allow our robots to perceive, reason, learn, make decisions and develop distinct behavioural characteristics.

From there, we intend to explore increasingly advanced forms of human-machine interaction and WetWare technology, bringing biological systems and artificial intelligence closer together.

The goal is not simply to make smarter robots.

It is to create machines that feel increasingly alive.

THE ROLE

Yaya Labs is looking for a Lead AI & Agentic Systems Engineer to help build the intelligence architecture behind the next generation of RDF.

This is a hands-on technical role for someone who wants to work beyond conventional AI applications and into the emerging territory between agentic AI, robotics, machine personality and eventually WetWare.

You will work across the AI stack, developing the systems that give RDF's robots their intelligence, autonomy and behavioural identity.

The immediate focus is building production-grade agentic systems capable of interacting with their environment, using tools, retaining memory, making decisions and developing consistent behavioural patterns.

Longer term, these systems will become the foundation for increasingly sophisticated robotic personalities and biological-machine interfaces.

The dogs need brains. Then they need personalities.

Eventually, we want to understand what happens when those brains begin to interface with biological intelligence.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Design and build autonomous agentic systems for robotic platforms
• Develop multi-agent architectures and systems capable of planning, reasoning, memory and decision-making
• Build persistent memory and personality systems for individual robots
• Develop agent architectures that allow robots to maintain consistent identities, behavioural traits and evolving histories
• Integrate LLMs, vision models, speech systems and other foundation models into robotic systems
• Build tool-use, planning and orchestration systems allowing agents to interact with software and physical environments
• Develop evaluation frameworks for measuring agent behaviour, autonomy, reliability and emergent characteristics
• Experiment with different models and architectures to determine how intelligence can translate into physical behaviour
• Robot Intelligence
• Work directly with quadruped robotic platforms and their existing control systems
• Connect agentic intelligence to robotic perception, decision-making and action
• Develop systems that allow robots to interpret environmental information and respond autonomously
• Explore the relationship between high-level reasoning and low-level robotic movement
• Build interfaces between AI agents and physical robotic systems
• Work with robotics engineers to translate intelligence into real-world behaviour
• Machine Personality

We don't want every dog to behave the same.

You will help develop the architecture for individual machine identities.

This could include:

• Persistent memory
• Personality traits
• Behavioural tendencies
• Individual decision-making patterns
• Preferences and aversions
• Learning from previous encounters
• Distinct communication styles
• Relationship formation
• Evolving behavioural histories

The objective is to create robots that audiences can recognise as characters, not interchangeable machines.

A dog should have a history.

It should have a reputation.

It should remember what happened.

And eventually, it should be capable of developing its own behavioural identity.

THE LONGER-TERM VISION

Agentic AI is the beginning.

Yaya Labs is exploring a much stranger question:

What happens when artificial intelligence begins to interface with biological intelligence?

Our longer-term R&D roadmap includes exploration of WetWare systems, brain-computer interfaces, biological computation and brain organoid technologies.

The objective is to investigate whether biological intelligence can become part of the computational architecture of future machines.

This is deliberately experimental.

You will be working at the boundary between technologies that exist today and systems that currently belong closer to science fiction.

WHAT THIS PERSON WILL BRING

• Deep experience building agentic AI or autonomous AI systems
• Strong software engineering fundamentals and experience shipping production systems
• Expert-level Python or equivalent programming experience
• Experience working with LLMs, foundation models and AI agent frameworks
• Experience with agent memory, tool use, orchestration and evaluation
• Strong understanding of AI systems architecture
• Experience integrating AI systems with APIs, external tools or physical systems
• Interest or experience in robotics, autonomous systems or embodied AI
• Comfortable working experimentally and moving from prototype to working system quickly
• Able to operate independently in a small, highly technical team
• Comfortable working across disciplines including robotics, AI, creative technology and potentially biotechnology
• A genuine interest in the future of human-machine relations

Experience with any of the following would be particularly interesting:

• Quadruped robotics
• Reinforcement learning
• Computer vision
• Multimodal AI
• Simulation environments
• Robotics middleware
• Brain-computer interfaces
• Neural interfaces
• Biological computing
• Brain organoid research
• Neuromorphic computing
• Synthetic biology
• WetWare
• Open-source agent frameworks
• Multi-agent systems
• You do not need experience in all of these.

We're looking for someone who is deep in one world and curious about the worlds next to it.

THE ENVIRONMENT

This isn't a traditional enterprise AI team.

There is no ten-year roadmap written in a PowerPoint.

We are a small technology studio moving quickly, building real systems and testing them in the physical world.

You'll work directly with the founders and across AI, robotics, creative technology and entertainment.

Some days you'll be working on agent architecture.

Some days you'll be standing next to a robot dog.

Eventually, you may find yourself working on a system where biological intelligence is part of the machine.

We are interested in what happens after AI stops being just software.

MEASURE OF SUCCESS

In your first 12 months, you will have:

• Built and deployed the core agentic architecture for RDF
• Established persistent memory and identity systems for individual robots
• Developed the first generation of RDF machine personalities
• Connected AI agents to physical robotic systems
• Built evaluation and safety frameworks for autonomous behaviour
• Demonstrated robots capable of autonomous decision-making beyond simple scripted behaviour
• Established the technical foundation for future WetWare and biological-computing research
• Helped define the architecture for the next generation of RDF's robotic intelligence

The ultimate measure is simple:

When an RDF dog enters the arena, it should feel like something is inside it.

Not because we told the audience it has a personality.

Because its behaviour makes them believe it.

COMPENSATION

Competitive salary and equity will be offered based on experience.

You will be joining at an unusually early stage, with significant scope to shape the technical direction of the company and the systems we build.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Robot combat is the starting point.

The larger question is what happens when machines begin to develop identities, memories, behaviours and eventually biological interfaces.

We intend to find out.

Welcome to the machine.