Head of Physics

Overview

Physical Superintelligence is a startup with roots at Google DeepMind, NVIDIA, Harvard, Meta, MIT, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Perimeter Institute building AI systems to discover new physics at scale.
Our mission is to discover and commercialize transformative physics breakthroughs at scale with artificial superintelligence, safely, verifiably, and for broad public benefit.

The last century's golden age of physics gave us transistors, lasers, and nuclear energy. We believe artificial superintelligence will unlock the next one. We're creating the infrastructure to industrialize scientific discovery and usher in this new era.

Role and Responsibilities

• Lead Physics, the team that carries PSI’s work in plasma physics, quantum sensing, RF physics and remote sensing from model to measurement: own the people, the portfolio and the hiring.

• Choose and run the programs: select work on the strength of its physics and its path to a partner or customer, staff it, set the pace, and stop work that is not converging.

• Close the loop between simulation and hardware: work with Core AI and Applied AI so that models are checked against real measurements and experimental data makes them better.

• Own technical rigor: set the standard for a validated result, including calibration, uncertainty and reproducibility, and make sure nothing leaves the building that has not met it.

• Lead technical work with partners: be PSI’s senior technical lead with government, national laboratory, university and industry partners, from proposals and technical reviews to delivery against milestones.

• Stay technical: review designs, models and data yourself, and set the bar for rigor in person.

What We're Looking For

• Twelve or more years of applied physics R&D and at least five years of direct people management, leading technical teams at a DoD, DOE or IC laboratory, an FFRDC or UARC, a government program office, a defense or aerospace company, or a corporate R&D organization. You have matured technology from concept to prototype and transitioned it to a sponsor or product team.

• Deep expertise in at least one of the following areas, with the breadth to lead work across all four:

  • Plasma physics.

  • Quantum sensing and AMO physics.

  • RF physics and electromagnetics.

  • Remote sensing and signal processing.

• You can review work outside your own field. You can read an unfamiliar model, simulation or test report, find the assumption that does not hold, and say so before it reaches a sponsor. You know what you can judge, what you cannot, and who to call.

• A PhD in physics, applied physics, electrical engineering or a related field.

Nice to Have

• An active or recent U.S. security clearance.

• PI, chief scientist or program manager on federally sponsored research programs.

• Experience building or running a laboratory or test facility.

• Experience with export-controlled research.

• Hands-on work with physics-informed machine learning or AI-guided experiment design.

• Commercial experience, including taking a technology into a product or license.

How We Work

We hold a high technical bar and give people full ownership of their work, from spec to ship to on-call. We write contracts before logic, test against real systems instead of mocks, and favor simple designs that ship over clever ones that do not. Our development process is AI-native: we work with agentic coding tools daily, write specs that are legible to humans and agents alike, and lead with leverage.

Location and Compensation

This role is hybrid, three days a week in person in our Cambridge, MA office. We offer competitive compensation including salary, benefits, and meaningful early-stage equity. We evaluate on scientific depth, leadership track record, rigor, and shipping velocity. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diverse perspectives in attacking hard problems in science.

Work Authorization: Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States. PSI is not able to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas for this role, now or in the future.

Export Controls. PSI's work involves technology that may be subject to U.S. export control laws. To comply with those laws, PSI may require that the person in this role be a U.S. person, meaning a U.S. citizen or national, a lawful permanent resident, or an individual granted refugee or asylum status in the United States, or be eligible to receive any required U.S. government export authorization. PSI will confirm eligibility with each candidate in the same way, and only to the extent export control laws require.

Equal Opportunity. PSI is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of citizenship status, national origin, or any other characteristic protected by law.