Job Description
Founding Real Estate & Workplace Lead
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Palo Alto - Hybrid (3 x days per week)
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Upto $250k base plus bonus & Equity
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Somebody has to own the buildings. Right now, nobody does.
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We're a frontier AI lab building real-time, interactive simulations — persistent worlds with real physics that people, AI agents, and robots can act inside. The founders built and scaled one of the best-known autonomous vehicle companies (exited to a major automaker) and led AI at one of Europe's top self-driving firms. The board includes the co-founder of one of the most celebrated creative studios in history. Series B closed: $310M raised at a $1.45B valuation, backed by two of the world's largest tech companies and some of the most influential names in AI.
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~50 people today. Past 150 by year end. Three offices — Palo Alto, London, Zurich — and no playbook, no predecessor, no function. You'd write all of it.
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The honest version of this job:
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One morning you're negotiating a lease. That afternoon you're fixing why the Zurich AV keeps dropping on all-hands. Both of those are the job. If one of them sounds beneath you, stop reading, we mean it kindly, and we'll save you an interview.
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What you'd own, as sole DRI:
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→ The real estate roadmap across three countries — space stays ahead of hiring, not behind it
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→ Leases end to end: site selection, landlord relations, negotiation, capex, budgets with Finance
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→ Build-outs with construction crews and our engineering teams — this is a lab, not a normal office
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→ Space planning and restacks for a team that's doubling
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→ IT, equipment, and food programs — with real budget and a direct report (our IT Manager) from day one
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→ AI-first operations: the dashboards, ticketing, and asset tracking don't exist yet; you build them, then automate yourself out of updating them
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Who thrives here:
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You've been the first workplace or real estate hire somewhere before — a startup, a scaleup, a rocket ship — and you miss it. You've negotiated your own leases, not approved a broker's homework. You use AI tools daily because updating spreadsheets by hand offends you. 7+ years in corporate real estate ops or workplace leadership, high-growth environments.
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The package:
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Competitive base, meaningful equity at a $1.45B valuation with genuine room to run — and it vests monthly, not quarterly or on a cliff. Full medical, dental, vision. On-site in Palo Alto three days, periodic travel to London and Zurich.
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Founding seats like this come up a handful of times a decade. Every playbook that exists here in five years will be one you wrote.
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