EQ-first Physical AI platform for companion robots
Familiar Machines & Magic is building embodied AI systems that blend personality, memory, and motion—a departure from purely functional robotics toward machines designed to form relationships with users. The tech stack (Python, C++, Jetson, plus mechanical CAD tools) and project mix (multimodal perception, behavior modules, motor controllers, motion planning) reflect a hardware-software integration challenge typical of early-stage robotics. Leadership hires skew principal and senior roles across engineering and design, while pain points cluster around scaling manufacturing and design practice—signals of a company moving from prototype toward production validation.
Familiar Machines & Magic develops a Physical AI platform centered on emotional intelligence—machines that can relate to and remember their users. The company was founded by veterans of iRobot (Colin Angle, founder and former CEO; Chris Jones, former CTO) and Outrider (Ira Renfrew, former CPO), and is currently operating in stealth mode. Based in Boston with 11–50 employees, the team is actively hiring across engineering, design, and operations in the United States and United Kingdom. Core technical work spans motor control, power optimization, real-time behavior systems, and perception pipelines—the full stack required to ship embodied AI.
Primary languages are Python and C++. Hardware platforms include NVIDIA Jetson. Mechanical design uses Altium, Creo, and SolidWorks. Communication protocols include USB, Ethernet, and PCIe.
Boston, Massachusetts. The company is hiring in both the United States and United Kingdom.
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