Physical AI R&D Scientist

Location: Palo Alto Other locations: Primary Location Only Salary: Competitive Date: Oct 1, 2026At EY, we're all in to shape your future with confidence. We'll help you succeed in a globally connected powerhouse of diverse teams and take your career wherever you want it to go. Join EY and help to build a better working world.

The Opportunity: EY is scaling Physical AI capabilities in California (Palo Alto) to serve as a premier engagement hub for clients, industry leaders, startup founders, alliance partners, investors, and the broader innovation ecosystem. We are seeking a highly organized, client-centric, and operationally driven Assistant Director to serve as the Client Activation Manager for EY.ai Labs (Palo Alto). This role will be responsible for ensuring every client engagement is delivered with excellence, from pre-visit preparation and technical showcase readiness through onsite experience management and post-engagement coordination. The Client Activation Manager will work closely with Experience Lead- EY.ai Labs (Palo Alto), the EY Physical AI leadership, client account teams and alliance partners to create memorable, customized, and business-relevant experiences for executives, innovation leaders, and strategic stakeholders. The role requires a unique combination of client engagement expertise, operational discipline, technology curiosity, project management capability, and cross-functional collaboration. The ideal candidate excels in managing complex stakeholder environments, coordinating technical and non-technical teams, orchestrating executive experiences, and ensuring seamless delivery of innovation-focused engagements.

Key Responsibilities: In this role, you will be responsible for the planning, activation and success of the Palo Alto Physical AI Lab.

Your key responsibilities will include: Lead end-to-end planning and activation of client visits, executive briefings, innovation workshops, industry sessions, and Physical AI showcase experiences. Partner with account teams and engagement leaders to understand client objectives, industry context, business priorities, and desired outcomes for each lab visit. Coordinate setup, testing, and validation of demonstrations involving Physical AI technologies prior to client engagements, as well as coordinate the customization of demonstrations, showcases, presentations, and experience journeys to ensure relevance and impact for each audience. Maintain readiness of demonstration assets from labs or ecosystem partners, executive briefing materials, industry use cases, videos, prototypes, and showcase environments to support client engagements. Serve as the primary coordination point between the Palo Alto lab and Physical AI engineering and R&D teams [including the EY.ai Labs team (Alpharetta)], to ensure timely content updates, showcase enhancements, and technology refreshes. Manage the experience flow during client visits, ensuring seamless coordination across presenters, demonstrations, technical teams, executives, and supporting staff. Oversee day-to-day lab operations including showcase scheduling, asset tracking, facility readiness, visitor logistics, operational processes, and engagement support. Establish operational processes, playbooks, and governance practices to ensure consistent delivery of high-quality client experiences. Also, capture and document client feedback, engagement outcomes, operational insights, and improvement opportunities to continuously enhance the lab experience. Collaborate with Branding/marketing teams and leadership teams to support executive events, workshops, ecosystem engagements, and strategic visits hosted at the lab. Coordinate knowledge sharing and best-practice exchange across the broader EY Physical AI lab network and contribute to continuous experience innovation. Support the rollout of new demonstrations, industry-specific showcases, and emerging Physical AI capabilities in alignment with EY commercialization priorities. Skills and Attributes for Success To excel in this role, you will need a blend of operational excellence, ecosystem leadership, business storytelling and innovation mindset, as well as strong interpersonal skills and the ability to coordinate between technical and business teams. Key attributes include: Strong program and project management skills with the ability to manage multiple high-visibility engagements simultaneously. Strong stakeholder management skills and ability to coordinate across leadership teams, account teams, engineers, researchers, and external partners. Excellent communication, facilitation, and executive presence to deliver executive experience. Ability to translate technical concepts into business-relevant client experiences and engagement journeys. Strong organizational and execution skills with a proactive, problem-solving mindset. High level understanding of emerging technologies including AI, robotics, automation, digital twins, simulation, and intelligent systems. Ability to operate effectively within fast-paced, evolving, and highly collaborative environments. Strong customer-service orientation with a focus on delivering exceptional client outcomes and experiences. Preferred Skillsets: MBA or advanced degree in Business, Engineering, Technology, Innovation Management, Marketing, Communications, or a related field. Experience working within a Big Four, Tier 1 consulting firm, technology company, innovation lab, venture ecosystem, accelerator, or startup environment. Prior experience managing innovation centers, executive briefing programs, customer experience centers, demonstration facilities, or similar engagement environments is a plus. Existing network across Silicon Valley, Bay Area innovation communities, startups, venture capital firms, and technology ecosystems. High level familiarity with Physical AI, robotics platforms, autonomous systems, digital twins, simulation technologies, or AI-enabled industrial solutions. Technical experience would be a bonus. What we offer you The compensation ranges below are provided in order to comply with United States pay transparency laws. Other geographies will follow their local salary guidelines, which may not be a direct conversion of published US salary ranges. At EY, we harness our collective strength to empower you to shape your future with confidence through professional growth, personal fulfillment and an inclusive culture. Learn more at ey.com/us/careers. We offer a comprehensive compensation and benefits package where you'll be rewarded based on your performance and recognized for the value you bring to the business.