I've always been drawn to places where I could mix my love for design and technology. I started my career at Amazon Devices working on an early AI-powered fashion product. From there, I joined Airbnb to be at a design-led company, and I believed they had the best iPhone app. After five years at Airbnb, I was ready for a change. As one of the first engineers to ship AI-generated code into the Airbnb codebase, I remember thinking, "Boy, if this thing gets really good at coding, what it means to be an engineer is about to change." That line of thinking led me to pursue my MBA at NYU Stern, and then starting MagicalSheet with a few friends, making it possible for anyone to build a game on their phones in a couple of minutes. It scratched an entrepreneurial itch I'd always had, but we ultimately didn't see a way to make it a success and decided to wind the company down. After hearing about Arena Physica from a friend, I joined as the second mobile engineer.
Arena Physica is building an AI platform that understands hardware, and I'm helping shape the mobile experience with real-world, in-the-field applications. Sometimes, iOS development just means building a smaller version of a website that works on your iPhone. At Arena Physica, our customers use mobile devices to plug Atlas directly into their systems, whether that's cars, drones, or more. Getting to build those experiences while working in a manufacturing plant or testing facility is a lot of fun. It also makes for some interesting challenges like getting your app to perform well for a user who has spotty internet and is also driving a car at 60 miles per hour!
When I first read Arena Physica’s website, I remember feeling intimidated, but when I read the Not Boring deep dive co-written with our CEO, Pratap, I was blown away by the ambition and opportunity we’re going after. What really sold me on the company was my experience interviewing with the team. Everyone I spoke with was incredibly nice, intellectually rigorous, genuinely curious, and humble. Coming from larger tech companies, it felt less like joining a software company and more like joining a scientific research lab. I also really liked how much trust people placed in each other. During my first week, I was already working closely with the design team and joining their meetings, even though I wasn't formally on the design team. There’s so much trust, autonomy, and appreciation for good ideas no matter where they come from, and it just feels like the right way to operate.
Looking ahead, I'm really excited to spend more time with our users. I didn't think a forward-deployed role was right for me when I started my job search, but it's become one of my favorite parts of the job. It’s very different from your typical startup in a coworking space. My first week, I was working out of a car R&D garage. My teammates have been deployed to data center facilities, factories, seaplane test sites, and submarine assembly plants. I love getting to understand how our users work, what challenges they're facing, and then figuring out how to combine my background in design, engineering, and business with our AI capabilities to solve those problems.
I'm excited to help scale Arena Physica to even more places and drive our mobile strategy forward. In a previous role, we had 120 mobile engineers building one application. Here, there are two of us building mobile experiences for many different customer workflows and hardware devices. AI tools have allowed us to build quickly, but getting the mobile product to scale reliably and responsibly is a really exciting challenge.
Reflecting on my favorite memory here, I was a bit surprised when I was asked if I wanted to fly out and meet a customer on my first day of work. On Monday, I received my laptop at 10 AM, installed everything I needed by 11 AM, gave HR my work authorization shortly afterwards, and by 2 PM, I was in an Uber headed to JFK. By the end of the day Tuesday, I had shipped a user feature request, and by Wednesday, that feature was included in an important demo to a senior stakeholder. Not every week is quite that hectic, but I really appreciate the fast pace and dynamism here alongside the amount of trust this organization gives people so early on. One of our core values is "Trust > Procedure," and it was pretty cool to see that play out on day one.
My advice for anyone interested in working at Arena Physica is that this is a place where nobody has all the answers. When I was interviewing, I definitely had moments where I thought, "I don't have a Ph.D. in electromagnetism. What am I doing here?" But we're building in a space that crosses a lot of different disciplines: machine learning, manufacturing, electromagnetics, and software. I bring experience in mobile engineering, design, craftsmanship, and strategy, while others bring completely different areas of expertise. The expectation here isn't that you know everything, but that you bring your perspective, stay curious, and learn from the people around you. If you’re looking for a culture built on trust and respect, we’re hiring for more Members of Technical Staff at arenaphysica.com/careers!
Finally, an Arena Physica tradition is to share a hot take: mine is that automatic water, soap, and towel dispensers in public bathrooms are a mistake. I know they're supposedly more hygienic, but they're always broken, the sensors don't work, or you end up waving your hands around trying to get soap. Half the time, I feel like I'm trying to cast a spell just to get another paper towel. The manual ones were fine, and I don't remember anyone complaining about them!