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5th percentile
OpenAI Member of Technical Staff building robotics foundation models
Credibility
Domain Expertise · 9th percentile
- Identified researcher on OpenAlex with an h-index of 10 and 521 citations across 29 works in computer vision and robotics.
Relationship Matrix
Founder score
- 82%Probability of being accurate (82%)Identified researcher on OpenAlex with an h-index of 10 and 521 citations across 29 works in computer vision and robotics.
What you likely need
Zhenpei Yang is a deep technical researcher and ML engineer currently working as a Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI on robotics foundation models, with a strong academic background (PhD, UT Austin) and prior experience at Waymo and Apple. His profile is that of a high-caliber individual contributor rather than a founder or investor, so the most impactful next steps involve amplifying his research visibility and positioning for future entrepreneurial or leadership opportunities.
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- positioningCreate a public GitHub profile and open-source at least one research artifact (e.g., a demo or code release tied to your CVPR papers) to build a visible builder footprint beyond academic publications.
- positioningPrioritize publishing and promoting your robotics foundation model work at OpenAI through preprints on arXiv to grow your citation count and h-index beyond the current 10.
- introsBegin building an angel investor network now by attending YC Demo Days and robotics-focused investor events — your OpenAI and Waymo pedigree makes you a credible early check writer when you're ready.
- hiringLeverage your public LinkedIn post about OpenAI's robotics team hiring to attract top research talent — consider writing a longer-form post or blog about the team's mission to increase inbound interest.
- tacticalUpdate your UT Austin personal homepage (cs.utexas.edu/~yzp12/) to reflect your current OpenAI role and robotics research focus, as it is still publicly linked from your LinkedIn.
- fundraisingGiven your rare combination of 3D reconstruction, sensor simulation, and foundation model expertise, explore spinning out a robotics or embodied AI startup — your background is precisely what top-tier seed investors are funding right now.
- wellbeingWorking at a high-intensity organization like OpenAI on a small robotics team can be demanding — proactively protect time for deep work and recovery to sustain long-term research output.