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Caitlin Kalinowski

Caitlin Kalinowski is a hardware engineer whose career spans personal computers, VR and AR devices, and AI robotics. She worked at OQO and Apple, led design engineering for Oculus Touch, and headed Meta hardware teams for VR and AR, including Orion. She joined OpenAI in November 2024 to lead robotics and consumer hardware, then resigned in March 2026 over the company's Defense Department agreement. As of October 2026, she advises early-stage teams working across hardware, robotics, and AI.

Now at
Axon
Works
3
Citations
1
h-index
1
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2005–2007

    Stanford and OQO

    From 2005 to 2007, she works as a product design engineer at OQO. She earns a BS in mechanical engineering from Stanford in 2007.

  2. 2007–2013

    Building Apple's Mac hardware

    From 2007 to 2013, she works at Apple, leading technical teams for the Mac Pro and MacBook Air and contributing to the original Unibody MacBook Pro team.

  3. 2014

    Designing Oculus Touch

    In 2014, she joins Oculus as head of product design engineering and leads the team designing hand controllers for the Oculus Rift, including the Touch design.

  4. By 2021

    Leading Oculus VR hardware

    By July 2021, she heads VR Hardware for Facebook's AR/VR division and oversees design and engineering for Oculus VR devices.

  5. March 2022–2024

    Leading Meta's AR glasses

    She begins leading Meta's AR glasses team in March 2022 and oversees Orion's creation, a prototype Meta shows at its 2024 Connect conference. Her AR hardware must be smaller and lighter, with power comparable to the VR headsets she helped develop earlier.

  6. November 2024

    Joining OpenAI's robotics team

    In November 2024, she joins OpenAI to lead robotics and consumer hardware, initially focusing on robotics work and partnerships that bring AI into the physical world.

  7. March 2026

    Resigning from OpenAI

    In March 2026, she resigns from OpenAI's hardware leadership role over the Department of Defense agreement, citing concerns about surveillance without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization.

  8. As of October 2026

    Advising AI hardware teams

    As of October 2026, she advises early-stage teams working across hardware, robotics, and AI. She has served on Axon's board since 2019.

Career

  1. Since 2019AxonBoard member
  2. 2024–2026OpenAILead, robotics and consumer hardware
  3. 2014–2024MetaHead of product design engineering, Lead, AR glasses team
  4. 2007–2013Apple
  5. 2005–2007OQOProduct design engineer

Education

  1. 2007Stanford UniversityBS in mechanical engineering

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Concept of an interactive system as an experimenter1969 · 1 citations
  2. Design Principles for Building VR: Translating Optics and Sensor Technologies into Products Consumers Love (Conference Presentation)2020 · 0 citations
  3. The Industrial Revolution of the Intelligence Age2026 · Computer · 0 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

  1. Google alumni founded or led 81 other organizations, the most among the labs we compareIncludes Caitlin Kalinowski. We trace 194 organizations founded or led by AI lab alumni, and 202 career moves between the labs.
  2. 12 of 76 people shaping AI with a former OpenAI role now work at AnthropicIncludes OpenAI. Our estimates of where OpenAI recruits came from and where people with former OpenAI roles work now.
  3. The median h-index is 54 at universities and 19 at frontier AI labsIncludes OpenAI. The median h-index is 54 at universities and 19 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, citations and moves to estimate how universities and frontier labs contribute to AI research.
  4. 44% of AI career moves go from one university to anotherIncludes OpenAI. We estimate how 13,335 AI career moves link universities, companies, labs and government research centers, with net flows and the most common paths.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Caitlin Kalinowski yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Axon Board Member, Caitlin Kalinowski Talks Tech and VR axon.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  2. Meta’s head of AR hardware on the future of AR engineering.fb.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  3. Six Steps to Superior Product Prototyping: Lessons from an Apple and Oculus Engineer review.firstround.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  4. Meta’s former hardware lead for Orion is joining OpenAI techcrunch.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  5. OpenAI hardware exec Caitlin Kalinowski quits in response to Pentagon deal techcrunch.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  6. About Caitlin Kalinowski — OpenAI, Meta, Apple caitlinkalinowski.com. Checked 18 October 2026.