The Role
Lead hardware engineering and potentially supply chain for robot systems in commercial kitchens, focusing on design, scalability, and reliability. Manage and expand the team while representing the hardware section in company leadership decisions.
Summary Generated by Built In
Chef Robotics is accelerating the deployment of intelligent machines in the physical world, starting with food production—a sector facing the largest labor shortage in the U.S., with 1.14M unfilled jobs today and 3.1M projected by 2030. These roles cannot be offshored, making robotics essential to keeping production onshore and strengthening America’s manufacturing base. Backed by investors like Kleiner Perkins, Construct, Bloomberg Beta, and Promus Ventures, and supported by a world-class team from companies such as Cruise, Zoox, Google, Tesla, and Amazon Robotics, Chef is rapidly scaling with multiple multi-year contracts and a mission to put an intelligent robot in every commercial kitchen.
About The Role
As the Head of Hardware, you will be a key member of the senior leadership team, responsible for defining and executing the hardware strategy that will take us to enterprise-level performance. You will oversee the system architecture for our next-generation products while managing and mentoring a high-performing team of mechanical engineers and manufacturing technicians.
In this role, you will:
- Oversee hardware architecture and system definition for both our existing solutions and our next-generation enterprise-focused products.
- Lead the transition from producing 2-3 units per week to a high-volume operation, with a target of deploying 100+ robots by year-end.
- Partner with Contract Manufacturers (CMs) and manage the global supply chain to aggressively reduce Bill of Materials (BOM) costs and improve lead times.
- Work closely with the Heads of Software, Autonomy, and Application Engineering to ensure tight hardware-software integration and prioritize features based on real-world data.
- Implement rigorous DFM (Design for Manufacturing) and DFA (Design for Assembly) standards to ensure enterprise-grade reliability in harsh kitchen environments.
What you bring:
- 10+ years of hardware engineering experience, with at least 5 years in a leadership role (Director or VP level) at a robotics or complex electromechanical systems company.
- Demonstrated success in taking a product from low-volume "lab" production to high-volume manufacturing via Tier-1 CMs.
- Deep expertise in mechatronics, motion control, and ruggedized system design.
- Experience managing complex BOMs and driving significant cost reductions without compromising quality.
Nice-to-Haves:
- Experience in the food-tech or industrial automation sectors.
- Knowledge of regulatory certifications (UL, CE, NSF) for commercial kitchen equipment.
- Background in a high-growth, venture-backed startup environment.
Skills Required
- Masters or Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or physics
- Has shipped 3+ (at least 2) products to market
- Has seen at least one product scale to tens of thousands of users/customers
- Has lead manufacturing or managed someone who lead manufacturing
- Has lead supply chain and procurement or managed someone who lead supply chain and procurement
- Has 10+ years of production engineering experience as an IC, tech lead, or manager
- Has managed and lead teams in Manufacturing, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Firmware
- Has worked with Perception, computer vision, Machine learning, Robotics motion planning and control
- Has been a manager of a team of engineers and a manager of managers
- Has been part of at least one startup
- Has scaled an engineering team from 5 people to 15 to 45 people
- Understand the business logic and the business
- Can sell and convince top A-level hires to join the company
- Can represent the company and sell the company to investors for prospective investors
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The Company
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