Lead Engineer

About the Company

We are an early-stage robotics company based in the Mountain View / San Francisco Bay Area. The company is developing a person-following mobile robotics platform designed for light-duty construction and related real-world use cases.

The initial product is focused on person-following movement, optional manual control, and basic reactive safety behaviors. This is not intended to be a fully autonomous, map-driven robot at this stage. The goal is to keep the first version focused, reliable, and cost-effective enough to support investor-ready prototypes, MVP testing, and early pilot planning.

The Founder has been working with freelance engineers across mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software areas. Those workstreams are still early and need to be reviewed, organized, and brought into a clearer technical plan.

The company is looking for a hands-on engineering lead who can assess the current state of the product, define what the MVP should include, identify what needs to change, and help move the product toward working prototypes and early commercial readiness.

The Role

The Hands-On Lead Robotics Systems Engineer will lead the technical direction for the mobile robotics platform, with a focus on hardware/software architecture, systems integration, product definition, and practical execution.

This person will work directly with the Founder to review the current engineering work, define what the MVP should include, set the technical priorities, and make clear recommendations.

The role requires someone who can work across mechanical systems, electrical systems, firmware, software, sensors, controls, wireless communication, safety logic, and industrial design. The right person should be comfortable making decisions under real constraints, including battery life, payload, terrain, BOM cost, manufacturability, safety, budget, and timeline.

This is a hands-on role for someone who can get into the details, challenge assumptions, and keep the product focused on what can be built, tested, and improved.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the technical direction for a person-following mobile robotics platform, with responsibility for system architecture, integration, and product execution.
• Review current mechanical, electrical, firmware, software, sensor, communications, and industrial design work to identify what is usable, what is risky, and what needs to change.
• Define the MVP scope, prototype priorities, technical requirements, and practical roadmap for moving the product toward investor demos and early pilot planning.
• Establish the core system architecture across hardware, firmware, software, controls, sensors, wireless communication, and safety behavior.
• Guide technical decisions related to mobile base design, drivetrain, motor control, payload, battery systems, outdoor mobility, localization, person-following, manual control, and reactive safety features.
• Evaluate technology choices such as UWB, BLE, vision-based tracking, sensor fusion, RTOS, ROS/ROS2, embedded controls, and other tools based on reliability, cost, complexity, and product fit.
• Create practical documentation, including product requirements, system diagrams, interface definitions, test plans, risk notes, and development roadmaps.
• Build a lean testing and validation plan for prototypes, safety behavior, usability, reliability, investor demos, and early pilot builds.
• Help estimate engineering effort, prototype costs, BOM maturity, timeline needs, and low-volume build assumptions.
• Make clear recommendations on what should continue, be reworked, paused, simplified, or discontinued.

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of experience in robotics, mobile electromechanical systems, mechatronics, embedded systems, controls, hardware/software integration, autonomy, or a related engineering field.
• Experience bringing physical products from early prototype through EVT, DVT, pilot build, manufacturing launch, or commercial deployment.
• Hands-on experience integrating mechanical, electrical, firmware, software, sensors, and control systems into a working product.
• Strong experience with mobile platforms, including drivetrain systems, motor control, payload, braking, stability, center of gravity, torque/speed tradeoffs, and movement under variable loads.
• Experience with outdoor or ruggedized systems operating on uneven surfaces, including traction, wheel slip, ground clearance, obstacle negotiation, dust, moisture, vibration, and thermal considerations.
• Experience with battery-powered systems, power distribution, voltage regulation, protection circuits, fault handling, and safe shutdown behavior.
• Experience with person-following, wireless tethering, localization, or user-responsive control approaches such as UWB, BLE, vision-based tracking, or sensor fusion.
• Strong understanding of manual control, remote control, semi-autonomous behavior, fail-safe logic, emergency stop behavior, obstacle detection, signal loss recovery, and manual override.
• Experience with embedded controls, RTOS/FreeRTOS, bare-metal C/C++, ESP32, STM32, ROS/ROS2, Linux, or similar tools, with the judgment to choose the right level of complexity for the product.
• Ability to balance product performance, safety, usability, manufacturability, BOM cost, durability, timeline, and budget.
• Ability to turn a founder’s product vision into clear technical requirements, practical decisions, and an executable development plan.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work with founders, freelancers, vendors, industrial designers, hardware teams, and software teams.

Nice to Have

• Experience with person-following robots, mobile carts, autonomous vehicles, drones, construction technology, industrial automation, or ruggedized consumer products.
• Experience with Guidance, Navigation, and Control, perception, planning, controls, simulation, mapping, localization, ROS/ROS2, Linux, telemetry, diagnostics, or robotic testing frameworks.
• Experience with low-volume DFM, pilot builds, prototype manufacturing, PCB vendors, machining, assembly partners, or early production planning.
• Experience working with industrial design teams on housing, packaging, sensor placement, antenna clearance, serviceability, thermal management, and product usability.
• Experience creating technical roadmaps, prototype plans, test plans, risk registers, or product development plans for internal teams, investors, or early commercial planning.
• Experience working in an early-stage startup, robotics lab, hardware startup, R&D environment, or small distributed engineering team.

Work Schedule and Location

This is a full-time position based primarily onsite in Mountain View, CA.

Regular onsite work is expected due to the hands-on nature of robotics development, hardware/software integration, testing, troubleshooting, and prototype work. Some limited remote flexibility may be available depending on project needs, performance, and role fit.

Because this is an early-stage company, some flexibility may be needed around prototype deadlines, testing schedules, technical issues, or investor-related timelines.

Compensation

The expected hourly pay for this role is $85-120 per hour, depending on experience, qualifications, technical background, and final role scope.

Equity may be included depending on role level, experience, and final offer structure.

This position is classified as non-exempt under applicable federal, state, and local law.

Why This Role

This is an opportunity to help build real-world robotics products from an early stage. The company is looking for someone who wants ownership, technical challenge, and a chance to help shape the engineering foundation from the ground up.

The right person will have the opportunity to work closely with the founder, influence product direction, help create the technical roadmap, and contribute directly to systems that are designed to move beyond concept and into working products.

Equal Employment Opportunity

The company is an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, or any other protected status under applicable law.