Systems Integration Lead

Systems Integration Lead

GRAM · Robotics · the Bay Area

GRAM Corporation scales skilled labor for the physical economy. We design, manufacture and operate insectoids, general-purpose machines not built in our image. They work in large populations on the critical infrastructure nations depend on. The electric grid comes first. Our research is in how those populations coordinate and keep themselves running. The goal is Self-Replication (SR), the point where a population of machines delivers more labor than it takes to build and run.

The Systems Integration Lead brings hardware and software together at the integration layer, which is where problems actually surface. You will own testing, reliability and safety across the whole robot. Software engineers write their own unit tests. You own the tests that prove the whole system works.

This is a hands on role for the first year, with the chance to build and lead a team as the company grows.

• Own the verification and validation strategy: what is proven by analysis, simulation, hardware in the loop, bench and field testing, and how coverage is tracked.
• Build the test infrastructure from scratch: bench rigs, hardware in the loop setups, scenario based tests for edge cases and safety scenarios, and an automated regression suite with performance tracked over time.
• Run robot bring up and acceptance for each hardware revision, and run the field test program.
• Lead failure triage and root cause analysis across mechanical, electrical, firmware and software.
• Own reliability and safety: FMEA, hazard and risk analysis, safety functions such as E stop and safe state behavior, and the safety case for customers.

• Verification and validation experience across hardware and software, especially at the interface between them.
• Experience building a test suite from scratch.
• Experience bringing up new robots or similar hardware and triaging early failures across mechanical, electrical and software.
• Working knowledge of reliability methods such as FMEA and root cause analysis.
• Hands on experience with hazard analysis and verifying safety functions on a physical system.
• Comfortable reading and writing code. This is not a pure hardware role.

• Robotics background. Autonomous vehicle backgrounds are also welcome, given their strong regression testing culture.
• Hardware in the loop and fault injection test design.
• Environmental qualification such as vibration, thermal and ingress testing.
• Experience running field test programs on robots operating outdoors.
• Depth in functional safety, such as IEC 61508 or similar.

• A clean slate: build testing and reliability the right way from day one.
• Early equity, included with this role.
• The chance to own a domain and build a team around it.
• A small, hands on engineering team where everyone does real work.