Forward Deployed Robotics Engineer

Responsibilities

• Build, deploy, configure, and troubleshoot robotic arms, grippers and camera systems on-site. Perform spatial/hand-eye calibrations and camera alignment during system setup.
• Manage incoming fleet ticket queues, prioritize based on operational impact, and triage failures across hardware, software, and operational layers.
• Execute physical inspections, run diagnostic tests at robot stations, and perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to isolate and reproduce field failures.
• Analyze telemetry, sensor streams, and system logs to form and validate diagnostic hypotheses.
• Partner with core hardware and software R&D teams to escalate complex issues. Directly advise software engineering on new tooling, scripts, and diagnostic features needed to streamline field bring-up.
• Develop standard diagnostic procedures, troubleshooting flowcharts, and operational guides. Surface recurring fleet issues to engineering to drive design improvements.
• Travel 50%+ to lead on-site deployments, customer demonstrations, and operational support.

Requirements

• 2+ years of hands-on experience debugging, troubleshooting, and performing root-cause analysis on complex systems with integrated hardware and software components in deployment.
• Practical experience parsing log files and writing basic diagnostic scripts in Python.
• Solid understanding of the interactions between mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software layers in robotic systems.

Preferred

• M.S. in Robotics, Mechatronics, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Experience managing edge devices, Linux network interfaces, and containerized robotics software stacks (Docker, ROS/ROS2, systemd).

Role Overview

As a Forward Deployed Robotics Engineer, you will serve as the primary on-site technical expert for our robotic manipulation systems. You will be instrumental in supporting robot deployments and company’s product demos globally. When issues arise, you will be the first responder: analyzing field tickets, reproducing issues, gathering diagnostic data, and driving root-cause resolution to ensure maximum fleet uptime. This role requires a strong emphasis on process improvement and exceptional communication skills, as you will eventually operate independently on client sites.

Documentation

Develop clear deployment documentation and procedures to support deployments by third party integrators. Maintain clear, traceable logs for all diagnostic events, field modifications, and escalation workflows.

Minimum Qualifications

• B.S. in Robotics, Mechatronics, Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the demonstrated ability to articulate technical issues clearly during solo customer engagements and shift handoffs.

Learning-Based Policy Field Experience

Experience deploying learning-based control models (e.g., imitation learning, RL, or end-to-end vision-to-action policies) on physical manipulators in unstructured environments.

Deployment Tooling & Automation

Proven track record of writing internal Python tools, CLI scripts, or automated calibration routines that reduce deployment and bring-up cycles.

Solo Client Site Leadership

Experience acting as the sole technical lead on customer sites or high-stakes field demos, managing on-site communication, de-escalation, and technical execution independently.

Robot Arm & Bus Architecture

Hands-on experience integrating and configuring 6+ DoF industrial or cobot arms (e.g., Universal Robots, Franka, KUKA, FANUC) with industrial communications (EtherCAT, CANbus, Modbus) and safety controllers.

Field Telemetry Workflows

Familiarity with modern robotics diagnostic tools (e.g., Foxglove Studio, ROS bags) to capture edge failure modes and feed data back into core ML pipelines.

Process Architecture & FMEA

Experience building field operational processes from scratch, including writing SOPs, conducting FMEA, and structuring field support workflows.