Lead Prototype Engineer

Job description

Job responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of prototype engineers and technicians. Set priorities, allocate work, and raise the team’s technical and process standards.
• Stay hands-on: personally drive troubleshooting and resolution of the most complex electrical issues in prototype humanoid robots, across operational and in-development systems.
• Own electrical bring-up of new prototype builds, including power distribution, motor drive and actuator electronics, sensor integration, communications buses, and high-density electromechanical integrations.
• Collaborate closely with electrical, mechanical, firmware, and software engineers on prototype design, assembly, and design-for-test.
• Define, maintain, and enforce test procedures, troubleshooting guides, and repair runbooks for the prototyping lab, and make sure the team follows them.
• Design, document, and iterate on cable assemblies, wiring harnesses, and test jigs built for repeated use on dynamic robotic platforms.
• Own lab planning and priorities: build schedules, resource allocation, tooling, equipment, and spares. Balance competing demands from multiple engineering teams.
• Identify and drive continuous improvement in processes and products, reducing downtime, improving test and repair efficiency, and raising first-pass yield and manufacturability.

Job requirements

• Strong, hands-on electrical engineering background in rapid prototyping, debugging custom hardware, and troubleshooting complex electrical systems in robotics or similar domains.
• Deep working knowledge of low-voltage power and mixed-signal circuits, motor drives, connectors, sensors, and compact electromechanical systems.
• Experience reading schematics and PCB layouts, performing board-level rework and repair, and designing or specifying harnesses and cable assemblies.
• Prior experience leading or mentoring engineers or technicians, formally or as a technical lead. You are comfortable taking on direct reports and balancing people management with hands-on work.
• Track record of communicating concisely through documentation, procedures, test plans, diagnostics, and lessons learned.
• Adept at collaborating across electrical, mechanical, and software boundaries to solve urgent, ambiguous problems. Mechanical prototyping skills are a plus.
• Comfortable in a high-velocity, high-ambiguity startup setting where priorities shift fast.