Head of Robotics Engineering

Our client is building a unified platform for physical AI that combines robotic hardware with a universal operating system, making robots easier to build and deploy for developers and enterprises. Founded in 2024, the company has raised $41M, is backed by a major strategic technology investor, and is growing a roughly 30-person team from its South Bay headquarters. You will report to the CTO and lead the robotics software and firmware organization, owning the stack from embedded firmware and real-time controls through planning and teleoperation. This is a hands-on technical leadership role managing 5-10 engineers today and scaling the organization to roughly 15. Requirements Lead and grow engineers across firmware, controls, planning, and teleoperation while continuing to write and review production code. Own architecture for real-time control loops, sensor and actuator interfaces, safety systems, and onboard compute. Bring 8+ years of robotics engineering experience, or 5+ years with a PhD, spanning firmware, controls, and embedded systems. Current or recent experience at a US robotics company shipping complex robots is required. You should have led at least five engineers and bring expertise in RTOS, C/C++, ROS, real-time controls, manipulation, teleoperation, and robotics data pipelines. An MS or PhD in Robotics, EE, ME, CS, or a related field is expected. Benefits $200K-$350K base salary plus competitive equity. Full-time and on-site five days per week in Fremont, California. Visa transfers, including OPT and H-1B transfers, may be considered. This is a ground-floor opportunity to define the robotics engineering organization and platform architecture at a well-funded physical AI company.