Vision​/Robotics Engineer

Overview

Loombotic is automating the wire harness, the hand-built nervous system inside every robot, vehicle, and machine. It is one of the last big manufacturing processes still done almost entirely by hand, and we are changing that by building our own instant-quoting software and our own machines, shipping a custom harness in about a week instead of 6 to 12 weeks. Teams building robotics, aerospace, and advanced thermal and data‑center hardware rely on us to get custom cables in days, not months.

You’ll build the perception and robotics that let our automated line handle wires, connectors, and terminals—parts that are flexible, small, and hard for traditional automation. That means designing vision systems that find and orient connectors and wire ends, and developing robot motion that picks, places, routes, and terminates reliably on a real production floor. You will own problems end‑to‑end, from prototype at the bench to running in production, working shoulder‑to‑shoulder with mechanical, controls, and technicians.

• Get a robot to reliably pick, orient, and place flexible, shiny connectors and wires with sub‑millimeter precision.
• Build vision that finds and localizes a specific connector, terminal, or wire end in clutter, under real factory lighting, fast enough for low cycle time.
• Solve high‑precision insertion and termination: seating a terminal in the right cavity every time at the required tolerances.
• Drive a vision‑guided task from demonstration to unattended production by coupling algorithm and part behavior.
• Make it robust enough to run unattended on a production line, not just in a demo.

• Build vision pipelines (classical CV and/or ML) for detecting, segmenting, and estimating the pose of connectors, terminals, and wire ends.
• Develop and tune robot motion for pick/place, routing, insertion, and termination tasks.
• Handle camera/robot calibration, hand‑eye calibration, and the gritty real‑world edge cases.
• Close the loop with mechanical and controls engineers on end‑effectors, fixtures, and machine design.
• Deploy, monitor, and harden systems running on the production floor; debug failures with real parts.
• Measure and drive up cycle time, yield, and reliability.

• Hands‑on with both code and hardware—comfortable working at a workstation and on the floor with machines.
• Rigorous about making things work reliably in the real world, not just in a demo.
• A fast iterator who learns from physical failure modes.
• A strong collaborator across mechanical, controls, and production.
• More interested in the line running reliably than in who gets credit for the fix.

• Experience building robotics and/or computer‑vision systems that ran on real hardware.
• Strong programming in Python and/or C++.
• Solid grasp of camera calibration, coordinate frames/transforms, and robotic manipulation.
• Comfortable working on‑site in Austin, TX with physical equipment.
• Legally authorized to work in the U.S. or Canada.

• Industrial robot arms, motion control, or real‑time systems.
• 6‑DoF pose estimation, deep learning for perception, or sensor fusion.
• Manufacturing automation, machine building, or NPI on a production line.
• Working with deformable/flexible objects (wires, cables, fabric).
• ROS or equivalent robotics frameworks.
• Bonus: serious Factorio (or other factory‑builder game) playtime—if you enjoy optimizing automated factories for fun, you’ll fit right in.

We care about engineers who close the loop on hard physical problems. The best person here takes a flaky vision‑guided insertion from 80% to 99.9% because they understand both the algorithm and how the part actually behaves on the floor. We want people who want to automate something the industry says can’t be automated.

• $135k–$185k base + meaningful early‑stage equity, 0.25% to 0.75% (most offers 0.3–0.5%; 0.6–0.75% for an early senior or lead), 4‑year vest, 1‑year cliff. Typical hire $145–160k; $170–185k for a senior or lead.
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Paid time off and company holidays.
• Top‑tier hardware, tools, and lab access.
• Access to our engineering lab and tools for approved personal projects. We like people who build things.

Loombotic is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We provide reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities; if you need one during the hiring process, just ask.