Automation & Robotics System Engineer, Additive Manufacturing Hardware

Location:

Torrance, California

Compensation: $135, USD / year

Hadrian is building autonomous factories to reindustrialize America. By combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing, we help aerospace and defense companies build rockets, satellites, aircraft, ships, and other mission-critical systems up to 10x faster and at significantly lower cost.

Following our $1.37B Series D at a $7.87B valuation, Hadrian is rapidly expanding our manufacturing footprint, launching new capabilities across welding, casting, forging, electronics, additive manufacturing, and more, while scaling our Factory-as-a-Service platform to transform how critical products are built.

Backed by leading investors including JPMorgan Chase, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Lux Capital, T. Rowe Price, and Morgan Stanley, we're building the future of American manufacturing—and looking for exceptional people to help make it happen.

If you're ready to take on the most challenging and rewarding work of your career while helping create American manufacturing jobs for generations to come, you're exactly who we're looking for.

What You'll Do

• Cell Automation Design and Commissioning: Design, deploy, and commission automation for AM cell workflows — powder handling and transport, build plate and build unit exchange, depowdering, part removal, and downstream logistics into post-processing.

• Cell Safety Architecture: Own the safety architecture for AM cell automation — risk assessment, guarding, presence sensing, emergency stop and interlock logic — and validate it against aerospace and defense production requirements. Coordinate with the Machine Controls & Data Integration Engineer so cell safety state is visible to the machine and platform layer.

• Powder and Combustible Dust Safety: Engineer automation around powder safely — combustible dust controls per NFPA 484, inert gas handling, and grounding and bonding practice — in coordination with site EHS and the Materials and Process team.

• Automation Interface Requirements: Define automation interface requirements — mechanical, electrical, and data — and work with the Machine Controls & Data Integration Engineer so cell automation is represented in OPUS.

• Automation Team Partnership: Partner with the Hadrian Automation team on interfaces, handoffs, and the joint AM cell automation roadmap, integrating proven vendor equipment in preference to custom builds wherever it fits.

• Acceptance Testing: Execute Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) and Site Acceptance Test (SAT) for automation equipment, and define performance acceptance criteria tied to cycle time, throughput, and reliability rather than function alone.

• Reliability and Maintenance: Own reliability and maintenance programs for automation systems — preventive maintenance schedules, spares strategy, and root cause analysis driven to verified closure.

• Throughput and Bottleneck Elimination: Identify and eliminate automation bottlenecks to improve build throughput, changeover time, and machine utilization, using cycle time and utilization data from the manufacturing data infrastructure.

• Design for Redeployment: Document and standardize cell automation so solutions transfer to additional Hadrian factories without being re-engineered from scratch.

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor's degree in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or related field.

• 4+ years designing, deploying, and sustaining automation solutions in production manufacturing environments.

• Hands‑on experience with…