Lead Robotics Engineer

Are you the kind of engineer who wants to set the architecture, not just execute someone else’s?

We’re working with a venture-backed defense/maritime startup building systems that go where nothing else does, and stay there for years. This is the first hire on this specific piece of work – which means you’re not inheriting a roadmap, you’re writing it.

They are looking for you to work from Hawaii for the first 6-12 months (they will cover your housing), or willing to travel regularly, before moving to the West Coast for the longer-term (or, once again, at least willing to travel to either regularly)

This isn’t a “maintain the system” kind of role.

You’ll be:

• Owning autonomous deployment end to end – descent, guidance, securing, and long-term survival at full ocean depth
• Setting the technical architecture as the first engineer on this work
• Blazing the trail to 80%, then bringing in the long-tailed effort to close the rest
• Running ocean trials, turning failures into the next iteration within days, not months
• Mentoring a junior engineer who’ll be working alongside you, scrappy and hands-on

Yes, they want someone with serious hardware experience.

But more than that, they want:

• A hacker, not a theorist – someone with a track record of hardware that went in the water and worked, built with their own hands
• A problem solver who improvises under pressure rather than stalling on it
• Judgment – knowing the fastest path that meets the requirement, when to stop polishing, and when to bring in a specialist

• 10+ years’ experience in a relevant hands-on engineering discipline
• Shipped mechanisms that had to work the first time, unattended
• Hands-on experience making hardware survive extreme ocean pressure and seawater
• Hydrodynamics and stability of bodies moving through water
• Guidance and closed-loop control, taken from model to working hardware
• Open-water test experience, including at-sea operations from small boats
• Must be eligible for US security clearance – US citizenship required

Most “lead” titles in this space mean managing an existing system.

This one means building one from nothing.

• You’re the first engineer on this work – the architecture is genuinely yours to set
• The company’s valuation has doubled in the last seven months – genuine early-stage upside if you want equity exposure alongside salary

If you want to own a problem from first principles rather than inherit someone else’s framework, this is worth a serious conversation.