Lead Hardware Engineer – Production
Tutorintelligence· startup· Robotics· Oct 15, 2026 · 13d ago
Watertown, MA
In office
Full-time
Lead
$150K–$200K
8+ years exp
Job description
About Tutor
We believe robots will be the next chapter in making physical labor safer and more affordable. But, nearly nine out of ten American factories and warehouses don’t have a single robot. Tutor Intelligence is changing that.
We build robots that go straight into real factories and warehouses, to do real work, with real impact. Our robot Cassie does back-breaking work, moving boxes, pallets, and bulk goods for family-owned manufacturers to some of the largest brands in the world. Our robot Sonny does handwork, using two arms to achieve human-like dexterity in picking and packing. Every robot learns on the job, and each one we deploy makes the next one more capable, more affordable, and faster to put to work.
Founded at MIT and headquartered in Watertown, MA, we do it all in-house: the robotics hardware, the machine learning, and the field deployment and service. We’re a team of researchers, engineers, technicians, operators, and sellers who love building things and solving hard problems.
Our mission is grand: robots everywhere, for the common good, raising the standard of living across North America, and then the world.
The Role
You're the technical lead of our Production Engineering team. You're a senior hardware engineer the hardware team respects, the person who jumps in to root-cause a problem on a robot we need to ship, and the mentor who raises the bar for the engineers around you. You report to the Head of Manufacturing.
Your mission is to build the environment that lets our manufacturing team produce high-quality robots at a competitive cost: designs that are easy to build, test and service, manufacturing systems that catch problems early, and test coverage that keeps defects out of the field.
Your first priority is getting robots through bring-up and FAT clean: drive the top recurring build failures to permanent fixes and stand up the test systems our line needs.
This is not a traditional manufacturing engineering role. You've designed and owned hardware. You can open a schematic, put a scope on a board and find the problem, and you shape the product with design engineering instead of building whatever is handed over.
Example projects you might work on:
Bench tests for drive and axis subassemblies so failures are caught before they're installed on a robot
A functional test for the robot's main electrical bulkhead, the brains of the robot
Inline testing so every robot is tested station to station and drives off the line
A DFMEA on our current platform to rank failure risks and design out the top ones in upcoming builds
Harness and access changes that make repairs faster on the line and in the field
Why This Role Matters
Getting from dozens of robots to more than 1,000 is an engineering problem, not a headcount problem. Many of the designs, test systems and manufacturing processes that will get us there don't exist yet. This role is the technical leader who builds them.
What You'll Own
Technical leadership: Lead Production Engineering technically. Set engineering standards, mentor and develop engineers, review their work and be the escalation point for the hardest problems on the floor.
Robot debug and recurring failures: Jump in to debug electrical, mechanical and system-level issues on robots we're trying to ship, across PCBAs, power distribution, harnesses, sensors, actuators, motor controls and communication interfaces. Drive recurring build issues to root cause, permanent corrective action and validation.
Test systems: Own the manufacturing test architecture and build the test systems, fixtures and diagnostics from component test through bring-up, end-of-line test and Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT). When our Quality & Reliability Engineer finds a test gap, you build what closes it.
Design for X (DFX): Be manufacturing's voice in hardware design reviews. Drive design for manufacturing, test and service (DFM/DFT/DFS) early, and push back on decisions that add complexity, quality risk or cost.
NPI and production readiness: Bring new robot platforms and engineering changes into production with validated processes, tooling, fixtures, work instructions and test coverage in place. Define test data and traceability requirements so build and test results flow into our MES.
Yield and cost: Own first-pass yield, rework and cost-to-build. Drive down labor, scrap and BOM cost without giving up reliability, and qualify part changes and second sources for robots in production.
What Success Looks Like
90 days: You've debugged robots on the floor alongside the team and earned their trust. You're a regular voice in hardware design reviews, the top recurring build and FAT failures have clear root causes and fixes in motion, and Production Engineering has clear technical standards and a test strategy roadmap.
1 year: Robots pass bring-up and FAT with minimal rework, first-pass yield is climbing, cost-to-build is down, and fewer manufacturing-related failures reach the field. New platforms launch with DFX and test coverage built in, the hardware team brings you in early, and output scales faster than headcount.
Required
Bachelor's in Electrical, Mechanical, Computer or Mechatronics Engineering. A Master's is a plus.
Senior hardware engineering experience (typically 8+ years) designing, integrating and debugging complex electromechanical systems. You've owned hardware, not just the process that builds it.
Strong electrical fundamentals. You read schematics, use scopes and meters, and personally isolate root cause across power, PCBAs, sensors, actuators and communication interfaces.
A track record of driving recurring failures to permanent corrective action.
Hands-on DFM/DFT experience working with design engineering to make products buildable, testable and cost-effective.
Experience building test systems: fixtures, bring-up, end-of-line or automated test.
Experience taking hardware from development through NPI into volume production.
Experience as a technical lead: setting standards, reviewing work and mentoring engineers.
You use AI tools like Claude daily in your engineering work. Be ready to walk us through something you built with them.
Preferred
Robotics, industrial automation or startup experience taking a product from low volume to scale.
Cost reduction work: should-cost, value engineering or BOM and labor reduction.
Python for test automation, diagnostics or data analysis.
PCB design reviews and design for testability.
MES, traceability or engineering change control experience.
Contract manufacturer or supplier bring-up.
Why Join
Build the production system. The designs, test systems and processes that take us from dozens of robots to 1,000+ don't exist yet. You build them.
Set the technical bar. You define the standard for Production Engineering and mentor the engineers who grow with it.
Real hardware, real stakes. Debug robots on the floor, shape the design with hardware engineering and see your fixes running at customer sites.
AI is how we work. You'll have the tools and the backing to automate what most factories still do by hand.
Direct line to leadership. Report to the Head of Manufacturing and work side by side with hardware, software and deployment teams.
How We Work: Our Values in This Role
We hire against our values, and we'll interview you against them too. Here's what they look like in this seat:
Love of the Game. You'd rather be at the bench with a scope on a board than in a slide review.
Gumption. When a robot won't ship, you're already on the floor finding out why.
Beginner's Mindset. You question how we build and test today, and you change your mind fast when the data says to.
Belief in Each Other. You raise the bar for the engineers around you and earn the hardware team's respect by being right and being fair.
Keep Moving Forward. You find the fix that keeps the line moving today, then make it permanent.
Customer Obsession. Every shortcut on the line shows up at a customer site. You build it right.
Why Tutor?
Whether you’re designing robots, closing deals, running deployments, or creating the processes that help us scale, your work doesn’t sit on a shelf. It shows up on real production floors, making physical work safer and more affordable.
Our team of 160+ is driven by curiosity and a genuine love of building. Everyone here takes real ownership, learns fast, and holds a high bar while having each other’s backs. If you love hard problems and creating things that didn’t exist before, you’ll fit right in.
Benefits
We take care of our team so they can do their best work. At Tutor, you’ll get:
Fully employer-covered health insurance, so you’re protected without the premium.
A managed 401(k) to help you plan for the future.
Generous time off: unlimited PTO and all federal holidays off for full-time salaried employees, and 16+ days of accrued paid time off plus 1.5x pay on federal holidays for hourly employees.
Regular in-office meals and team social events throughout the year.
As Tutor grows, so will our benefits. We’re continuing to invest in ways to support our team at work and beyond.
Tutor Intelligence is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds.
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Benefits
Benefits detected in the listing.
Health Insurance
401(K)
Pto
Paid Time Off