Director, Hardware & Robotics Engineering

Glacier; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 185,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Glacier is seeking a Director of Hardware Engineering in San Francisco’s Dogpatch, to lead hardware and robotics development. You will own the hardware roadmap, guide mechanical and electrical teams, and ensure systems are reliable, scalable, and cost-effective.

You’ll report to the CTO and shape both hardware architecture and team operations as the company scales, partnering across Operations, Manufacturing, and Software to deliver high-impact solutions.

Qualifications

• 5+ years hardware engineering experience, including 2+ years leading engineering teams.
• Strong background in robotics, mechatronics, pneumatics, structural design, and DFM.
• Experience taking hardware from prototype through production, including contract manufacturing and supply chain.
• Experience building hardware for real-world deployment.
• Strong project judgment across engineering capacity, customer timelines, cost, risk, and deployment constraints.

Responsibilities

• Own the hardware and robotics roadmap in collaboration with Product Management.
• Lead, mentor, and develop the hardware engineering team to stay focused and unblocked.
• Drive architectural tradeoffs across complex hardware systems.
• Establish lightweight engineering processes to improve execution, quality, and reliability.
• Partner with Operations, Manufacturing, Field Service, and Software to resolve cross-functional issues.
• Ensure machines can be manufactured, deployed, and supported reliably at scale.
• Balance engineering capacity, customer timelines, deployment requirements, cost, and risk.
• Step in as an IC when needed to overcome critical technical challenges.

Skills

Hardware engineering

Robotics

Mechatronics

Pneumatics

Structural design

DFM

Team leadership

Production ramp

Contract manufacturing

Supply chain

Job description

Glacier is seeking a Director of Hardware Engineering in San Francisco’s Dogpatch, to lead hardware and robotics development. You will own the hardware roadmap, guide mechanical and electrical teams, and ensure systems are reliable, scalable, and cost-effective.

You’ll report to the CTO and shape both hardware architecture and team operations as the company scales, partnering across Operations, Manufacturing, and Software to deliver high-impact solutions.