Electrical Design Lead

Mind Robotics; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Mind Robotics seeks an Electrical Engineering Lead to own the end-to-end electrical architecture for its advanced robotic systems. This hands-on role drives schematic design, PCB layout, and fault isolation, mentoring the EE team and guiding development from bench to production with a focus on power electronics, motor drives, and high-speed sensing stacks, including EtherCAT.

You will partner across mechanical, firmware, and perception teams to translate product requirements into hardware specs

Qualifications

• 8+ years of full-cycle board development for complex robotic/electromechanical systems.
• Hands-on hardware design experience rather than pure management.
• Deep EtherCAT experience for distributed actuation and sensing.
• Strong power electronics, motor drives, and high-current architecture knowledge.
• Experience with EMI/EMC, thermal considerations, and production readiness.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and scale the EE team including power, sensing, and electrical design.
• Own end-to-end electrical architecture and overall electrical budget for robotic systems.
• Set EE design standards, review schematics and layouts, arbitrate trade-offs.
• Collaborate with mechanical, firmware, and perception teams to translate requirements into hardware specs.
• Lead system-level electrical bring-up, fault isolation, and root-cause debugging.
• Establish scalable workflows for design reviews, ECOs, and roadmapping.
• Drive DFM/DFA and coordinate with PCB fabricators and contract manufacturers.

Skills

Board development

Schematic design

PCB layout

Fault isolation

Power electronics

Motor drives

EtherCAT

Distributed actuation

High-speed interfaces

Firmware literacy

Education

Electrical Engineering degree

Tools

SPI

I2C

UART

PMBus

Job description

About Mind

Mind Robotics is building Physical AI for real-world industrial deployment, starting with the factory floor. We believe the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with the physical world every day - and we're looking for people who are passionate about robotics, value ownership, and are excited to tackle difficult problems. Join us if you want to move beyond digital intelligence and put intelligence into motion.

About Mind

Mind Robotics is building Physical AI for real-world industrial deployment, starting with the factory floor. We believe the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with the physical world every day - and we're looking for people who are passionate about robotics, value ownership, and are excited to tackle difficult problems. Join us if you want to move beyond digital intelligence and put intelligence into motion.

About The Role

We are looking for our Electrical Engineering Lead to own the end-to-end electrical architecture for our advanced robotic systems. This is a hands-on, deeply technical leadership role for an engineer who leads from the bench, personally driving schematic design, PCB layout, and low-level fault isolation, rather than managing from a distance.

As a technical authority and mentor, you will elevate the team's standard for engineering excellence while making critical trade-offs across power electronics, motor drives, high-speed sensing stacks, and EtherCAT-based distributed actuation.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and scale the EE team (power electronics, sensing, and electrical design) while raising the technical bar through hiring and onboarding.
• Own the robot's end-to-end electrical architecture (power, actuation, sensing, compute integration, and harnessing) and overall electrical budget.
• Set EE design standards, review schematics/layouts, and arbitrate trade-offs across signal integrity, EMI/EMC, thermals, and cost.
• Partner with mechanical, firmware, and perception teams to translate product requirements into hardware specs and integrate high-speed sensor stacks.
• Lead system-level electrical bring-up, fault isolation, and root-cause debugging across board boundaries from the lab bench.
• Establish lightweight, scalable workflows for design reviews, schematic/layout sign-offs, ECO discipline, and roadmapping.
• Drive DFM/DFA, collaborate with PCB fabricators and contract manufacturers, and secure second-source components for production ramp.

Qualifications

• Technical degree in EE (or equivalent) with 8+ years of full-cycle board development (schematic to production) for complex robotic, automotive, or electromechanical systems.
• A first-principles engineer who actively designs, lays out, and debugs hardware rather than managing purely from a distance.
• Deep, hands-on experience with EtherCAT (topology, distributed-clock sync, PDO mapping) for distributed actuation and sensing.
• Mastery of at least one core domain-power electronics/motor drives or sensor/mixed-signal front-ends with broad fluency across both.
• Strong grasp of high-current power architectures, rail partitioning, budgeting, and circuit protection (OVP/UVP/OCP/OTP).
• Solid command of EMI/EMC, grounding, and ESD mitigation in noisy, motor-dense environments.
• Fluency with high-speed serial interfaces and protocols (SPI, I2C, UART, PMBus), plus enough firmware literacy to debug hardware boundaries.
• Proven experience mentoring engineers, managing risk, and driving multi-board hardware projects through volume manufacturing.