Field Engineering Technician

Chef Robotics; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Commuter benefits

Flexible PTO

Catered lunch

401(k) matching

Job summary

Chef Robotics, Inc. is seeking a Field Engineering Tech to keep deployed robotic food-portioning modules at peak performance across customer facilities.

You will diagnose root causes, repair, tune configurations via HMI, and relay learnings back to Engineering teams. You will travel regionally to customer sites, perform preventative maintenance, validate fixes, and help optimize settings for various ingredients and line conditions.

Qualifications

• Hands-on field maintenance, diagnostics, or commissioning automated equipment.
• Ability to diagnose root causes across mechanical, electrical, pneumatic and controls systems.
• Experience with HMIs, PLCs, or equipment parameter configuration; Linux a plus.

Responsibilities

• Perform field repairs and diagnostics on Chef modules across mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, sensor, and controls systems.
• Tune module configurations and parameters via the HMI to improve throughput and uptime.
• Record findings and separate configuration, hardware, and software causes for escalation.

Skills

Field diagnostics

Root-cause analysis

Customer communication

Electrical troubleshooting

Mechanical troubleshooting

Education

Associate degree / technical certification in mechatronics or related field

Tools

HMI configuration

PLC basics

Multimeter

Job description

About the Role

Chef Robotics is seeking a Field Engineering Tech to keep our deployed robotic food-portioning modules performing at their best at customer food production sites. This is a hands-on, technical role: we are looking for a tech who diagnoses root causes, repairs, tunes module configurations via HMI, and carries what they learn in the field back to our Engineering teams.

In this role, you will work on-site at customer facilities across your region, partnering with customer operations teams to understand issues, perform repairs and preventative maintenance, validate fixes, and tune modules for each customer’s ingredients, containers, and line conditions. You will also travel to customer sites outside of your region for deployments at new customers or service for customers out of region. You will be supported remotely by our Robotic Operations Engineers, Systems Reliability Engineers, and Forward Deployment Engineers and you will be a first-hand source of field data for Engineering, helping turn recurring failures into permanent fixes.

The environment of our customers is in a food manufacturing environment, occasionally refrigerated with washdown procedures present. Candidates are willing to spend longer hours in these environments.

This is an opportunity to use your technical depth and curiosity for robotics while having a direct impact on customer uptime, Chef's revenue stream, and the design of our next-generation products. If you are excited about working in a customer-facing role on hard technical problems and you thrive in the fast-paced, dynamic environment of an early-stage startup, we’d love to hear from you. Please note that this is a customer-facing role and schedules follow customer production, which may include early mornings, weekends, and off-hours.

Location

Regional, based in LA or NY region, with travel to customer facilities as needed (up to ~50%).

What You’ll Do

• Perform field repairs and diagnostics on Chef modules across mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, sensor, and controls systems, and drive to the root cause rather than stopping at the failed part
• Tune and validate module configurations and parameters through the HMI to improve throughput, accuracy, and uptime for each customer’s ingredients, containers, and line conditions, changing one variable at a time and recording what worked
• Use logs, fleet data, and on-site observation to separate configuration, hardware, and software causes, and elevate to Systems Reliability Engineers with evidence rather than symptoms
• Provide structured feedback to the Engineering team: recurring failure modes, serviceability and design issues, configuration learnings, and customer needs seen in the field
• Execute preventative maintenance on schedule and document wear trends and findings
• Run testing for new meals and new ingredients: set up, tune, record results, and recommend settings
• Track and log hardware requests, part numbers, and part quantities using the hardware request workflow
• Write and improve runbooks, work instructions, and troubleshooting guides based on what you learn in the field
• Coordinate with 3P technicians at customer sites and guide customer operators on day-to-day care and handling of the modules
• Communicate clearly with customer operations teams about what you found, what you changed, and what to expect
• Follow customer site safety, food safety, and lockout/tagout requirements at all times

Qualifications

• 2-5 years of hands-on experience maintaining, troubleshooting, or commissioning automated equipment (robotics, mechatronics, industrial automation, packaging, or food-processing machinery)
• Comfortable with electrical and mechanical troubleshooting: reading schematics, using a multimeter, and working with sensors, motors, drives, and pneumatics
• Experience with HMIs, PLCs, or equipment parameter configuration, and the discipline to change a setting, observe the result, and iterate methodically. Linux experience preferred.
• A systematic problem solver who forms hypotheses, isolates variables, and documents findings so others can reproduce them
• Clear written and verbal communication, including the ability to give Engineering actionable, evidence-backed feedback
• Comfortable with laptops, logs, and data tools; basic Linux or command-line experience is a plus
• Associate degree or technical certification in mechatronics, electronics, robotics, or a related field, or equivalent experience
• Able to travel regionally and work in food production environments, including wash-down, cold, and noisy areas, with PPE

Compensation

The base pay range for this role is $65,000 - $90,000 per year.

Chef is an early-stage startup where equity is a major part of the compensation package. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position. Within the range, individual pay is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

Benefits

In addition to salary and early-stage equity, we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes

• medical
• dental
• vision insurance
• commuter benefits
• flexible paid time off (PTO)
• catered lunch
• 401(k) matching