Head of Engineering

Charge Robotics; San Leandro (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Charge Robotics is seeking a Head of Engineering to lead a 15+ person team through the next growth phase, transitioning from prototyping to repeatable, high-quality production. You will stay hands-on when needed to ensure fast, reliable execution.

You will report to the CEO, mentor engineers, align engineering with company goals, and scale from R&D to full production while upholding strong technical standards. Occasional travel to field sites may be required.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in an engineering leadership role.
• Oversee multiple development cycles end-to-end and ship complex electromechanical systems.
• Balance shipping speed with quality while guiding broader organizational goals.
• Based in the SF Bay Area or willing to relocate to San Leandro and work 4-5 days/week.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, Physics, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow an all-star, multi-disciplinary engineering team.
• Collaborate with leadership to align engineering initiatives with company goals and roadmap.
• Design our product while shaping team structure and engineering processes for deployment.
• Scale engineering from R&D through manufacturing to full production.
• Represent the engineering function to employees, customers, executives, and investors.
• Establish and continuously improve engineering management processes, including performance reviews and planning.
• Set the bar for development, testing, and documentation practices.
• Continuously learn new industry best practices and emerging technologies.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Robotics

System design

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Bachelor's degree in Robotics

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Bachelor's degree in Physics

Job description

About Charge

Charge Robotics is a Series A startup building robots that build solar farms.

Demand for new solar projects is booming (one-fifth of all the solar that exists in the US was installed last year!), but today’s construction companies can’t keep up due to limited labor resources.

We thought this was insane, so we developed robots to directly address this bottleneck and speed up the world’s transition to renewables. We’ve shipped our first commercial system already, and are in the process of scaling up our operations to meet our massive demand.

Charge is a fast-moving company, which means constant opportunities for learning and growth. You’ll have a large impact on the direction of our company and our product, which will be reflected in significant equity compensation. And you get to work with giant robots.

If you are excited to work on interesting technical problems with direct climate impact, you’re going to fit right in at Charge Robotics.

Read more about Charge in recent press:

• Fast Company - Solar Building Robots to Solve One of Climate's Biggest Problems

• MIT News - Making solar projects cheaper and faster with portable factories

• YouTube - full video of our Gen1 robots building a solar farm

Charge’s funding:

We’re MIT-founded and backed by Silicon Valley’s top investors, including Founders Fund, Energy Impact Partners, Lux Capital, YC (S21), and more.

About the role

Charge Robotics is hiring a Head of Engineering to lead the engineering team through our next stage of growth: transitioning from first commercial deployments to repeatable builds and performance at scale. You will lead a 15+ person, cross-disciplinary team and stay hands-on where needed to keep execution fast and technical quality high.

What you will do

• Report directly to the CEO in order to lead, mentor, and grow an all-star, multi-disciplinary engineering team

• Collaborate closely with company leadership to align the strategic direction of engineering initiatives with company goals and roadmap

• Be a critical part of driving the design of our product while architecting the team structure and engineering processes required to bring it to deployed reality

• Scale engineering operations from R&D through manufacturing, leading the transition from prototype development to full production

• Internally and externally represent the engineering function of the organization to key stakeholders including employees, customers, executives, and investors

• Establish and continuously improve engineering management processes, including performance reviews, planning, and organizational design

• Set the bar for excellence across engineering activity, including implementing best practices for development, testing, and documentation

• Continuously learn new industry best practices and emerging technologies

As Head of Engineering at Charge Robotics, you’ll have a wide and critical impact which includes shaping our core technical team, expanding our existing culture of engineering excellence, creating effective processes, and helping ship a transformative product. You'll engage with internal and external teams to help ensure we’re successful in achieving our mission of creating a better way to build solar power.

You

• Gain satisfaction from personally playing a part in mitigating climate change

• Have excellent verbal and written communication skills

• Have excellent interpersonal relationship management skills

• Have 5+ years of experience in an engineering leadership role

• Have overseen multiple development cycles end-to-end and shipped complex electromechanical systems

• Can roll up your sleeves to dive into a problem when needed, but maintain context of broader organizational goals and perspective

• Are strongly opinionated but know how and when to compromise effectively

• Are versed in walking the careful balance between shipping quickly and shipping quality

• Operate effectively in the fast-paced environment of a rapidly growing startup

• Have a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, Physics, or a related field

• Are based in or can relocate to the SF Bay Area, and able to work 4-5 days/week from our San Leandro HQ

• Are open to ~10% travel to field (solar construction sites) to work directly with our product in its deployment environment

• Are excited to see our robots deployed onto actual solar farms!

It’d also be nice if you

• Have extensive experience developing automation and robotics systems

• Have experience working with solar power generation technologies

• Have experience working directly in multiple different engineering disciplines

Base pay is one element of our Total Rewards package which may also include comprehensive benefits and equity, depending on eligibility. The annual base salary range for this position is from $180,000 to $300,000. The actual base pay offered will be determined on factors such as years of relevant experience, skills, education and training. Decisions will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.