Head of Hardware

Ultra; Brooklyn (AL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Ultra is seeking an experienced hardware engineering leader to head a team building high-performance warehouse robots. You will drive the end-to-end design process from concept through production, delivering reliable systems at scale.

You’ll lead a cross-functional organization, set engineering standards, and partner with procurement, software, and product teams to ship thousands of units while growing an elite hardware group.

Qualifications

• Proven track record delivering electromechanical systems from concept to production.
• Experience leading hardware teams in robotics.
• Strong knowledge of DFM/DFA and EVT/DVT processes.
• Experience with supplier qualification and IQC practices.
• Ability to ship hardware at scale.

Responsibilities

• Strategic ownership of R&D priorities and roadmap.
• Scale product to hundreds and thousands with reliability.
• Lead end-to-end design and R&D investments for next-gen products.
• Establish repeatable processes for volume production and testing.
• Set engineering standards, change control, and test coverage.
• Decide make vs buy and manage supplier relationships.
• Collaborate with Software, Autonomy, Product, and Ops teams.
• Build and grow a world-class hardware team.

Skills

Volume production

Robotics experience

Technical leadership

Full lifecycle ownership

Supplier management

Team building

Job description

The role

We are looking for someone to lead the team that designs and builds our high-performance warehouse robots. You will be taking complex electromechanical systems from a blank page through requirements, prototyping, lifecycle testing, and production, and shipping them by the thousands. Your mission is to build an elite team of engineers who know how to surprise and delight our customers with reliable, innovative hardware, and to build the engineering engine that lets us scale it. You’ll be given real budget, strategic influence, and a seat on the leadership team.

What you’ll do

• Strategic ownership. You are a core member of the leadership team, with strategic influence over R&D priorities, product roadmap, capital allocation, and growth planning.
• Scale the current product to hundreds. Deliver hundreds of units on time and at the quality our customers expect, optimizing the design to raise field reliability and manufacturing yield.
• Lead next-gen design to deliver thousands. Own the end-to-end design process for our next-generation products. Invest in R&D that delivers significant improvements for our customers, and lead the team to build it at scale.
• Build a repeatable engine. Put in place the process, tooling, and documentation that let us go from concept to volume production predictably. Each iteration is a preparation for the next.
• Set engineering standards. As the tech lead, you will set expectations for quality, documentation, DFM/DFA, change control, and test coverage.
• Drive build vs. buy. Lead the decisions on what we design in-house vs. outsource, what we assemble ourselves vs. contract out, and where off-the-shelf parts are the right answer.
• Evaluate suppliers. Work with procurement to run a structured process to specify, evaluate, and select components and vendors.
• Build an elite hardware team. Hire a hardware team matched to the depth of design work ahead: mechanical, electrical, and manufacturing.
• Partner cross-functionally. Work closely with Software, Autonomy, Product, and Customer Operations to deliver a product that meets market needs.

Who you are

• Shipped at volume. Track record leading teams that delivered complete systems from concept to customer, at thousands of units.
• 10+ years with similar hardware. Extensive experience developing robotics or comparable electromechanical systems and taking them from prototype to volume production.
• Technical and team leadership. You have both the technical depth and the leadership experience to make the right decisions, make the hard decisions, and deliver on time.
• Full lifecycle ownership. Hands-on experience running an engineering process from requirements → EVT/DVT/PVT builds → scaled production.
• Supplier expertise. Experience with supplier selection and management, including sourcing custom or hard-to-find components and evaluating vendor quality with a strict IQC process.
• Team builder. Proven ability to hire, develop, and retain strong engineers.c