Mechatronics Engineer, Robotics — Field Automation

TAR; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation bonus up to $15K

Unlimited PTO

Health, Dental, Vision insurance

Meal stipend $1K monthly

Job summary

TAR in San Francisco is seeking a Mechatronics engineer to own the machine’s electrical integration and firmware, uniting power electronics, motor control, sensing, wiring, and real-time control for a heavy, precise robot. The role blends hardware and software across prototype to small fleet, with field time at the West Texas campus.

You will collaborate with mechanical and electrical teams, ship robust designs, and push a project from concept to field-ready hardware in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of electrical engineering experience, including meaningful time at a robotics company or on mobile or field robotic systems.
• Deep fluency in the electrical side of robots: power electronics, motor control (BLDC, servo, or hydraulic proportional), sensor integration, and signal integrity in noisy environments.
• Hands‑on embedded skills: comfortable writing firmware in C or C++ for real‑time control, working with CAN or EtherCAT, and debugging with a scope.
• Track record of taking an electromechanical system from schematic to working hardware in the real world.
• Pragmatic safety mindset: functional safety, e-stop design, and interlocks for a machine that exerts serious force.
• Bias for speed and high ownership: you bring systems up from nothing and debug them in the field.

Responsibilities

• Own the driver’s electrical integration, building on board designs and fleet architecture from the electrical engineering team: battery and power distribution, motor controllers, e-stop and safety circuits, and connectors and harnessing that survive dust, heat, and vibration.
• Select and integrate motors, drives, and actuators with the mechanical team, and tune motor control for both locomotion and the pile-driving tool head.
• Design and build the sensing stack: encoders, IMU, load and force sensing on the driving mechanism, RTK-GNSS integration, and limit and proximity sensing.
• Develop embedded firmware and real-time control, including CAN bus architecture, control loops, interlocks, fault handling, and telemetry and logging.
• Stand up the electrical test and bring-up process: bench testing, hardware-in-the-loop where it pays off, and field debugging with rigorous root-cause analysis.
• Design for the environment: EMI on a machine full of motor drives, thermal management in West Texas summers, ingress protection, and serviceability by field techs.
• Support the path from one prototype to a small fleet through wire harness DFM, documentation, and supplier management.

Skills

Electrical engineering

Robotics experience

Firmware in C/C++

Motor control

System integration

Safety interlocks

Field debugging

Tools

CAN bus

EtherCAT

Oscilloscope

Job description

TAR in San Francisco is seeking a Mechatronics engineer to own the machine’s electrical integration and firmware, uniting power electronics, motor control, sensing, wiring, and real-time control for a heavy, precise robot. The role blends hardware and software across prototype to small fleet, with field time at the West Texas campus.

You will collaborate with mechanical and electrical teams, ship robust designs, and push a project from concept to field-ready hardware in a fast-paced environment.