Product Design & HRI Engineer, Robotics Hardware

Field AI; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Field AI is seeking a Human-Robot Interaction & Product Design Engineer to develop hardware shaping how robotic systems look, feel, and sound. You will drive form, CMF decisions, and cross-team collaboration across Electrical, Mechanical, and Computing hardware to implement expressive robot interactions.

You will select displays, speakers, and microphones, validate rendering and boot-up, and balance SWaP across rugged and commercial settings.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or higher in a relevant field with hands-on HRI experience.
• 3+ years in industrial/product design, or robotics.
• Experience selecting speakers, displays, and lighting for hardware.
• Experience with CAD and prototyping methods.

Responsibilities

• Drive form, shape, and CMF decisions shaping robot appearance and feel.
• Oversee display and lighting selection, programming, and durability considerations for hardware.
• Select and program speakers and microphones for target use cases and balance SWaP.
• Collaborate with Electronics, Mechanical, and Computing teams and cross-functional groups.

Skills

Human-Robot Interaction

Industrial design

AV hardware selection

Firmware & validation

Cross-functional collaboration

Prototyping tools

AV system understanding

Education

B.S./M.S. or equivalent in HRI / EE / Mechanical or Industrial Design

Tools

CAD (Solidworks/Fusion/NX)

Python

Job description

Human-Robot Interaction & Product Design Engineer

In this role you will develop hardware that shapes how our robotic systems look, feel, and sound. This spans audio and visual systems, industrial design, and robotic expressiveness and motion. Within audio and visual systems, you will select and integrate displays, speakers, and microphones. Within industrial design, you will work on form and CMF (color, material, finish). You will also help define robot motion and expressiveness. As part of the Hardware department this role will involve significant hands‑on work bringing up and designing electromechanical elements.

You will coordinate with Product and UI/UX to identify what interactions and experiences are needed. Then work with Electrical, Mechanical, and Computing hardware personnel to implement them. Solutions must balance performance, durability, manufacturability, and SWaP (size, weight, power) constraints across environments ranging from rugged industrial sites to commercial settings with the general public.

What You Will Get To Do

Form & Interaction

• Form & Aesthetics: Drive form, shape, and CMF (color/material/finish) decisions that define how the robot looks and feels.
• Interaction & Expressiveness: Shape how people see, hear, and interact with the robot across displays, audio, and movement, adapting choices for industrial versus commercial and public settings.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Partner with hardware groups such as Electrical, Mechanical, and Computing, and company-wide groups such as Product, UX, and Field Ops, since many parts are interrelated.

Lighting & Visual Displays Systems

• Display & Lighting Selection: Drive selection and programming of screens (OLED, LCD, LED), LED strips, and multicolor lighting elements such as ambient lighting, and expressive displays, including novel concepts like projection interfaces.
• Durability & Readability: Ensure display and lighting durability (drop/impact resistance) and outdoor daylight readability across harsh field conditions.
• SWaP Tradeoffs: Own SWaP tradeoffs for all display and lighting components as they're integrated into the payload.
• Firmware & Validation: Write scripts to validate display boot-up, onboard compute connectivity, and correct rendering, catching crashes before field deployment.

Audio Systems

• Speaker & Microphone Selection: Select, spec, and program speakers and microphones for target use cases, balancing audio I/O needs with the robot's form factor.
• Acoustic Performance Evaluation: Evaluate loudness, voice pickup, and acoustic performance across environments to ensure clear two-way communication in the field.
• SWaP Tradeoffs: Balance size, weight, and power (SWaP) tradeoffs for audio components against other system constraints and payload budgets.

What You Have

• Education: B.S., M.S., or equivalent experience in Human-Robot Interaction, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical/Industrial Design, or a related field.
• Experience Level: Minimum of 3+ years of hands‑on experience working on industrial/product design, audio‑visual systems, or robotics. We welcome candidates across mid‑level to senior and staff levels.
• AV Hardware Selection: Experience selecting and specifying speakers, microphones, displays (OLED/LCD/LED), and lighting elements for hardware products.
• SWaP & Systems Integration: Comfort balancing size, weight, and power tradeoffs across audio‑visual and electromechanical system integration.
• Firmware & Validation: Experience writing scripts or tools to validate display boot‑up, rendering, and connectivity, catching failures before field deployment.
• Industrial Design Skillset: Experience with industrial design work, including form, shape, and CMF (color/material/finish) decisions, that shape a product's look and feel.
• Robot Behavior & UI/UX Bridge: Familiarity with how robot movement and behavior contribute to expressiveness, and comfort acting as the hardware bridge to a UI/UX team.
• Cross Functional Collaboration: Experience partnering with Electrical and Mechanical teams to deliver integrated hardware.
• Human-Robot Interaction Knowledge: Familiarity with HRI/HMI concepts such as expressive/multimodal interaction, gaze/attention, and emotion libraries.
• Prototyping Tools: Familiarity with CAD and 3D‑print prototyping for rapid iteration on audio‑visual hardware concepts.
• Software Tools: CAD (Solidworks/Fusion/NX), Python (or related programming language)

What Will Set You Apart

• Advanced Industrial Design: Experience owning industrial design end‑to‑end, including concept sketching, CMF systems, and prototyping, for consumer robotics or wearable hardware.
• User Research: Experience running or supporting user studies on preferences, such as eye or face design options for expressive robots.
• Animation & Expression: Experience with animation tools (Blender, Maya) or behavior/emotion libraries for expressive, character‑driven robot design.
• Functional Safety & Compliance: Familiarity with functional safety (SIL) and regulatory compliance (CE, FCC, UL) for audio‑visual hardware.
• Scaling: Experience taking audio‑visual hardware from prototype to volume manufacturing with contract manufacturers (CM) and DFM/DFA practices.