Reliability Engineer, Hardware

Bedrock Robotics; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Bedrock Robotics is seeking a Reliability Engineer to own hardware reliability for next-gen autonomous construction machines. You will define reliability programs across compute, sensors, power, and subsystems, lead DFMEAs and FTA, build reliability models, and close field failures back into design.

Collaborate with mechanical, electrical, software, manufacturing, and field teams to ensure machines perform in real-world harsh environments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Physics, Mechatronics, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years in hardware reliability engineering for vehicles, heavy machinery, robotics, automotive, aerospace, or industrial equipment.
• Deep hands-on DFMEA/FTA leadership, reliability prediction/modeling, HALT/HASS, ALT, and FRACAS-root-cause analysis.

Responsibilities

• Define and own hardware reliability strategy, requirements, and budgets for autonomy upfit hardware.
• Plan and facilitate DFMEA across mechanical, electrical, and electromechanical subsystems.
• Build and maintain fault trees for safety-critical functions and drive design/test actions to closure.
• Develop reliability block diagrams, predictions, Weibull/life-data analysis, and reliability growth tracking.
• Define and execute HALT/HASS, ALT, and environmental/durability tests with margins.
• Lead field failure investigations (8D, 5-Whys, fishbone) and drive corrective actions into design.
• Embed reliability into design reviews (derating, redundancy, margin) and gate NPIs.
• Collaborate with supply chain and vendors on component reliability and obsolescence risk.
• Build reliability data pipelines and dashboards; apply statistics to surface trends.
• Partner with cross-functional teams during bring-up, validation, and deployment.

Skills

DFMEA

FTA

Reliability modeling

Weibull analysis

Statistical tools

Python

Minitab

ReliaSoft

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering

Reliability Engineering experience

Tools

ReliaSoft Weibull++/BlockSim

Windchill Quality/Relex

Minitab

Python or R

Job description

Join the team bringing advanced autonomy to the built world

At Bedrock, we're moving AI out of the lab and into the real world. Our team includes veterans who helped launch Waymo, scaled Segment to a $3.2B acquisition, and grew Uber Freight to $5B in revenue. Today, we're deploying autonomous systems on heavy construction equipment across the country, improving safety on job sites and accelerating schedules on critical infrastructure projects.

We're not here debating the future of AI. We're deploying it in the real world. In just two years, we've raised $350M and achieved the first fully autonomous excavator deployments in construction.

This is where algorithms meet steel-toed boots. You'll work alongside construction veterans and world-class engineers to solve physical-world problems that simulations can't touch. If you're ready to do meaningful work on hard problems, we'd love to have you join us.

The Role

As a Reliability Engineer, you will own hardware reliability for our next-generation autonomous construction machines. You will define and drive the reliability engineering programs across compute, sensors, cleaning, power, actuation, and supporting subsystems — establishing reliability requirements and budgets, leading Design FMEAs (DFMEA) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), building reliability models and test programs, and closing the loop from field failures back into design. Working closely with mechanical, electrical, software, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and field teams, you will translate reliability goals into design, test, and process decisions that keep machines running in demanding real-world environments — from vibration and shock, to dust, debris, thermal extremes, and weather exposure.

What You’ll Do:

• Reliability Program Ownership: Define and own the hardware reliability strategy, requirements, and budgets (reliability/availability targets, MTBF/MTBUR goals, duty cycles, mission profiles) for autonomy upfit hardware across the vehicle platform.

• DFMEA Leadership: Plan and facilitate Design FMEAs across mechanical, electrical, and electromechanical subsystems — identifying failure modes, effects, and causes; scoring severity/occurrence/detection; prioritizing with RPN/Action Priority; and driving design and test actions to closure.

• Fault Tree Analysis (FTA): Build and maintain fault trees for safety-critical and availability-critical functions; perform qualitative and quantitative FTA, identify minimal cut sets and single points of failure, and link top-level undesired events to design, redundancy, and verification requirements.

• Reliability Modeling & Prediction: Develop reliability block diagrams, reliability allocations, and predictions; perform Weibull and life-data analysis, reliability growth tracking, and worst-case/derating analysis to forecast field performance and inform design tradeoffs.

• Reliability Testing: Define and execute HALT/HASS, accelerated life testing (ALT), and environmental/durability test programs (vibration, shock, thermal cycling, dust/water ingress, corrosion); set test-to-failure margins and design ongoing stress screens.

• Field Failure Analysis: Stand up and run a Failure Reporting, Analysis, and Corrective Action System; lead root-cause investigations (8D, 5-Whys, fishbone, fault isolation) and drive corrective/preventive actions from field and test data into design and process.

• Design for Reliability (DfR): Embed reliability into design and milestone reviews — derating, redundancy, tolerance stack-up, thermal and vibration margin, connector/harness reliability, ingress protection — and gate designs at NPI stages.

• Supplier & Component Reliability: Partner with supply chain and vendors to qualify components and suppliers, define reliability acceptance criteria, review supplier reliability data, and manage derating, qualification, and obsolescence risk.

• Reliability Data & Tooling: Build reliability data pipelines and dashboards from warranty/field returns, machine telemetry, and test data; apply statistical methods to quantify reliability and surface emerging failure trends early.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with electrical, mechanical, software, manufacturing, and field teams during bring-up, validation, and deployment to turn reliability findings into actionable design, process, and test changes.

• Documentation & Standards: Maintain reliability deliverables (DFMEA and FTA records, reliability plans, prediction models, test reports, FRACAS records) and develop best-practice reliability processes that support predictability, transparency, and quality.

Key Qualifications:

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Physics, Mechatronics, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

• Experience: 10+ years in hardware reliability engineering for vehicles, heavy machinery, robotics, automotive, aerospace, or industrial equipment.

• Reliability Methods: Deep, hands-on expertise leading DFMEA and FTA, plus reliability prediction/modeling, accelerated and life testing (HALT/HASS, ALT), and structured root-cause analysis / FRACAS.

• Tools: Strong working knowledge of reliability and statistical tools (e.g., ReliaSoft Weibull++/BlockSim, Windchill Quality/Relex, Minitab, Python or R); familiarity with PDM/PLM systems a plus.

Bedrock Robotics is an Equal Opportunity Employer

We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic.

Reasonable Accommodations

We want our hiring process to be accessible to everyone. If you need an accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, please let your recruiter know so we can support you.