Robotics Reliability Engineer - Motors, Mechanisms and Electronics

Matic Robots Inc.; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Matic Robots Inc. is seeking a Robotics Reliability Engineer to own reliability across motors, mechanics, and electronics from design to customer homes.

You will define DFMEA targets, design and execute accelerated tests, and track failure modes across the fleet to drive engineering improvements. In this fast-paced startup, you will analyze field data, build robust test setups, and work cross-functionally with mechanical, electrical, and software teams to deliver dependable home robotics.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, materials science, or equivalent; 2-5 years in reliability engineering.
• Proven track record defining reliability targets and test plans for consumer electronics.
• Deep comfort with reliability statistics: life data analysis, Weibull++ or equivalent, and accelerated test models.
• Solid understanding of Design of Experiments (DOE), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA/DFMEA), and physics of failure.
• Experience specifying test setups for reliability testing and partnering with others to build them.
• Comfort analyzing messy, multi-source field data and turning it into clear engineering priorities.
• Comfort with fast-paced startup atmosphere and owning the work.

Responsibilities

• Partner with design engineers to understand physics of failure and design accelerated tests.
• Run DFMEA and set reliability targets early, defining tests, sample sizes, durations, and acceleration factors.
• Collaborate to design test setups for loading scenarios like fatigue, vibration, shock, and environmental conditions.
• Monitor how robots fail in the field via tickets, returns, and telemetry; tear down units to identify failures.
• Own and track field and potential failure modes across the fleet and drive resolutions via testing or design change.
• Build and own analytics on motor and sensor telemetry to surface failures at scale.
• Perform root cause failure analysis from bench tests to field returns.
• Prepare concise test plans, drive execution, analyze reports, and present results to stakeholders.
• Influence design direction by flagging under-prioritized failure modes and where bandwidth should go.
• Strengthen Design for Reliability practices across mechanical, electrical, and software engineering.

Skills

Reliability engineering

DFMEA

FMEA

Weibull statistics

Design of Experiments

Data analysis

Root cause analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering or materials science

Advanced degree in reliability or related field

Tools

Weibull++

Job description

Company Overview

Each year, 2.5 trillion hours are spent on household chores. At Matic, we’re on a mission to recapture that lost time, and we’re doing it by revolutionizing home robotics.

Our first product, also called Matic, is a Wall-E-esque floor cleaning robot. We've built what amounts to \"full self-driving in the home\" with real-time 3D mapping, adaptive path-tracking, and a precise semantic understanding of the home. Our breakthroughs in spatial AI allow Matic to work reliably in homes, using only RGB cameras and neural networks running on-device.

Privacy First

What happens in the home, stays in the home. Our robots are private by design, with all data processing performed by the robot itself, not in the cloud.

Our Approach

Before the iPhone, consumers adopted several distinct devices; cell phones, PDAs, and portable music players each served a particular need. We believe in a similar progression for home robotics, starting with single-purpose robots and building iteratively toward more complex capabilities over time.

Our Culture

Matic is a tight-knit and collaborative team, singularly focused on building products our customers will cherish. We're ultra-hardworking people committed to solving tough problems that save precious time and energy.

About the role

As a Robotics Reliability Engineer, you own reliability across our subsystems, especially motors, mechanisms, and electronics, from the drawing board all the way into customers’ homes. The role has two halves, and you live in both.

Before launch, you are our design-for-reliability conscience. You partner with design engineers to predict how a part or subsystem could fail, run DFMEA to map those failure modes, and define how we prove them out: which tests, accelerated how, for how long, and with how many samples. You set the reliability targets and the plan to hit them, so problems get caught on the bench instead of in someone’s living room.

After launch, once robots are in real homes, the real data starts coming from every direction: support tickets, customers posting when something breaks, robots sent back for repair, and the motor and sensor telemetry customers consent to share. A robot returned for one problem is often broken in five other ways the customer never noticed, so you tear it down and find all of them. Your job is to see every way a robot is failing or could fail, keep track of all of it, and turn that signal into action: new tests and test setups where we need them, and clear input on which failure modes are under-prioritized and need engineering bandwidth.

What you’ll do

• Partner with design engineers to understand the physics of failure and design accelerated test methods that represent real field behavior
• Run DFMEA and set reliability targets early, predicting failure modes before launch and specifying the tests, sample sizes, durations, and acceleration factors needed to prove the design out
• Collaborate with our reliability design engineers to design and build test setups for different loading scenarios such as fatigue, vibration and shock, and temperature and humidity
• Monitor every way our robots fail in the field, across support tickets, social media, returns, and telemetry, and tear down returned units to find failures the customer never reported
• Own and track the full catalog of field and potential failure modes across the fleet, and drive each one to resolution through either testing or a design change
• Build and own the analytics on motor and sensor telemetry that surface where features and parts are failing at scale
• Perform root cause failure analysis at every stage, from early bench testing through field returns
• Prepare concise and detailed test plans, drive test execution, analyze test reports, and present results to all relevant stakeholders
• Influence design direction and prioritization by flagging which failure modes are under-prioritized and where design bandwidth should go
• Strengthen DFR practices while acting in a cross-disciplinary fashion spanning mechanical, electrical, and software engineering

What we look for

• Technical degree in mechanical engineering, materials science, or equivalent, with 2-5 years of experience in a reliability engineering position. An advanced degree in reliability, materials science, or a related field is a strong plus
• Track record of defining reliability targets and test plans for consumer electronic products
• Deep comfort with reliability statistics: life data analysis, Weibull++ or equivalent, and a range of accelerated test models
• Solid understanding of Design of Experiments (DOE), Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA and DFMEA), and physics of failure
• Experience specifying test setups for reliability testing and partnering with others to build them
• Comfort analyzing messy, multi-source field data such as support tickets, returns, and telemetry, and turning it into clear engineering priorities
• Comfort with fast-paced, startup atmosphere — you don’t shy away from the hard work
• High level of maturity, ownership, and pride in your work

We’d love to hear from you if...

• You are genuinely motivated to help those around you
• You are passionate about learning outside of your normal comfort zones
• You love diagnosing complex technical issues
• You are excited to do great work

Compensation:

Base: $130,000 - $200,000 per annum.

Actual Compensation will depend on skills, experience and qualifications. Base Salary is one part of the total compensation package. The role is also eligible for equity through the company’s discretionary equity program, along with a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental and vision coverage access to a 401(k) plan.