Robotics Test & Troubleshooting Technician

Tutor; Watertown (MA); On-site; USD 52,000 - 69,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) plan

Unlimited PTO

Team meals

Job summary

Tutor Intelligence, based in Watertown, MA, is seeking an hands-on technician to power up robots, bring all systems to life, and own them until tested and ready to ship.

If you've commissioned or brought up complete machines and can read electrical schematics, you’ll fit right in. You’ll work on autonomous palletizers in a fast-paced production environment with safety, quality, and customer impact at the forefront.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience troubleshooting and repairing complete machines: robots, industrial automation, field equipment or similar electromechanical systems.
• Experience bringing machines up or commissioning them, not only assembling or running checklists.
• Comfort reading electrical schematics, wiring diagrams and assembly drawings.

Responsibilities

• Receive robots from the line, inspect wiring workmanship and perform a safe first power-up
• Bring up each subsystem: DC power and battery, CAN communications, robot arm and controller, mobile base and drives, sensors, vacuum and safety circuits
• Load and verify software, firmware, calibrations and configurations using our tools and procedures
• Run functional and final acceptance tests, including multi-hour continuous runs
• Troubleshoot electrical, mechanical and configuration failures down to root cause
• Repair within approved procedures, then retest to prove the fix
• Tear down and bench-test returned parts to support failure analysis by our Quality & Reliability Engineer
• Log failures, repairs and test results in our manufacturing system, tied to each robot's serial number
• Prep robots for shipment: final checks, battery charge, arm stowing and paperwork
• Bring recurring problems to Production Engineering and Quality so they get fixed at the source
• Help train other technicians and build troubleshooting guides
• Follow electrical safety, ESD, lithium battery and lockout procedures

Skills

Robotics troubleshooting

Electrical schematics

Multimeter use

DC power systems

Automation tech

Education

Technical school or equivalent

Tools

Oscilloscope

CAN bus tools

Linux basics

Job description

About Tutor

We believe robots are the biggest lever we have to making the physical world a better, more affordable place. But robots are a rounding error in our society: nearly nine out of ten American factories and warehouses don’t even have a single robot, and robots have yet to make their way into our homes or places of business. Tutor Intelligence is changing that. Tutor is a robotics research and deployment company, building generally capable robot hardware and artificial intelligence to enable robots to go where no robots have gone before. Sonny is a semi-humanoid robot with frontier dexterity approaching the human form. Cassie does back-breaking work, moving boxes, pallets, and bulk goods for businesses from family-owned manufacturers to some of the largest brands in the world. Tutor robots are manufactured at scale and operate as a network, combining the whole fleet’s learned experience to train ever more capable robot artificial intelligence. Founded at MIT and headquartered in Watertown, MA, our team is full stack: we design and manufacture robot hardware, train our own models, work directly with the smallest and largest end-customers, and maintain our fleet across the United States. We’re a team of researchers, engineers, technicians, operators, and sellers who love building things and solving hard problems. Our mission is grand: robots everywhere, for the common good, raising the standard of living across North America, and then the world.

About Tutor

We believe robots are the biggest lever we have to making the physical world a better, more affordable place. But robots are a rounding error in our society: nearly nine out of ten American factories and warehouses don’t even have a single robot, and robots have yet to make their way into our homes or places of business. Tutor Intelligence is changing that. Tutor is a robotics research and deployment company, building generally capable robot hardware and artificial intelligence to enable robots to go where no robots have gone before. Sonny is a semi-humanoid robot with frontier dexterity approaching the human form. Cassie does back-breaking work, moving boxes, pallets, and bulk goods for businesses from family-owned manufacturers to some of the largest brands in the world. Tutor robots are manufactured at scale and operate as a network, combining the whole fleet’s learned experience to train ever more capable robot artificial intelligence. Founded at MIT and headquartered in Watertown, MA, our team is full stack: we design and manufacture robot hardware, train our own models, work directly with the smallest and largest end-customers, and maintain our fleet across the United States. We’re a team of researchers, engineers, technicians, operators, and sellers who love building things and solving hard problems. Our mission is grand: robots everywhere, for the common good, raising the standard of living across North America, and then the world.

The Role

You’ll take a robot fresh off the assembly line, power it up, bring every system to life, and own it until it’s tested, documented and ready to ship. When it doesn't work, and some won’t, you’ll find out why with a meter and a schematic, fix it, and make sure it stays fixed. This isn't a pass/fail checklist job. If you've commissioned, repaired or brought up complete machines (robots, packaging lines, AGVs, CNC or similar), this is your kind of work. The robot is an autonomous palletizer: a collaborative robot arm on a battery-powered mobile base, with vacuum tooling, sensors and safety circuits. Every one you release goes to a real warehouse. You’re the last set of hands before the customer.

What You’ll Do

• Receive robots from the line, inspect wiring workmanship and perform a safe first power-up
• Bring up each subsystem: DC power and battery, CAN communications, robot arm and controller, mobile base and drives, sensors, vacuum and safety circuits
• Load and verify software, firmware, calibrations and configurations using our tools and procedures
• Run functional and final acceptance tests, including multi-hour continuous runs
• Troubleshoot electrical, mechanical and configuration failures down to root cause
• Repair within approved procedures, then retest to prove the fix
• Tear down and bench-test returned parts to support failure analysis by our Quality & Reliability Engineer
• Log failures, repairs and test results in our manufacturing system, tied to each robot's serial number
• Prep robots for shipment: final checks, battery charge, arm stowing and paperwork
• Bring recurring problems to Production Engineering and Quality so they get fixed at the source
• Help train other technicians and build troubleshooting guides
• Follow electrical safety, ESD, lithium battery and lockout procedures

What Success Looks Like

• 90 days: You bring up, test and release robots on your own, and your failure logs are clear enough that engineering can act on them without asking you twice
• 1 year: You're the go-to troubleshooter on the floor. Robots you release don't come back for issues we should have caught, and the guides you've written help new techs get up to speed faster

What You Bring

• Hands-on experience troubleshooting and repairing complete machines: robots, industrial automation, field equipment or similar electromechanical systems
• Experience bringing machines up or commissioning them, not only assembling or running checklists
• Comfort reading electrical schematics, wiring diagrams and assembly drawings
• Confident with a multimeter on power, wiring and signal problems
• A sharp eye for wiring quality: crimps, ferrules, connector pins, strain relief and routing
• Working knowledge of DC power, motors, actuators, sensors and connectors
• A methodical approach: form a hypothesis, test it, find the cause, verify the repair
• Clear notes and communication, including knowing the difference between a confirmed cause and a guess
• Willingness to work extended hours during production pushes

Nice to Have

• Military electronics, avionics or field service technician background
• Cobot, AMR/AGV or battery-powered equipment experience
• Oscilloscope or CAN bus tools
• Basic Linux command line or networking
• Uses AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT to troubleshoot, look things up or write up findings
• IPC/WHMA-A-620 or similar wiring certification
• Technical school, associate degree or equivalent experience

Why Join

• Own the robot. You don't just run a step. You take a robot from first power-up to ready to ship
• Your fixes stick. Problems you find go to engineering and get fixed at the source, not worked around forever
• Grow your skills. Work alongside hardware and production engineers on robot arms, mobile bases, batteries and safety systems
• Real impact. Every robot you release goes to work at a customer site

How We Work: Our Values in This Role

We hire against our values, and we'll interview you against them too. Here's what they look like in this seat:

• Love of the Game. Getting a dead robot running again is the best part of your day
• Gumption. You don't wait for someone to tell you what's wrong. You grab the schematic and go find it
• Beginner's Mindset. You ask why it failed, not just how to get it running, and you learn every system on the robot
• Belief in Each Other. You write it down clearly so the next tech and the engineers can trust what you found
• Keep Moving Forward. When the line is pushing, you stay methodical and keep robots moving
• Customer Obsession. You're the last set of hands before the customer. Nothing leaves that you wouldn't put your name on

Why Tutor?

Whether you’re designing robots, closing deals, running deployments, or creating the processes that help us scale, your work doesn’t sit on a shelf. It shows up on real production floors, making physical work safer and more affordable.

Our team of 160+ is driven by curiosity and a genuine love of building. Everyone here takes real ownership, learns fast, and holds a high bar while having each other’s backs. If you love hard problems and creating things that didn’t exist before, you’ll fit right in.

Benefits

We take care of our team so they can do their best work. At Tutor, you’ll get:

• Fully employer-covered health insurance, so you’re protected without the premium
• A managed 401(k) to help you plan for the future
• Generous time off: unlimited PTO and all federal holidays off for full-time salaried employees, and 16+ days of accrued paid time off plus 1.5x pay on federal holidays for hourly employees
• Regular in-office meals and team social events throughout the year

As Tutor grows, so will our benefits. We’re continuing to invest in ways to support our team at work and beyond.

Tutor Intelligence is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds.

This is a full-time, hourly, onsite role in Watertown, MA. The pay range is $38-$50 per hour, based on experience and skills demonstrated during the interview process.