Robotics Lab Hardware Technician

Role Overview

We are looking for a Hardware Lab Technician to own the physical side of a large-scale robot data collection operation. You’ll keep the fleet running, build what’s next, and be the person the lab calls when something stops working. This is a hands-on role across research and low-volume production where embodiments, grippers, and camera rigs change fast—and the hardware has to keep up. Day-to-day teleoperation is handled by a dedicated operator team you support; you maintain what they run on and help ensure data quality through reliable, well-calibrated hardware.

Project Details

• Location: 100% Onsite (Santa Clara, CA, US)
• Employment: Full-time W-2
• Shifts: Monday–Friday, 7AM - 3:30PM or 9AM - 5:30PM 
• Start Date: ASAP
• Contract Duration: 12-month contract with possibility of extension
• Rate: $40 per /hour

What You’ll Do

• Build, wire, and bring up data collection stations — robot arms, multi-camera rigs, workstations, teleoperation hardware, and cable management that survives daily operator use.
• Keep the fleet running: daily checks, preventive maintenance, calibration routines, and diagnosing faults on arms, hands, and sensors.
• Swap and integrate end-effectors and grippers, dexterous hands, force/torque and tactile sensors, and RGB-D cameras.
• Run calibration and firmware procedures across the fleet, and catch drift before it reaches the data.
• Assemble and iterate prototype hardware coming out of our mechanical and electrical engineers — printed parts, off-the-shelf components, vendor-fabricated parts, and custom harnesses.
• Soldering, crimping, connectorization, harness building, and PCB rework support at the bench.
• Own the lab's physical state: spares and consumables inventory, parts kitting, bench and tool organization, and shipping, returns, and RMAs with vendors.
• Support teleoperators on hardware issues during live collection — triage fast, fix or escalate, and get the station back up.
• Document what you do. Build sheets, maintenance logs, calibration records, and hardware SOPs the next technician can follow.
• Help bring up new embodiments and new stations alongside engineers and researchers.

What we need to see

• 3+ years hands-on technician experience in a lab, prototyping, or low-volume build environment — robotics, medical devices, aerospace, semiconductor equipment, or similar.
• AS in a technical field, a relevant trade or technical certificate, or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Mechanical assembly fundamentals: fasteners and torque, bearings, belts, linkages, and the ability to read CAD and mechanical drawings (Onshape, SolidWorks, or similar).
• Electrical hands: soldering including basic SMD rework, crimping and connectorization, harness building, and confident use of a multimeter and oscilloscope.
• Comfortable in Linux at the command line — SSH into a workstation, run a calibration script, read a log, and tell us what it said.
• Experience with motors, encoders, and sensor integration, and an understanding of what a bad ground or a marginal cable does to a data stream.
• Methodical and self-documenting. An undocumented fix is a future outage.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and frequent change, and able to prioritize when more than one lab needs you at the same time.
• Able to work on-site in Santa Clara, with flexibility on shift coverage as the labs run extended hours.

Ways to stand out from the crowd

• Humanoid or bimanual platforms (Unitree, Fourier, ALOHA/ARX-class rigs) and dexterous hands.
• Maintenance and calibration on collaborative or industrial arms — UR, Franka, xArm, ARX, or equivalent.
• Multi-camera rig build and calibration; RealSense, ZED, or Orbbec-class depth cameras.
• Running and maintaining FDM or SLA printers, and designing your own simple fixtures and adapters.
• Light scripting in Python or bash to automate a repetitive bench or calibration task.
• Experience in a high-throughput lab or production line where uptime or yield was a number someone tracked.
• Vendor-facing experience: RMAs, lead times, and spares planning.