Automation Engineer, Material Conveyance

Hadrian Automation•Los Angeles, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

Hadrian is building autonomous factories to manufacture aerospace and defense parts faster and cheaper. We are expanding rapidly with the launch of Factory 3 in Mesa, Arizona, creating 350 new jobs. This role is for the first Automation Engineer focused on Material Flow, responsible for how parts move across Hadrian factories. The engineer will scope, deploy, and operate Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) fleets, floor conveyance, overhead material movement systems (cranes, gantries, hoists), and the integration with Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Warehouse Management Systems (WMS). This is a hands-on role requiring commissioning of AMRs, conveyors, and lift interfaces, debugging fleet managers and control systems, and owning the throughput, safety, and operator adoption of production material flow. Collaboration will be with Factory Automation, Operations, Facilities/EHS, Mechanical/Cell ME, and the factory software team.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Industrial Engineering, or a related field.
3+ years of experience deploying AMRs/AGVs, conveyance, overhead material-handling equipment, or hybrid material-flow systems in a production environment.
Experience commissioning at least one fleet (e.g., MiR, OTTO, Fetch, Zebra, Geek+, 6 River), one full conveyance run (e.g., Hytrol, Dematic, Intralox, Daifuku), crane/gantry/hoist cell interface, or similar production material-flow system.
Working knowledge of VDA 5050, OPC-UA, MQTT, REST, PLC handshakes, and MES/WMS integration.
Safety fluency for mixed pedestrian/robot aisles, lift zones, suspended loads, and operator recovery workflows.
Simulation experience (AnyLogic, FlexSim, Emulate3D, Siemens Plant Simulation) or equivalent layout/throughput modeling.

Nice To Haves

Factory-scale material-flow experience (20+ AMRs, full-factory conveyance network, or hybrid AMR/conveyance/overhead movement system).
ROS/ROS2 exposure.
Crane/hoist/lift-assist integration experience, especially with heavy or awkward aerospace hardware.
Python for data pulls and fleet/WMS/equipment analytics.
Lean/industrial engineering fundamentals (takt, kanban, water-spider replacement).
Experience with EV/battery/aerospace/maritime material-flow at volume.

Responsibilities

Scope, select, and commission AMR fleets, including vendor trade-offs, pilot programs, volume rollouts, fleet manager configuration, charging/docking, acceptance testing, and ramp support.
Design conveyance runs (belt, roller, chain-on-edge, pallet, lift) for inter-cell and intra-cell flow, considering cycle-time math, WIP buffers, jam recovery, maintainability, and failure-mode handoff.
Design overhead material movement systems (bridge cranes, gantries, hoists, lift assists, below-the-hook tooling, safe zones, operator workflow) where floor conveyance or AMRs are not suitable.
Own traffic and lift-zone management, including intersections, charging zones, docking, crane envelopes, mixed human/robot aisles, pedestrian crossings, suspended-load boundaries, and safety zones.
Integrate AMRs, conveyance, and overhead movement with MES/WMS, PLCs, cell controllers, and crane controls using VDA 5050, OPC-UA, MQTT, REST, and discrete/safety-rated handshakes.
Simulate material flow using tools like AnyLogic, FlexSim, Emulate3D, or Plant Simulation to validate throughput, WIP, aisle layout, charging locations, crane coverage, lift zones, and safety constraints before hardware purchase.
Partner with cell-level MEs on pickup/dropoff/lift interfaces, including dunnage, presentation, hard stops, rigging points, sensors, clearances, and recovery after failed transfers.
Build the material-flow standards and runbook for future factories.