Field Service Engineer - New Product Introduction & Development

Apptronik•Austin, TX

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Apptronik is seeking a Field Service Engineer to serve as a technical expert embedded at the point of development. This role is crucial for establishing a rigorous feedback loop between the people servicing robots and the people designing them. You will transform operational data into engineering signals, playing a key role in bringing Apptronik's flagship humanoid robot, Apollo, to market at scale. You will be responsible for servicing pre-production and development robots, identifying lessons learned from failures, and ensuring these insights inform future designs and service strategies. This is an elevated technical role focused on owning robot uptime for the New Product Introduction (NPI) and Development fleet, and driving the feedback loop for engineering improvements. You will be comfortable with both hands-on technical work and participating in design reviews.

Requirements

3-6+ years of hands-on experience with complex electromechanical systems.
Experience in robotics, aerospace, medical devices, or defense hardware is preferred.
Ability to diagnose ambiguous failures at the hardware, electrical, and systems level without a playbook.
Ability to remain calm when working with one-of-a-kind hardware.
Customer First Mindset: Focus on delivering a positive experience for all stakeholders.
Experience working with pre-production or prototype hardware where documentation is incomplete and configurations change frequently.
Ability to write repair notes that engineers can act on.
Ability to present a failure pattern summary to a cross-functional team.
Clear distinction between symptom and root cause in documentation.
Ability to read schematics, navigate CAD views, and work from technical drawings.
Familiarity with ROS/ROS2, embedded systems, or software-integrated hardware is a genuine plus.
Experience with FMEA, DFS reviews, or hardware design processes is a plus.
Builder Mentality: Proactively improve service procedures, diagnostic approaches, or training documents.

Nice To Haves

Experience in robotics, aerospace, medical devices, or defense hardware.
Familiarity with ROS/ROS2, embedded systems, or software-integrated hardware.
Experience with FMEA, DFS reviews, or hardware design processes.

Responsibilities

Own NPI & Dev Fleet Uptime: Serve as the primary service owner for all NPI and Dev-designated robots, responsible for triage, diagnosis, and resolution of issues, often without established procedures on hardware that is constantly changing.
Close the Feedback Loop: Document every significant repair with real data (root cause, time-to-diagnose, time-to-repair, parts consumed, failure mode), identify recurring patterns, and proactively surface them to engineering teams.
Shape How We Build for Serviceability: Participate in Design for Serviceability (DFS) reviews as the hands-on voice of the technician, providing input on connector placement, Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) logic, tool clearance, and access paths to improve future designs.
Validate Before It Ships: Prove the functionality of new service procedures or repair approaches for NPI configurations, and assist in drafting, testing, and refining work instructions with the Apptronik Service Tech (AST) team.
Embed with NPI Programs: Attend NPI reviews as the GSS representative, understanding design intent, known issues, and upcoming changes to enhance diagnostic accuracy and speed.
Track open service issues and drive them to closure.
Build Service Readiness: Assess and ensure the readiness of tooling, spares, procedures, and training materials before a configuration deploys to the field.