Hardware Engineering Technician

Kodama Systems Inc.•San Francisco, CA

2h•$75,000 - $115,000•Onsite

About The Position

Kodama Systems builds the technology that makes forestry operations safer, faster, and more scalable. We design teleoperation and autonomy retrofit kits for heavy forestry equipment — starting with skidders — so operators can run machines remotely from a safer, more comfortable environment. It's hard, hands-on engineering in an unforgiving environment, and the systems we build have to survive heat, dust, vibration, shock, and impacts in remote environments.

Requirements

Hands-on experience building and debugging electromechanical hardware — you've soldered, crimped, and assembled real systems, not just touched them once in a class.
Comfort with bench debug tools — multimeter and oscilloscope — to troubleshoot from first principles.
Wire harness fabrication: crimping, connectorization (e.g., Deutsch, Molex), and building to a drawing.
Electrical panel / cabinet assembly, including the ability to read and follow electrical schematics and wiring diagrams.
Mechanical fabrication fundamentals: hand and power tools, drilling, tapping, fastening, and basic shop work.
Willingness and ability to travel to factories and dealer lots, and to work in field and shop environments. Expect up to 50% travel.
Able to occasionally lift and carry up to 50 lbs, work on your feet, and work around heavy equipment and outdoor conditions.

Nice To Haves

Soldering proficiency, including through-hole and ideally surface-mount work.
Experience with heavy equipment, agriculture, automotive, off-road, or other rugged field-deployed systems.
Familiarity with low-voltage DC systems (12V/24V/48V), automotive-grade wiring, and CAN bus.
Basic CAD literacy (we use Onshape) — enough to read drawings and propose fixes.
Comfort with a Linux command line, SSH, and basic embedded/robotics tooling.
Prior work in a startup or fast-moving prototyping environment.

Responsibilities

Build custom hardware using a wide range of skills: wire harness fabrication, electrical cabinet and control panel assembly, mechanical fabrication, and soldering.
Install and integrate our hardware onto new machines — traveling to OEM factories and dealer lots to fit our systems to equipment as it comes off the line.
Run the prototyping lab: keep it organized, stocked, and ready, and maintain the tools and equipment the team relies on.
Execute engineering tests to validate hardware and feed results back to the design team.
Debug prototype hardware in the lab and in the field — chasing down electrical, mechanical, and integration issues and getting machines running.