Head of Deployments

Medra•San Francisco, CA

10d•Onsite

About The Position

What We're Building: We have been quietly building the foundational layers of our Physical AI Scientist platform: 🤖 Physical AI that can operate scientific instruments with human-level dexterity. 🧪 Scientific AI that can analyze results, reason about next steps, and close the loop autonomously. This is an incredibly ambitious mission, but we believe that a team of ambitious people with high ownership can accomplish incredible things. The Team: We’re a team of passionate, mission-driven engineers from companies like Tesla, Amazon, SpaceX, and Neuralink. We’re collaborative and love moving fast, both with our product and on team trips skiing or go-karting! As a team, we love nerding out about engineering and robotics — plus other topics like race cars or cooking. We like learning new things and then sharing our new knowledge with each other. Our team is opinionated and straightforward. We don’t mind intense discussions about design tradeoffs. If we have arguments or miscommunication, we resolve conflicts quickly and empathetically. In this role, you will: Operate like the technical co-founder of a small startup within Medra, owning end-to-end delivery of high-impact customer projects Work with partner scientists at customer labs to quickly bring them solutions that meet their needs and get projects over the finish line Set technical strategy and define the roadmap to meet customers’ most critical scientific challenges. Do this across multiple deployments Develop robotic solutions to manipulate and control biology tools designed for humans Integrate, test, and debug software solutions in simulation and on physical robots Besides your focus on robustness and performance, you’ll be expected to identify opportunities for simplification, and to design for scalability Take ownership of complex robotics projects from conception to delivery, demonstrating strategic judgment, technical creativity, and hands-on execution This position is in-person, you must be able to come on-site to our San Francisco office . We do not offer hybrid roles. We do offer relocation benefits for applicants who need to relocate. Let's talk if you have: Proven ability to think strategically, solve complex problems creatively, and communicate effectively with diverse stakeholders, including scientists and senior executives Experience writing code for robotics systems Strong mechanical intuition and hardware debugging and assembly skills Experience with mechanical engineering tools and best practices in production A willingness to split your time between hardware and software work A hacker’s mindset - getting quickly to a good-enough solution Experience with Python and a desire to improve your software skills Experience or familiarity with robot arm manipulators A willingness to wear many hats / a flexible attitude towards responsibilities and scope Entrepreneurial drive and a desire to have broad ownership, operating with significant autonomy akin to a startup CTO Previous experience managing multiple deployments BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, Electrical Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent experience

Requirements

Proven ability to think strategically, solve complex problems creatively, and communicate effectively with diverse stakeholders, including scientists and senior executives
Experience writing code for robotics systems
Strong mechanical intuition and hardware debugging and assembly skills
Experience with mechanical engineering tools and best practices in production
A willingness to split your time between hardware and software work
A hacker’s mindset - getting quickly to a good-enough solution
Experience with Python and a desire to improve your software skills
Experience or familiarity with robot arm manipulators
A willingness to wear many hats / a flexible attitude towards responsibilities and scope
Entrepreneurial drive and a desire to have broad ownership, operating with significant autonomy akin to a startup CTO
Previous experience managing multiple deployments
BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, Electrical Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent experience

Nice To Haves

Experience with software engineering tools and best practices in production
Experience in startup environments, technical leadership roles, or demonstrated interest in entrepreneurship and strategic technical roles.
Experience with robotics in a laboratory or manufacturing environment
Experience with robotic simulation systems such as MuJoCo
Experience designing, building, and testing hardware
Understanding of software communication protocols (ZMQ, Redis, gRPC, etc…)
Contribution to software for a hardware product that shipped
Relevant research/work experience in one or more of the following areas: machine learning, computer vision, motion planning and trajectory optimization, kinematics and dynamics, control, and state estimation/SLAM

Responsibilities

Operate like the technical co-founder of a small startup within Medra, owning end-to-end delivery of high-impact customer projects
Work with partner scientists at customer labs to quickly bring them solutions that meet their needs and get projects over the finish line
Set technical strategy and define the roadmap to meet customers’ most critical scientific challenges. Do this across multiple deployments
Develop robotic solutions to manipulate and control biology tools designed for humans
Integrate, test, and debug software solutions in simulation and on physical robots
Besides your focus on robustness and performance, you’ll be expected to identify opportunities for simplification, and to design for scalability
Take ownership of complex robotics projects from conception to delivery, demonstrating strategic judgment, technical creativity, and hands-on execution