Head of Engineering

Verustruct • Torrance, CA

8h • Onsite

About The Position

Verustruct is developing robotic construction technologies to help automate the building of affordable, sustainable, safe, and aesthetically appealing housing. The Head of Engineering leads technical execution across mechanical, electrical, robotics, software, materials, structural, and manufacturing engineering. Working directly with the Founder & CEO, this leader translates company priorities into an integrated development program and guides systems from full-scale prototypes toward repeatable field deployment.

The role combines organizational leadership with hands-on technical work. It involves resolving architecture and integration problems, leading design reviews, working with engineers during builds and tests, and developing a team capable of taking increasing technical ownership. The central challenge is integrating machine motion, concrete behavior, structural requirements, utilities, manufacturing, and field operations within practical cost and schedule constraints.

This is a full-time, on-site leadership position in Torrance, California, with involvement in testing and field deployment. The successful candidate will contribute to engineering objectives on the ground while setting long-term technical direction.

Requirements

• A record of delivering complex physical products or robotic systems from development through operational deployment.
• Significant engineering experience, typically 10+ years, including leadership of multidisciplinary teams and responsibility for integrated technical outcomes.
• Deep expertise in at least one relevant discipline and sufficient breadth to challenge assumptions and evaluate interfaces across mechanical, electrical, controls, software, and manufacturing engineering.
• Recent hands-on technical contributions, such as architecture decisions, design work, integration, testing, or root-cause investigations.
• Experience managing engineers, developing technical leaders, hiring strong teammates, and setting clear expectations.
• Strong systems-engineering judgment, including requirements definition, interface management, verification planning, and disciplined handling of technical risk.
• Ability to distinguish problems needing rigorous analysis from those best resolved with a fast, well-designed experiment.
• Experience making resource and schedule tradeoffs in an environment with incomplete information and evolving requirements.
• Clear communication with technical teams, company leadership, and external partners.
• A degree in engineering or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

• Relocation to the Los Angeles / Torrance area; relocation support is available for exceptional candidates.

Responsibilities

• Own the integrated engineering roadmap, technical milestones, and execution plan for Verustruct’s robotic construction platform.
• Translate product and deployment goals into measurable system requirements, subsystem interfaces, engineering priorities, and verification criteria.
• Lead architecture and trade studies across disciplines, balancing performance, reliability, safety, manufacturability, cost, serviceability, and development speed.
• Establish clear technical ownership and decision-making across teams and resolve dependencies before they become integration bottlenecks.
• Stay directly involved in critical design work, technical reviews, experiments, and failure investigations.
• Build an integration and test strategy connecting component validation, subsystem testing, complete-machine operation, and construction-site performance.
• Coordinate robotics development with materials processing, structural engineering, and construction requirements so the machine and building system develop together.
• Identify high-risk assumptions and organize focused analysis, prototypes, and tests to resolve them early.
• Lead engineering planning and resource allocation, communicate schedule and technical risks, and make explicit tradeoffs as priorities evolve.
• Recruit, mentor, and manage engineers and technical leads; provide direct feedback and establish high standards for technical judgment and execution.
• Develop practical standards for design reviews, configuration control, documentation, release readiness, and engineering changes.
• Partner with manufacturing, suppliers, and field teams to turn successful prototypes into equipment that can be built, operated, maintained, and improved repeatedly.

Benefits

• Health insurance: Silver PPO plan, 80% company-paid.
• Optional dental and vision coverage.
• 401(k) plan with 4% employer match.
• Flexible PTO policy.
• Observed federal holidays.
• Relocation support for exceptional candidates relocating to the Los Angeles / Torrance area.
• Opportunity to help lead mechanical engineering for a venture-backed robotics company tackling housing affordability.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior