Robotics Engineer (Mechanical)

TAR•San Francisco, CA

15d•Onsite

About The Position

TAR is building the world's first off-grid power plant for data centers powered by renewable technologies. We are seeking a Robotics Engineer (Mechanical) to be the mechanical lead for an autonomous field robot designed to drive rebar foundations into the ground at precise coordinates across utility-scale solar sites. This role is a ground-floor opportunity on a new hardware program, offering founding-team-level ownership and direct involvement in a 100+ MW project. The engineer will be responsible for the end-to-end design, prototyping, testing, and iteration of the robot, from chassis to tool head, with a focus on electromechanical systems, structures, and mechanisms. The goal is to create a machine that makes construction an order of magnitude faster and cheaper than conventional methods.

Requirements

4–10+ years of mechanical engineering experience with meaningful time at a robotics company (construction robotics, ag-tech/off-highway autonomy, warehouse/field robotics, or similar).
Demonstrated ownership of an electromechanical system that shipped or operated in the real world: not just CAD, but motors, drivetrains, actuation, and integration.
Strong fundamentals: structures, mechanisms, GD&T, materials, and enough EE fluency to select motors and drives, read schematics, and debug an integrated system.
Rapid prototyping instincts: comfortable in a shop, comfortable in the field, biased toward building over analyzing.

Nice To Haves

Heavy machinery and hydraulics experience.
Outdoor/mobile robots and harsh-environment design.
Experience with pile driving, drilling, or ground-engaging tools.

Responsibilities

Own the mechanical architecture of the robot: chassis/platform, mast and tool head, rebar handling and feed system, and the driving mechanism (percussive, vibratory, or press; you’ll help make that call based on soil testing).
Design drivetrain and locomotion for rough, unimproved desert terrain: motor sizing and selection, gearboxes, wheels/tracks, suspension.
Specify and integrate actuators (electric and/or hydraulic), sensors, and power distribution in collaboration with our electrical/mechatronics engineer.
Perform structural and dynamic analysis: reaction loads during driving, vibration, fatigue, tip-over stability.
Build and iterate rapidly: machine prototype parts, work with local fab shops, get hardware into the dirt at Fort Stockton and learn from every failure.
Define the tolerance budget with our perception and racking teams: what placement accuracy the robot must deliver, and what the racking can absorb.
Take the design from prototype toward a small production fleet: DFM, reliability, serviceability in the field.