Senior Robot Test Operations Manager

Agility Robotics•Pittsburgh, PA

2d•$136,000 - $176,000•Onsite

About The Position

Agility Robotics is at the forefront of developing humanoid robots designed to operate in real-world environments. Our mission is to build robots that seamlessly integrate into human workflows, solving complex challenges in logistics, manufacturing, and beyond. As we scale our manufacturing and deployments, we are building the validation infrastructure that ensures every robot that reaches a customer site is one we can stand behind. The Staff Test Operations Manager role is a critical role in making that happen. As a Senior Test Operations Manager at Agility Robotics, you will own the operational heartbeat of our robot validation program. This is not a role for someone who waits for test plans to arrive - it is for someone who sees an idle robot and immediately asks why it is not running, who finds problems that no one else is looking for, and who treats every test result as data that should improve the product. You will be responsible for maximizing robot fleet uptime, designing and driving endurance and validation testing, and serving as the strategic conduit between Commercial, Software, and Systems Engineering teams to continuously evolve our test strategy. Your work will directly influence the quality and reliability of Digit in customer warehouses.

Requirements

5+ years of hands-on experience in test operations, system validation, or field operations for complex electromechanical or robotic systems
Demonstrated experience managing and sustaining a fleet of hardware-software integrated systems - robots, autonomous vehicles, or comparable platforms - in an operational test environment
Previous experience in high-growth, fast-paced environments where self-direction and bias for action are essential
Strong instincts for customer-representative testing: designing scenarios that reflect real deployment conditions, not idealized lab conditions
Proficiency with log analysis and telemetry tools; ability to correlate hardware, software, and sensor data to identify root cause
Experience with structured issue management (Jira or equivalent) including release labeling, triage workflows, and escalation protocols
Familiarity with reliability engineering concepts: MTBI, intervention rate analysis, wear pattern identification in integrated mechanical systems

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end robot uptime across the validation fleet - define uptime targets, track actuals, and drive rapid recovery when robots are out of commission
Build and maintain a structured fleet management system (scheduling, status tracking, maintenance windows) to ensure robots are always available for the right test at the right time
Establish and enforce first-line triage protocols so that every robot issue is diagnosed, classified (hardware vs. software vs. environment), and routed to the right engineering team with clear, evidence-backed Jira tickets
Develop and maintain preventative maintenance schedules in partnership with hardware engineering and repair technicians to reduce unplanned downtime
Design, build, and continuously evolve longevity test programs - multi-robot, multi-mission, extended-duration test campaigns that mirror real customer deployment conditions, not sanitized lab scenarios
Move the fleet beyond functional smoke tests toward scenario-based, customer-representative validation: object avoidance in cluttered environments, human co-presence, payload variation, stair and terrain diversity, thermal stress, and extended uptime cycles
Define test success criteria and acceptance thresholds collaboratively with Systems Engineering.
Run release validation cycles - execute a comprehensive battery of tests before any major software or hardware release reaches customers, and hold the go/no-go authority on test completion
Track issues by release label so that regressions are visible, persistent failures are escalated, and the history of what was found when is always available
Publish weekly leadership reports covering: robot fleet uptime, tests executed, pass/fail rates by release, open issues by severity, and trends across longevity runs
Define and own the metrics that matter - intervention rates, mission success rates, MTBI (mean time between interventions), and issue escape rates - and flag when metrics are misleading or need to be retired
Build dashboards that give engineering and product leadership real-time visibility into validation health and release readiness
Partner with SW engineering to improve log structure, telemetry accessibility, and diagnostic tooling so that any member of the team can triage a robot failure - not just the person who built the logging system
Champion the creation and maintenance of robot diagnostic runbooks: if-then decision trees that route failures to the right owner with the right supporting evidence
Provide structured, data-driven input to SW and HW teams on user experience friction - what is operationally hard, what breaks under real-world conditions, what customers will notice before engineers do
Create and maintain reusable test protocols, onboarding guides, and operational playbooks so that institutional knowledge scales with the team

Benefits

Competitive salary, equity, and benefits package
401(k) Plan: Includes a 6% company match.
Equity: Company stock options.
Insurance Coverage: 100% company-paid medical, dental, vision, and short/long-term disability insurance for employees.
Benefit Start Date: Eligible for benefits on your first day of employment.
Well-Being Support: Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
Time Off: Flexible, unlimited PTO and 12 company holidays, including a winter shutdown (for Exempt Employees).
Time Off: 10 vacation days, paid sick leave, and 12 company holidays, including a winter shutdown, annually (for Non-Exempt Employees).
On-Site Perks: Catered lunches four times a week and a variety of healthy snacks and refreshments at our Salem and Pittsburgh locations.
Parental Leave: Generous paid parental leave programs.
Work Environment: A culture that supports flexible work arrangements.
Growth Opportunities: Professional development and tuition reimbursement programs.
Relocation Assistance: Provided for eligible roles.
Annual Discretionary Bonus: Provided for eligible roles.