Robotics Integration Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

Company Overview

Compound Eye teaches machines to understand their surroundings in 3D and in real time using only passive sensors like cameras. Our VIDAS™ technology enables vehicles, drones, and other robots to determine their position and navigate their environment without LiDAR, radar, or GPS. Compound Eye has customers in both defense and commercial robotics and is backed by Khosla Ventures, RTX Ventures, and other leading investors.

The Role

We're hiring a Robotics Integration Engineer to report directly to our VP of Engineering.

We build the perception stack that lets vehicles and aircraft understand where they are and what's around them using cameras. To prove it, that stack has to leave the lab and live on real machines: a Polaris RZR running drive-by-wire on a test range, a Group II VTOL aircraft, compact heavy machinery, a trunk-mounted compute rack, a camera bar bolted to a roof at highway speed. Someone has to make those physical systems actually exist, survive, and be rebuildable by the next person.

You'll partner with our Field Robotics Engineer to execute the mechanical and physical integration of our test platforms and products: enclosures, mounts, cable harnesses, power distribution, drive-by-wire installation, actuation, and the bring-up that turns a pile of well-chosen components into a machine that works in the dirt at 6am.

This is deliberately a builder's role. You are the person who takes an Orin carrier board, a set of GMSL2 cameras, a DC-DC converter, a DbW kit, and a target vehicle, and turns them into an integrated, serviceable, documented system with a real enclosure and a harness that doesn't chafe through in three months.

We're looking for a natural maker. You probably have a 3D printer at home and opinions about it. You can walk up to a manual mill and take a cut without supervision. You've ordered parts from SendCutSend, and you designed those parts knowing how they'd be cut. When something physical is broken or missing, your instinct is to go build it.

Our current fleet was built quickly and under deadline pressure, which means much of it is one-off, undocumented, and more fragile than it should be. The first year of this job is turning that into hardware we can reproduce, service, and hand to a field engineer with confidence.

Key Responsibilities

• Own mechanical design of enclosures, brackets, sensor mounts, camera bars, and vehicle/airframe interfaces in parametric CAD, designed for how parts actually get made.

• Build what you design: run our printers, machine and finish your own prototypes, and manage outside vendors for the rest.

• Design, build, and document cable harnesses end to end, from pinouts and connector selection through as-builts and spares.

• Integrate electrical components you didn't design: power distribution, DC-DC conversion, fusing, grounding, batteries, and load budgets.

• Install, wire, and maintain drive-by-wire systems on our ground platforms, including CAN wiring, actuators, and E-stop and safety interlocks.

• Integrate and bring up motors, speed controllers, servos, and gimbals, and characterize them on the bench before they fly or drive.

• Take builds from parts to a documented, verified platform, and support field test campaigns and client demos with pre-trip readiness and on-site repair.

• Own procurement and vendor management for fasteners, stock, sheet metal, machining, connectors, and specialty suppliers.

To Thrive in This Role, You Have

• 5+ years of hands-on mechanical or robotics integration, building systems that work outside a lab

• Degree in mechanical, mechatronics, or robotics engineering, or equivalent shop experience

• Strong parametric CAD skills (Fusion 360, SolidWorks, Onshape, or similar) with solid design-for-manufacturing judgment

• Real shop skills: 3D printing, drilling and tapping, finishing, crimping, and soldering, and you know when to hand a part to a machinist

• Proven harness work, from pinout and connector choice to assemblies that hold up to vibration and repeat service

• Comfort integrating electrical parts you didn't design: reading schematics, sizing wire and fuses, building power budgets, and debugging with a multimeter and oscilloscope

• Working knowledge of CAN bus and vehicle electrical systems

• Experience wiring, configuring, and calibrating brushless motors and speed controllers

• Clear, current drawings, BOMs, and as-builts that someone else can build from

Work Environment

• On-site 4–5 days per week in Redwood City, CA, with regular time at our Petaluma vehicle site.

• Travel is roughly 10–20%, primarily domestic field testing at ranges and test sites.

• Able to lift and carry equipment up to 50 lbs and do regular on-site physical work; reasonable accommodations available upon request.

• Willing to work in field conditions: outdoors, on vehicles, in dust and heat, across ranges, warehouses, and varied environments, with occasional weekend or early-morning work during test campaigns.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base salary: $135k-175k, depending on experience.

• Strong Incentive Stock Options (ISO)

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance

• Annual home office stipend

• Employer-paid long-term disability, short-term disability, and life insurance

• 401(k) with employer match after 6 months

• Flexible PTO and 8 holidays + 2 week winter break

• Paid family leave

• Quarterly onsites in San Francisco

We're looking for a great engineer to join our US team of twenty-five. Our mission is to teach machines to see. Our culture is based on transparency, mutual respect, mutual accountability, and valuing great ideas no matter where they come from. We already have revenue and our Series A round was led by a tier-one VC. We are a remote-first company with employees across the United States. We had remote employees long before the pandemic and our team is now distributed across multiple states. We offer competitive benefits including comprehensive health care plans, 401k with matching, flexible schedules, and discretionary PTO.

Compound Eye is committed to building a diverse and inclusive work environment. We understand that no candidate is perfectly qualified for any job and experience comes in different forms. We encourage you to apply if you see yourself being successful in this position.

Compound Eye is an Equal Opportunity Employer and a VEVRAA Federal Contractor. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. This position requires access to technology controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Applicants must be a U.S. person as defined under ITAR (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, asylee, or refugee) or qualify for a license exception.

Compound Eye Applicant and Worker Privacy Notice

Compensation Range: $135K - $175K