Director of Product Engineering

Director of Product Engineering — Robotics Hardware

Trossen Robotics

Location: Downers Grove, IL — On-site

Employment Type: Full-time

Website:

Trossen Robotics is looking for an exceptional Director of Product Engineering to lead the engineering organization responsible for turning new robotics concepts into production-ready products.

This is a senior, hands-on engineering leadership role for someone who has repeatedly taken complex electromechanical products from concept through engineering, prototyping, supplier development, validation, tooling, and production.

We are looking for a product builder — someone with the technical depth and judgment to help determine how a product should be designed, how it should be manufactured, who should manufacture its critical components, and how to move it successfully from R&D into production.

The Role

Trossen's Founder & CTO owns overall product vision and direction: understanding the market, identifying opportunities, gathering customer and industry signals, establishing product requirements, and determining what products Trossen should build.

The Director of Product Engineering owns the next critical phase:

Turning that product vision into reality.

You will lead our mechanical and product engineering team through the complete hardware development lifecycle — from initial architecture and prototypes through DFM/DFA, supplier qualification, tooling, validation, pilot builds, and production release.

You will work directly with the Founder & CTO and serve as the senior engineering leader responsible for determining how we build the product .

This is not a purely managerial role. You will be expected to work directly with engineers, participate deeply in technical decisions, challenge designs, solve difficult engineering problems, engage directly with manufacturers, and remain close to both the prototype bench and the production floor.

What You'll Own - Product Engineering & Technical Leadership

Lead the engineering execution of new robotics products from concept through production.

Translate product requirements into technical architectures, specifications, development plans, and manufacturable products.

Drive major engineering decisions involving mechanisms, structures, actuators, motors, transmissions, gears, bearings, materials, sensors, cabling, packaging, thermal management, and system integration.

Lead architecture reviews, design reviews, prototype reviews, and production-readiness reviews.

Help engineers solve difficult technical problems while building a culture of strong engineering judgment, rapid iteration, disciplined testing, and continuous improvement.

New Product Development

Own the engineering process from early prototypes through production release.

Establish appropriate development stages, engineering milestones, prototype builds, and validation plans.

Identify technical risks early and drive them to resolution.

Make informed tradeoffs between performance, reliability, product cost, schedule, manufacturability, serviceability, and technical risk.

Ensure that products do not simply work as prototypes — they must be capable of being manufactured repeatedly, reliably, and economically.

DFM, DFA & Manufacturing Engineering

Drive Design for Manufacturing and Design for Assembly throughout the development process.

Provide leadership around manufacturing methods including:

• CNC machining
• precision gears and gearboxes
• motors and electromechanical assemblies
• die casting
• injection molding
• extrusion
• sheet metal and fabrication
• additive manufacturing
• bearings and rotating assemblies
• fastening and joining methods
• cable routing and harnessing
• finishes and coatings
• tolerance strategy and stack-up analysis

Continuously reduce unnecessary complexity, part count, assembly time, manufacturing risk, cost, and potential failure modes.

Global Supplier Development & Strategic Sourcing

Own the technical establishment of the supply chain for new products in partnership with Trossen's Supply Chain and Operations teams. Identify, evaluate, and qualify manufacturers capable of producing technically challenging components and assemblies.

We strongly value candidates with significant experience sourcing directly from manufacturers in China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and other major manufacturing regions , particularly those who already have a network of trusted suppliers and manufacturing relationships.

You should be comfortable sourcing and qualifying components such as:

• precision gears and gearboxes
• electric motors and actuators
• bearings
• CNC-machined components
• castings
• injection-molded parts
• fabricated assemblies
• custom electromechanical components

This role goes well beyond sending out RFQs. You should know how to identify capable manufacturers, distinguish excellent suppliers from mediocre ones, visit and evaluate factories, understand manufacturing equipment and processes, assess process capability, negotiate technical requirements, review tooling strategies, qualify first articles and samples, and work directly with suppliers to solve manufacturing problems. You will help determine who should manufacture critical components and how they should be manufactured.

Once suppliers, processes, specifications, quality requirements, pricing structures, tooling, and production methods have been established and validated, ongoing purchasing, production planning, logistics, inventory, and commercial supplier management transition to our Procurement, Supply Chain, and Operations teams. Product Engineering remains engaged when technical supplier, quality, or manufacturing problems require engineering involvement.

Production Introduction

Lead the engineering side of the transition from R&D into production.

Work closely with Operations, Production, Supply Chain, Procurement, and Quality during pilot builds and initial production.

Ensure drawings, specifications, BOMs, manufacturing processes, tooling, work instructions, test requirements, and quality standards are mature enough for repeatable production.

Stay involved through early production until the product and manufacturing process are stable.

The ideal candidate will have:

• 12+ years of mechanical, hardware, robotics, or electromechanical product-development experience
• Significant experience leading engineering teams
• A Bachelor's or advanced degree in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related engineering discipline
• A demonstrated history of taking multiple complex physical products from concept through production
• Deep mechanical engineering fundamentals and strong engineering intuition
• Extensive experience with DFM, DFA, tolerance analysis, manufacturing processes, materials, mechanisms, structures, transmissions, motors, and actuators
• Direct experience working with domestic and international manufacturers
• Significant experience identifying, evaluating, qualifying, and developing suppliers
• Experience establishing supply chains for technically demanding hardware products
• Strong familiarity with Asian manufacturing and supplier ecosystems
• Experience with prototype builds, engineering validation, design validation, pilot production, and production ramp
• Strong understanding of cost engineering, make-vs-buy decisions, tooling investment, BOM cost, manufacturing yield, and volume-dependent manufacturing decisions
• Ability to operate at both the product architecture level and deep within individual engineering problems
• Strong leadership and communication skills
• Comfort making consequential engineering decisions with incomplete information

Existing relationships with high-quality manufacturers and component suppliers are a significant advantage.

Experience in robotics, industrial automation, autonomous systems, aerospace, advanced machinery, medical devices, or sophisticated consumer hardware is highly desirable.

Why Trossen

Trossen Robotics builds hardware for the emerging Physical AI industry.

For more than two decades, we have developed robotics platforms used by universities, research laboratories, startups, Fortune 500 companies, and some of the world's leading AI organizations.

As AI moves from computers into the physical world, we are developing a new generation of robotics platforms designed specifically for AI research, training, and deployment.

This role offers an unusual amount of influence over the products themselves. You will work directly with Trossen's Founder & CTO, lead a talented engineering team, establish critical manufacturing relationships, and help define how our next generation of robots are engineered and produced.

For the right person, we are prepared to offer a highly competitive compensation package including meaningful equity.