Application Engineer

Chef Robotics is accelerating the deployment of intelligent machines in the physical world, starting with food production - the sector facing the largest labor shortage in the U.S., with 1.14M unfilled jobs today and 3.1M projected by 2030. These roles can't be offshored, making robotics essential to keeping production onshore and strengthening America's manufacturing base.

Our AI-powered robots automate food prep and assembly in commercial kitchens and food manufacturing, and have already produced over 110 million meals in production - generating the world's largest proprietary dataset for deformable food manipulation. Backed by investors including Kleiner Perkins, Construct, Bloomberg Beta, and Promus Ventures, and built by a team from Cruise, Zoox, Google, Tesla, and Amazon Robotics, Chef is rapidly scaling with multiple multi-year contracts and a mission to put an intelligent robot in every commercial kitchen.

About the Role

We are hiring an Applications Engineer to serve as the vital link between our customers and our engineering teams. This role spans the full customer journey, from early technical evaluation through deployment, production ramp-up, and long-term success, driving both customer success and product excellence.


If you are excited by a mix of customer engagement, hands-on robotics engineering, and real-world deployment, this position offers a unique opportunity to directly shape how robotics is deployed in large-scale food production environments.


You'll partner with customers to bring robotic systems online, drive continuous improvement, and directly impact Chef's growth and product roadmap. As a member of our Applications team, you will learn a rare blend of technical, operational, and customer-facing expertise that few roles offer.


Success in this position opens the door to your career growth, whether toward technical leadership, product management, field engineering, or customer success sales leadership.

Please note that this is not a software applications engineering role. This is a customer-facing role where you'll be deployed at our customers' facilities at least 50% of the time.


Responsibilities:

• Partner with Sales and Product teams during early customer engagements to assess customer needs, identify opportunities, and evaluate technical feasibility.
• Work directly with customers' engineering and operations teams to understand their processes, challenges and success metrics.
• Configure, test, and validate Chef's robotic systems in the lab, working closely with R&D to adapt to each customer's unique production environment.
• Lead and project manage deployments, coordinating across Chef's engineering, manufacturing, and customer teams to ensure smooth installations.
• Lead on-site deployments, including installation, qualification testing, and production hardening
• Work hands-on with the systems to test new software, configurations and resolve break fix hardware repairs.
• Provide post-deployment support to ensure customer satisfaction and identify opportunities for product and feature expansion.
• Capture customer feedback and translate it into actionable insights for Chef's product and engineering teams.
• Serve as the technical face of Chef Robotics representing our engineering rigor, problem-solving mindset and commitment to customer success.

Qualifications:

• You are energized by seeing technology make a tangible impact in the real world and enjoy the challenge of bringing complex systems to life in customer environments.
• You thrive in dynamic, fast-paced settings and can manage multiple deployments, customers and competing priorities with professionalism and clarity.
• You're an excellent communicator who can translate between technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• You're self-driven and resourceful, with a bias for action and the ability to work autonomously in the field.

Requirements:

• BS or MS in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science or a related field
• 2+ years of experience in applications engineering, deployment, solutions engineering, field robotics or a similar customer-facing technical role
• Prior experience in at least one of the following: robotics, motion planning, perception, controls or automation systems.
• Willingness to travel up to 75% across North America to support customer deployments and on-site work
• Familiarity with Linux/Unix, Robot Operating System (ROS), and scripting in Python.
• Strong organizational and interpersonal skills - comfortable collaborating across technical and operations teams both internally and with customers
• Able to work independently and with minimal supervision
• Must be available to work a flexible schedule to support customers, including some weekend, nights and on-call hours

Why You'll Love Working Here

• Be part of a mission-driven team transforming one of the world's largest industries.
• Work hands-on with cutting edge robotic systems solving real world problems.
• Collaborate with a world class, cross functional team of roboticists, engineers and operators.
• Build rare, multidisciplinary expertise at the intersection of robotics, operations and customer success.
• Benefit from professional growth with exposure to both leadership and technical career paths.

$130,000 - $180,000 a year

Chef is an early-stage startup where equity is a major part of the compensation package. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position. Within the range, individual pay is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

In addition to salary and early-stage equity, we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, commuter benefits, flexible paid time off (PTO), catered lunch, and 401(k) matching.

Chef Robotics is solving one of the hardest problems in AI and robotics - and we ship. Our robots are in production today, generating real data that trains the next generation of food AI. Backed by Kleiner Perkins, Construct, Bloomberg Beta, and Promus Ventures, and built by a team from Cruise, Zoox, Google, Tesla, and Amazon Robotics, we're scaling fast with multiple multi-year enterprise contracts. If you want to build physical AI with real-world deployments and real impact, Chef is the place.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.