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Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Onsite
At Standard Bots, we're revolutionizing real-world automation by making robotic systems accessible to everyone. Our AI-powered platform enables robots to tackle unprecedented challenges through an intuitive instruction interface, bringing the power of software automation to physical spaces.
We're building Bolt, a mobile manipulation platform: an autonomous mobile base carrying our robot arms. We're looking for a Senior Staff Electrical Engineer to lead the hardware of that base, mechanical and electrical, from concept through a safety-certified fleet. You will set the hardware architecture, lead a team of mechanical and electrical engineers through prototype builds, test, and certification, and own the power system yourself: specifying and integrating the battery pack and charger from a battery manufacturer, and designing the high-current distribution, pre-charge and protection, safe power cutoff, and power delivery to drive motors, arms, and compute.
This is an on-site role based at our new Boston-area office, where Bolt is designed, built, and tested, with some flexibility on days in the office once you're up to speed. On-site you'll build up a fully equipped electronics lab, a build area, a test floor, and the team steps from your desk.
Lead the Bolt hardware team of mechanical and electrical engineers: set the electrical architecture and work with the mechanical team to set the mechanical architecture, plan prototype builds and the test program, run design reviews, and drive decisions to closure with software, safety, manufacturing, and product
Own the hardware side of AMR safety certification with Functional Safety: the certification plan, the safety functions and their evidence, and the test-lab campaigns for ISO 3691-4, ANSI/RIA R15.08, and UL 3100
Contribute as an IC where your contributions can best be utilized
Specify, select, and integrate the battery pack, BMS, and charger from a battery manufacturer: requirements, vendor evaluation, BMS communication (CAN), charge and discharge limits, and pack-level safety and certification evidence
Drive key architecture and component decisions through requirements and trade studies (pack capacity, drive configuration, peak and regenerative current, thermal)
Do the hands-on, technically deep work: schematic capture, high-current PCB layout, board bring-up, test plans, and root-cause debugging on the bench and on the robot
Design for safety and certification: fault analysis, derating, and the power-cutoff paths that functional safety relies on (ISO 13849, IEC 62133 / UL 2271 at the pack interface, EMC)
Hire, mentor, and grow the hardware team, and be the primary technical contact for battery, charger, drive, and PCBA vendors
You've led the hardware of an AMR or comparable mobile robot from a blank page through safety certification and production, and you've designed and shipped its battery-powered systems yourself. You know the failure modes: inrush, regen on a full pack, ground loops, connector and busbar heating, a BMS that trips when you least expect it, and the safety function that fails validation a month before the audit. You can write a pack specification a vendor can build to and verify what they deliver. You lead by doing design work alongside the team. Our ideal candidate expects to spend roughly half their time on design/build/troubleshoot and half on team leadership, test, and certification.
Experience: Bachelor's or graduate degree in Electrical Engineering (or related) and 10+ years designing, building, and testing power systems and PCBAs, including leading the hardware of an AMR, AGV, or similar mobile robot taken through production
AMR Safety Certification: You have taken an AMR or similar mobile machine through third-party safety certification (ISO 3691-4, ANSI/RIA R15.08, UL 3100), including ISO 13849 safety functions, the evidence package, and test-lab campaigns
Power Depth: Mastery of high-current distribution, pre-charge and protection circuits, DC/DC conversion, motor-drive power stages, and regen and bus-capacitance behavior
Battery Integration: Working knowledge of BMS behavior (balancing, SoC/SoH, protection limits, CAN interface) and how to specify, qualify, and integrate a vendor pack and charger
Compliance: Working knowledge of IEC 62133 / UL 2271 at the pack interface and EMC (IEC 61000 series) with pre-compliance debugging
Leadership: You have led engineers through an NPI cycle and made them better; you give direct, specific design feedback
Tool Fluency: Proficient in Altium Designer for schematic capture and multi-layer, high-current layout; LTspice or similar for simulation; Python for test automation
Debugging Mastery: Scope, current probe, thermal camera, and bench instruments; you document what you find and converge on a fix quickly
Clarity of Communication: Clear design documentation, crisp trade studies, and design reviews that make your peers better
Impact Driven: A reliable, manufacturable robot that ships beats an elegant one that never leaves the lab
Excelling in Ambitious Environments: You thrive in a fast-moving team with changing requirements and tight timelines
Mechanical design of mobile robots (chassis, drivetrain, battery packaging), enough to lead mechanical engineers well
Custom battery pack design (cell selection, pack mechanical and thermal design, BMS hardware)
Motor control (FOC, current sensing) and inverter design for traction or robot joints
Real-time industrial fieldbuses (EtherCAT, CAN/CANopen) and safety fieldbus
Taking products from prototype through NPI to volume manufacturing — DFM/DFT, test fixtures, yield improvement
The base salary range for this role is $160,000 to $220,000, depending on experience. Base salary is just one part of the overall compensation at Standard Bots. All Full-Time Employees are eligible for Employee Stock Options. We also offer a package of benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees.