Applications Engineering Manager (West Coast)

Description

The company builds industrial robots meant to be powerful, affordable and easy to scale. It is the largest U.S. industrial robotics company measured by units shipped, and its robots run on factory floors from independent machine shops to NASA and Lockheed Martin.

Someone has to confirm the robots perform in the field, and this role builds the team that does that across many sites.

This is not a software engineering job. You are a hands-on automation engineer who also manages people. Without experience commissioning a robotic cell, this role is not a fit.

The role is remote but tied to a territory, so you must live on the West Coast. Travel is up to 25% domestic and is meant to keep you in the field rather than on the road 2-3 days every week.

Responsibilities

• Report directly to the VP of Applications Engineering.
• Work as a player-coach: keep your hands on fixtures, I/O, ladder logic and robot programming, and use that skill daily to stay current and earn your team's respect.
• Manage a team of Applications Engineers across the territory, owning their growth, their workload and the quality of each customer engagement.
• Set the technical and cultural standard, since the bar you meet is the bar your team aims for.
• Hold regular 1:1s, performance reviews and development planning.
• Balance capacity so the right engineer fits each job and nobody is overloaded.
• Own applications engineering for the territory, from pre-sales POC support through post-install success.
• Act as the senior escalation point for complex integrations, tough customer situations and installs that go off plan, travelling when senior presence is needed.
• Work with the Regional Sales Manager on territory priorities, pipeline and customer strategy as their technical counterpart.
• Keep strong working relationships with key accounts in the territory.
• Keep designing solutions, reviewing integrations, commissioning cells and supporting installs, and lead or co-lead the most complex or strategic engagements.
• Review and approve solution designs, POCs and integration plans from your team.
• Set territory standards for documentation, handoffs, commissioning checklists and customer training.
• Pass territory learnings to the wider applications engineering group and to product and engineering teams.
• Help create playbooks, templates and training materials that make deployments repeatable.

Requirements

• Fluency across mechanical, electrical and software: PLC programming and ladder logic, pneumatics, DC power, robot programming, Python scripting and CAD.
• 5+ years of hands-on applications engineering, systems integration or automation engineering, with a record of strong field work.
• 2+ years leading people, including giving direct feedback and developing engineers.
• Confident senior customer presence: you handle difficult conversations, set clear expectations and speak for the company.
• Experience leading a distributed team or territory and managing people you do not see daily.
• Willing to travel up to 25% domestically for escalations, key engagements and team support.
• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Mechatronics or a related engineering field, or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Prior work with collaborative robots such as UR, Fanuc, KUKA, ABB or similar.
• Experience building or scaling an applications or field engineering function, not just inheriting one.
• Experience with vision systems, force/torque sensing or custom end-of-arm tooling.
• Familiarity with machine tending, palletizing, welding or assembly automation.

Conditions

Remote role tied to a West Coast territory; you must live on the West Coast.

Up to 25% domestic travel.

Salary range is $140,000 to $200,000, depending on experience. Pay follows seniority and skill, and base salary is one part of total compensation.

Benefits

• Full-time employees are eligible for employee stock options.
• Regular full-time employees receive paid time off, medical, dental and vision insurance, life and disability insurance, and a 401(k).