Forward Deployed Robotics Engineer

Description

Eka Robotics

Eka Robotics is on a mission to build intelligence for the physical world - robots that are fast, general, and reliable. Our approach, grounded in physics, unlocks superhuman capabilities. We are defining the frontier of robotics research and deployment.

Our team consists of pioneers in robotics and machine learning. We are now hiring to scale our R&D and commercialization efforts. We are looking for hands-on individuals who are excited to help shape the future of robotics.

Role Overview

As a Forward Deployed Robotics Engineer, you will serve as the primary on-site technical expert for our robotic manipulation systems. You will be instrumental in supporting robot deployments and company’s product demos globally. When issues arise, you will be the first responder: analyzing field tickets, reproducing issues, gathering diagnostic data, and driving root-cause resolution to ensure maximum fleet uptime. This role requires a strong emphasis on process improvement and exceptional communication skills, as you will eventually operate independently on client sites.

Responsibilities

• Deployment & Bring-Up: Build, deploy, configure, and troubleshoot robotic arms, grippers and camera systems on-site. Perform spatial/hand-eye calibrations and camera alignment during system setup.
• Fleet Issue Triage: Manage incoming fleet ticket queues, prioritize based on operational impact, and triage failures across hardware, software, and operational layers.
• On-Site Diagnostics & Failure Analysis: Execute physical inspections, run diagnostic tests at robot stations, and perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to isolate and reproduce field failures.
• Telemetry & Data Analysis: Analyze telemetry, sensor streams, and system logs to form and validate diagnostic hypotheses.
• Cross-Team Feedback Loop: Partner with core hardware and software R&D teams to escalate complex issues. Directly advise software engineering on new tooling, scripts, and diagnostic features needed to streamline field bring-up.
• Process Improvement: Develop standard diagnostic procedures, troubleshooting flowcharts, and operational guides. Surface recurring fleet issues to engineering to drive design improvements.
• Documentation: Develop clear deployment documentation and procedures to support deployments by third party integrators. Maintain clear, traceable logs for all diagnostic events, field modifications, and escalation workflows.
• Field Operations: Travel 50%+ to lead on-site deployments, customer demonstrations, and operational support.
• Minimum Qualifications
• B.S. in Robotics, Mechatronics, Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience debugging, troubleshooting, and performing root-cause analysis on complex systems with integrated hardware and software components in deployment.
• Practical experience parsing log files and writing basic diagnostic scripts in Python.
• Solid understanding of the interactions between mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software layers in robotic systems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the demonstrated ability to articulate technical issues clearly during solo customer engagements and shift handoffs.
• Preferred Qualifications
• M.S. in Robotics, Mechatronics, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Learning-Based Policy Field Experience: Experience deploying learning-based control models (e.g., imitation learning, RL, or end-to-end vision-to-action policies) on physical manipulators in unstructured environments.
• Deployment Tooling & Automation: Proven track record of writing internal Python tools, CLI scripts, or automated calibration routines that reduce deployment and bring-up cycles.
• Solo Client Site Leadership: Experience acting as the sole technical lead on customer sites or high-stakes field demos, managing on-site communication, de-escalation, and technical execution independently.
• Robot Arm & Bus Architecture: Hands-on experience integrating and configuring 6+ DoF industrial or cobot arms (e.g., Universal Robots, Franka, KUKA, FANUC) with industrial communications (EtherCAT, CANbus, Modbus) and safety controllers.
• Edge Compute & Containerization: Experience managing edge devices, Linux network interfaces, and containerized robotics software stacks (Docker, ROS/ROS2, systemd).
• Field Telemetry Workflows: Familiarity with modern robotics diagnostic tools (e.g., Foxglove Studio, ROS bags) to capture edge failure modes and feed data back into core ML pipelines.
• Process Architecture & FMEA: Experience building field operational processes from scratch, including writing SOPs, conducting FMEA, and structuring field support workflows.