Founding Engineer, R&D

As a Founding Engineer, you will be a core part of the team creating a robot that must survive operating for long durations in some of the most cramped, dark, dirty, and hazardous industrial environments and eventually, making thousands of them.

In this role, you will bridge the gap between complex robotics and the human user. One day, you might be refining internal assemblies for clarity and serviceability; the next, designing intuitive control interfaces for extreme environments. We value engineers who understand that clean, intentional design goes a long way.

The work:

• Design, manufacture, and assemble robotic components.

• Select, test, and integrate sensors for robotic perception & navigation.

• Design and build test facilities for the robots, and then test them.

• Develop and refine algorithms for novel robotic controls in confined environments.

• UI/UX controller integration.

• 3D data reconstruction and visualization.

• Help improve manufacturing processes for reliability and repeatability.

Skills and experiences we look for (the more the better)

We’re looking for founding generalist engineers with 2+ years of work experience and foundational knowledge in hardware, mechanical, or software disciplines but understand a little bit about all of them. If you’re a recent college graduate, we’d still encourage you to apply and would love it if you could highlight interesting STEM projects outside of work or school. We are looking for deep expertise in one core discipline below:

• Mechanical:

  • Intuitive understanding of material, structural, and mechanical system behavior.

  • CAD fluency (preferably OnShape) with experience in DFM, GD&T.

  • Manufacturing experience (CNC, additive, composites, molds).

  • Prototyping and a fast iterative (build, test, fail) approach.

  • Strong hands-on experience building or repairing mechanical/electrical systems (robotics, drones, RC vehicles, automotive, maker projects, etc.).

  • Experience with environmental testing and building out testing equipment.

• Software:

  • Creating an intuitive UI/UX interface for both front and backend.

  • History in professional software environments and industry workflows.

  • Experience with 3D data reconstruction, such as Gaussian splatting.

  • Obsession with fusing both functionality and aesthetic form within a design (Software & Hardware).

• Robotics:

  • Developing electro-mechanical systems (robots).

  • Proficient in C++ and Python, with ROS1/ROS2 experience in Linux.

  • UI/UX design for controlling networked robotic systems.

  • Experience building RC vehicles, flight controllers, and motor controls.

  • Experience integrating sensors and peripherals over standard embedded communication protocols.

  • Soldering, PCB work, and design experience.

  • Understanding of RF communications, protocols, and limitations.

We are looking for a Generalist Engineer. We want someone who can dive deep into low-level technical problems and emerge with a solution, regardless of the discipline. You will not be confined to a single subsystem; you will own issues from the whiteboard to the field.

• Technical Versatility: Deep expertise in one core discipline (e.g., Mechanical, Electrical, or Software) but proficient enough to dive deep into others.

• Background: Ideally, a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Engineering (ME, EE, CS), Robotics, or a related field. However, this isn’t necessary either.

• Design-Minded: You believe that "how it looks" and "how it feels" are just as important as "how it works." You take pride in clean wiring, clean code, and clean interfaces.

• Driven by Curiosity: You build complex things for fun in your free time and love to educate others on problems and solutions.

About The Hiring Process
Drover Labs cares deeply about your time, and while we will want to spend time getting to know you during the interview process, project work or on-site interviews are compensated on a paid hourly basis. We want the foundations of our company to be in investing in what’s most important, you.

Compensation: $100K/yr - $180K/yr + Equity + Benefits