Senior Automation Engineer, Robotics

Job description

About Mach Industries Founded in 2023, Mach Industries is a rapidly growing defense technology company focused on developing next-generation autonomous defense platforms. At the core of our mission is the commitment to delivering scalable, decentralized defense systems that enhance the strategic capabilities of the United States and its allies. With a workforce of approximately 350 employees, we operate with startup agility and ambition. Our vision is to redefine the future of warfare through cutting-edge manufacturing, innovation at speed, and unwavering focus on national security. We are dedicated to solving the next generation of warfare with lethal systems that deter kinetic conflict and protect global security. The Role Mach Industries is seeking a Senior Automation Engineer, Robotics to develop and deploy our industrial robotics platform across manufacturing. You will establish standardized architectures for industrial robots and collaborative robots, develop robotic automation for pilot production lines, and create the software, hardware, safety, and integration standards used to scale robotics across Mach factories. This is a hands-on engineering role. You will design robotic cells, program and commission robots, develop ROS 2-based robotics applications, integrate vision and end-of-arm tooling, and work directly with manufacturing engineers and systems integrators to take automation from concept through production. Key Responsibilities • Develop Mach's standardized robotics platform for industrial robots and cobots. • Define robot hardware, software, communication, safety, and integration standards for production equipment. • Design, program, integrate, and commission robotic automation for pilot and production manufacturing systems. • Develop reusable robotics software and architectures using ROS 2, finite state machines, behavior trees, and native industrial robot programming environments. • Establish software engineering standards for robotics including CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, deployment, version control, dependency management, and containerization. • Develop standardized methods for robot software deployment, configuration management, releases, rollback, and recovery across production equipment. • Design robotic cell architectures including robots, cobots, end-of-arm tooling, fixturing, vision systems, sensors, guarding, and material handling. • Develop and integrate applications including machine tending, assembly, dispensing, material handling, inspection, welding, and other manufacturing processes. • Integrate robots and ROS 2 applications with Beckhoff TwinCAT controls systems and establish standardized PLC-to-robot interfaces. • Integrate 2D/3D machine vision, force/torque sensing, servo tooling, and other advanced robotic peripherals. • Develop standards for robot calibration, TCP definition, coordinate frames, path optimization, fault handling, recovery, and repeatability validation. • Partner with controls and safety engineers to develop safe robotic systems including guarding, interlocks, safe motion, scanners, and collaborative applications. • Develop simulation and virtual commissioning workflows to validate robotic applications before deployment to physical equipment. • Translate successful pilot systems into robotics standards and specifications that can be deployed by external systems integrators. • Review and support integrator robotic designs, programming, simulation, FAT, SAT, and commissioning. • Troubleshoot robotic, mechanical, controls, vision, networking, and software issues during equipment startup and production ramp. • Optimize robot paths, cycle times, reliability, fault recovery, and OEE to achieve production Run at Rate milestones. • Mentor engineers and technicians on robotic system design, software architecture, programming, and troubleshooting. Required Qualifications • Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Robotics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline. • 5+ years of experience developing industrial robotic or automated manufacturing systems. • Strong hands-on experience programming and commissioning industrial robots. • Hands-on experience developing robotic systems using ROS 2. • Proficiency in C++ and/or Python for robotics applications. • Experience designing and integrating complete robotic cells including robots, tooling, sensors, controls, and safety systems. • Experience integrating robots with PLC-controlled manufacturing equipment. • Strong understanding of robot coordinate systems, TCPs, motion programming, calibration, path planning, and fault recovery. • Experience designing robotic software architectures using finite state machines and/or behavior trees. • Experience with modern software development practices including Git-based version control, CI/CD, automated testing, and containerized deployment. • Experience taking robotic equipment from concept through integration, commissioning, and production. • Ability to troubleshoot complex electromechanical, controls, networking, and software systems directly on manufacturing equipment. Preferred Qualifications • Advanced experience with one or more major robotics platforms such as FANUC, ABB, KUKA, Yaskawa, Universal Robots, Standard Bots or similar. • Experience developing standardized robotic software or architectures deployed across multiple machines or production lines. • Experience integrating robotics with Beckhoff TwinCAT, EtherCAT, and TwinSAFE. • Experience with NVIDIA Isaac Sim, digital twins, robotic simulation, or virtual commissioning. • Experience with 2D/3D machine vision, robot guidance, force/torque sensing, or advanced robotic process control. • Experience applying machine learning to robotic perception, manipulation, inspection, process optimization, or other manufacturing applications. • Experience developing robotics data-acquisition systems for telemetry, diagnostics, process mon