Project Hydra | Hardware Technician - Robotics Lab

Role Overview

We are looking for a Hardware Lab Technician to own the physical side of a large-scale robot data collection operation. You’ll keep the fleet running, build what’s next, and be the person the lab calls when something stops working. This is a hands-on role across research and low-volume production where embodiments, grippers, and camera rigs change fast—and the hardware has to keep up. Day-to-day teleoperation is handled by a dedicated operator team you support; you maintain what they run on and help ensure data quality through reliable, well-calibrated hardware.

Project Details

• Location: 100% Onsite (Santa Clara, CA, US)

• Employment: Full-time W-2

• Shifts: Monday–Friday, 7AM - 3:30PM or 9AM - 5:30PM

• Start Date: ASAP

• Contract Duration: 12-month contract with possibility of extension

• Rate: $40 per /hour

What You’ll Do

Build, wire, and bring up data collection stations — robot arms, multi-camera rigs, workstations, teleoperation hardware, and cable management that survives daily operator use.

Keep the fleet running: daily checks, preventive maintenance, calibration routines, and diagnosing faults on arms, hands, and sensors.

Swap and integrate end-effectors and grippers, dexterous hands, force/torque and tactile sensors, and RGB-D cameras.

Run calibration and firmware procedures across the fleet, and catch drift before it reaches the data.

Assemble and iterate prototype hardware coming out of our mechanical and electrical engineers — printed parts, off-the-shelf components, vendor-fabricated parts, and custom harnesses.

Soldering, crimping, connectorization, harness building, and PCB rework support at the bench.

Own the lab's physical state: spares and consumables inventory, parts kitting, bench and tool organization, and shipping, returns, and RMAs with vendors.

Support teleoperators on hardware issues during live collection — triage fast, fix or escalate, and get the station back up.

Document what you do. Build sheets, maintenance logs, calibration records, and hardware SOPs the next technician can follow.

Help bring up new embodiments and new stations alongside engineers and researchers.

What we need to see

3+ years hands-on technician experience in a lab, prototyping, or low-volume build environment — robotics, medical devices, aerospace, semiconductor equipment, or similar.

AS in a technical field, a relevant trade or technical certificate, or equivalent hands-on experience.

Mechanical assembly fundamentals: fasteners and torque, bearings, belts, linkages, and the ability to read CAD and mechanical drawings (Onshape, SolidWorks, or similar).

Electrical hands: soldering including basic SMD rework, crimping and connectorization, harness building, and confident use of a multimeter and oscilloscope.

Comfortable in Linux at the command line — SSH into a workstation, run a calibration script, read a log, and tell us what it said.

Experience with motors, encoders, and sensor integration, and an understanding of what a bad ground or a marginal cable does to a data stream.

Methodical and self-documenting. An undocumented fix is a future outage.

Comfortable with ambiguity and frequent change, and able to prioritize when more than one lab needs you at the same time.

Able to work on-site in Santa Clara, with flexibility on shift coverage as the labs run extended hours.