Director of Atlas Hardware Platform Engineering

Boston Dynamics is looking for a Director of Atlas Platform Hardware Engineering to join our Atlas Humanoid Team. As the Director of Atlas Platform Hardware Engineering, you will lead the Structures, Power & Platform Electronics, Interconnects, and Head teams while working with the Actuator, End Effector, and Battery design teams. This unified approach will combine subsystems into one robot that can be manufactured, validated, and shipped on time within budget at scale. Your mastery of hardware product development processes, decision making capabilities through ambiguity, and effective leadership are pivotal to growing a high performing organization. You will report directly to the Senior Director of Atlas Hardware Innovation who is responsible for the Atlas hardware ecosystem. 

Boston Dynamics is a world leader in mobile robots, tackling some of the toughest robotics challenges. For years, our awe-inspiring viral videos on YouTube have shown the world what remarkably capable robots can do. Now we are quickly becoming a recognized leader in automation solutions for industrial applications and warehouse logistics.  

How you will make an impact:

• Lead the Atlas Platform team setting organizational structure, goals, priorities, and accountability, to build an inclusive, high-performance culture.
• Build workforce and headcount plans matched to program demand through leading hiring and onboarding efforts. Plan the allocation of direct-hire and contingent workforces, as well as vendors across teams and program phases.
• Manage performance end to end by setting goals, conducting regular reviews,, active coaching and mentorship, , promoting through performance and skills development, and nurturing leaders.
• Partner with the PM team to manage the organizational budget (labor, prototypes, tooling, test, and supplier costs), schedules, and operating metrics, and report progress, risks, and trade-offs to executive stakeholders.
• Partner with PM leadership on integrated program planning across the Platform and partner teams, including schedule, dependencies, critical path, and risk, and drive resolution of cross-team conflicts.
• Lead technical execution of the platform hardware development program from concept to production.: Set gate entry and exit criteria, plan prototype and validation builds (e.g., EVT, DVT, PVT), and own hardware readiness at each gate through production release.
• Maintain the plan-of-record architectural baseline as well as mass, power, thermal, volume, cost, and reliability budgets.
• Establish a program of experiments and analyses that quantify how well the hardware meets product needs.
• Drive design for manufacturing, assembly, and test (DFM/DFA/DFT) of the top-level robot assembly. Work with manufacturing, sourcing, quality, suppliers, and contract manufacturers on first articles, supplier readiness, yield, and ramp.
• Advise systems engineering leadership on verification and validation strategy so that testing covers the right risks, and guide system-level risk management (FMEA, safety analysis, reliability) and regulatory and safety compliance.
• Partner with software, compute, controls, and behavior engineering leaders to translate robot capabilities and constraints into hardware requirements and to resolve hardware/software interface decisions.

Core Competencies: 

• Execution: Plan and run the product development process with discipline, translate the plan of record into clear organizational priorities, and hold the organization to schedule, cost, and quality commitments. Uses experiments and data to make and defend decisions.
• Collaboration: Build trusted partnerships with executive peers and leaders across hardware, software, behavior, systems engineering, manufacturing, and product. Influence partner teams that do not report to the role, align multiple stakeholders on technical trade-offs, and communicate clearly to engineers and executives.
• Innovation: Set expectations for experimentation and learning, and bring new ideas and test results forward into architectural proposals.
• Adaptability: Lead the organization through ambiguity, changing requirements, and growth while maintaining architectural coherence and team focus.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Expert command of the hardware product development process from concept to production: phase-gate governance with entry and exit criteria, prototype build stages (e.g., EVT, DVT, PVT), design verification and validation, design transfer, and production ramp.
• Deep knowledge of design for manufacturing, assembly, and test (DFM/DFA/DFT), tolerance and cost management, and supplier and contract-manufacturer engagement, including first-article inspection, incoming quality, and yield.
• Disciplined configuration and change management: requirements traceability, release control, engineering change control (ECO/ECN), and PLM/CAD data management.
• Strong program planning and risk management: integrated schedules, critical path, risk registers, and readiness reviews.
• Proven people leadership: hiring, resource and headcount planning, performance management, compensation planning, coaching, succession planning, and culture building, including leading leaders.
• Deep, cross-functional understanding of robotic hardware, including mechanical systems, actuation, power electronics, compute, sensing, thermal management, and environmental robustness.
• Experience using experiments and test data to evaluate and improve complex electromechanical products.
• Excellent communication, executive presence, and decision-making under uncertainty.

Typical Qualifications: 

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related technical discipline. Master's or PhD preferred.
• Experience: 14+ years of engineering experience, including 6+ years of engineering leadership and 3+ years managing managers and/or multi-disciplinary teams.
• Proven track record taking a complex robotic or electromechanical product from concept through production release, across multiple development cycles and builds shipping thousands to millions of units per year.
• Experience managing an organization's hiring, performance, compensation, and budget, including leading leaders.
• Experience with dynamic or legged robots, humanoids, or other high-DOF platforms is a plus.

This role will require domestic and international travel 15% of the time with potential for more.

We are interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. However, we are not able to sponsor visas for this position.

The salary range for this position will be clearly stated in the job posting as required by Massachusetts law. The base pay range for this position is between $229,000 - $306,000. Base pay will depend on multiple individualized factors including, but not limited to internal equity, job related knowledge, skills and experience. This range represents a good faith estimate of compensation at the time of posting.

Boston Dynamics will never ask you to divulge your personal financial or account information as part of its recruiting process.

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