Robotics Lead | Hardware Platform

Gecko Robotics is helping the world’s most important organizations ensure the availability, reliability, and sustainability of critical infrastructure. Gecko's complete and connected solutions combine wall-climbing robots, industry-leading sensors, and an AI-powered data platform to provide customers with a unique window into the current and future health of their physical assets. This enables real-time decision making to increase the efficiency and safety of operations, promote mission readiness, and protect the environment and civilization from the effects of infrastructure failure.

Gecko Robotics is expanding its platform team and seeking a visionary Robotics Engineering Lead to drive technical excellence, scale the team, and accelerate the development of our next-generation robotic systems. You’ll oversee the embedded software, firmware, and electronics at the core of our robotics platform—driving high-impact solutions for national security, energy resilience, and industrial intelligence in some of the most complex environments on earth.

You’ll work alongside a team that has launched multiple robotic solutions in recent years and is deeply familiar with the full lifecycle of design, development, and deployment. We’re looking for a teammate who can challenge our assumptions, bring fresh ideas, and raise the bar across every phase of execution.

This role is based in NYC, Boston or Pittsburgh and will involve up to 30% travel, primarily to support team collaboration, field testing, and cross-site integration efforts.

• Lead and scale the Robotics Platform team from our NYC, Boston or Pittsburgh office, fostering a culture of collaboration, technical rigor, and innovation.

• Drive hiring and team development, growing a high-performing, multidisciplinary engineering group across multiple office locations (Boston, NYC, Pittsburgh).

• Own project structure: Define project goals, scope, resourcing, and success criteria to ensure timely and high-quality execution.

• Oversee the design, prototyping, testing, and deployment of hardware and embedded solutions, ensuring they meet both customer needs and industry standards.

• Champion cross-functional collaboration with teams across mechanical, electrical, embedded, software, product, and sales.

• Mentor and guide technical leads and engineers across levels, developing internal talent and technical leadership capacity.

• Ensure effective communication and alignment across locations and functions, acting as a technical and organizational bridge.

• Guide the evolution of our core robotic fleet, focusing on scalability, reliability, and reuse across platforms and missions.

• Enable fast iteration cycles, rapid field testing, and feedback loops that result in robust, field-ready robotic systems.

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.

• Proven experience leading multidisciplinary teams in the development of deployed robotic systems, especially in industrial or harsh environments.

• Strong grasp of embedded systems and electronics, including firmware, high-speed interfaces, analog acquisition, and power electronics.

• Experience with full product lifecycle: from blank-slate prototyping to field deployment and scaling for production.

• Skilled at balancing near-term project deliverables with long-term technical vision.

• Deep appreciation for designing for the user — from usability to maintainability in challenging environments.

• Comfortable working in fast-paced, ambiguity-rich environments, making high-quality decisions with imperfect information.

• Collaborative leader with a track record of influencing across orgs and developing talent.

• Excellent communicator with the ability to align technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Experience interfacing with suppliers and 3rd-party vendors, as well as cross-functional engineering peers.

• Willing and able to travel approximately 30% of the time to Gecko office locations and field sites as needed.

• Real-World Impact: Your work powers missions in national security, defense, and infrastructure — places where failure isn’t an option.

• Rapid Development Cycles: Skip the bureaucracy — we build, test, and deploy quickly, with tight integration between field and engineering teams.

• Technical Breadth: Our robots span land, sea, and air. You’ll work on high-performance embedded systems, edge compute, sensor fusion, and beyond.

• Mission-Driven Work: Gecko is redefining how we understand and maintain the physical world. From inside power plants to under submarines — we go where humans can’t.

• Ownership and Growth: This is a leadership role with visibility, agency, and the mandate to shape Gecko’s hardware future.

While the role emphasizes systems thinking over tool-chasing, here are some of the technologies you might engage with:

• High-speed interfaces: 1000Base-T, 10GBase-T, USB 3.1, GMSL, MIPI CSI-2

• Mixed-signal/analog acquisition: <1mV precision, up to 10MSPS, 12–16 bit resolution

• Power electronics: Offline power supplies (<2kW), field-oriented motor control (hundreds of watts), and batteries ( ~100Wh, 5s Lithium-Ion)

• Mechanical and thermal integration: Compact, sealed enclosures designed for high ambient temps

• Related mechanical design concepts: DFA, DFM, FEA, CAD, GD&T, DFMEA, product lifecycle frameworks

At Gecko, our people are our greatest investment. In addition to competitive compensation packages, we offer company equity, 401(k) matching, gender-neutral parental leave, full medical, dental, and vision insurance, mental health and wellness support, ongoing professional development, family planning assistance, and flexible paid time off. 

Gecko values collaboration, innovation, and partnership, and we believe we do our best work when we're together in person. We’re an office-first culture but understand that sometimes you may need to work from home. Many people are in the office five days a week, others need a bit more flexibility. Ultimately, we care about the outcomes we achieve - and creating a culture of autonomy and trust that enables that impact.

Gecko is committed to creating a culture of inclusion and belonging, and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.  We believe it is our collective responsibility to uphold these values and encourage candidates from all backgrounds to join us in our mission to protect today’s infrastructure and give form to tomorrow’s. All qualified applicants will be treated with respect and receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, uniform service, veteran status, age, or any other protected characteristic per federal, state, or local law. If you are passionate about what you do and want to use your talents to support our critical mission, we’d love to hear from you.