Staff Hardware Systems Engineer

About the role

We're hiring a Staff Hardware Systems Engineer to own requirements, integration and verification and validation (V&V) for our warehouse robotics hardware: autonomous inventory drones, forklift-mounted vision systems, and the charging and battery systems that support them. You'll make sure every Gather hardware product is built from testable requirements, de-risked one technology block at a time, integrated cleanly with firmware, software and autonomy, and released on objective evidence that holds up in real warehouses.

This is a hands-on individual-contributor role on a small, senior hardware team in Pittsburgh. You'll set up the framework and do the work yourself: scout and test new technologies, write the requirements, build the test rigs, run the tests and analyze the data.

What you'll do

• Own the requirements and V&V framework for our hardware products, from system requirements down to subsystem, technology-block and interface requirements, with traceability to verification evidence.
• Scout, characterize and compare candidate technologies (cameras, illumination, propulsion, wireless charging, batteries and more), and recommend which to take into the next product.
• Own integration of electrical, firmware, software and autonomy into the hardware product design, including bring-up, integration testing and root cause of interface failures.
• Write and run V&V plans: test methods, rigs, fixtures and instrumentation; statistically based sampling plans; design of experiments; clear conclusions with stated uncertainty.
• Own environmental and compliance testing (shock and vibration, thermal and condensation, ingress, EMC/FCC), working with external test labs.
• Own technical budgets (power, thermal, mass, EMC/RF), lead system-level hazard analysis, and feed DFMEA.
• Deliver decision-ready evidence for design reviews, design freeze and release, and assess the verification impact of engineering changes.
• Close the loop from field failures back to requirements and tests, and shape production test strategy with our contract manufacturer.

What success looks like

• 30 days: Own verification for our next-generation forklift vision system and break its system requirements down to hardware level.
• 60 days: Define requirements and the V&V plan for a new charging system, and get the requirements cascade and verification matrix in use on a live product line.
• 90 days: Requirements cascade and verification matrix in use across active product lines; test plans for current technology blocks; a reusable library of environmental test profiles.
• 1 year: V&V evidence built into every hardware stage gate, next-generation products released against that standard, and a production test coverage proposal handed to manufacturing.

What you bring

• You've owned requirements through V&V on an electromechanical product taken from concept to production: decomposing product requirements to subsystem level with traceability, and writing and running V&V plans with objective, measurable acceptance criteria.
• You've integrated hardware with firmware and software in a robotic, embedded, autonomous or complex electromechanical system, including bring-up and root-causing interface failures.
• You use statistics to make engineering decisions: design of experiments, data analysis and statistically based sampling plans (confidence/reliability, AQL or similar).
• You build the test, not just the plan: test methods, rigs, fixtures and data acquisition, including measurement system analysis (e.g., Gauge R&R).
• BS in an engineering field with 10+ years of relevant experience, or an MS (preferred) with 8+ years.

Nice to have

• Environmental and compliance qualification with external labs: shock and vibration, thermal cycling and condensation, IP ingress, EMC/FCC.
• Vision and power technology: camera characterization and illumination, lithium batteries and charging systems, and trade studies to choose between them.
• Regulated product development (medical, aerospace, automotive), with the judgment to scale that rigor to a startup.
• Experience with drones/UAVs, material handling equipment or robotics.

Location

Pittsburgh, PA. On-site 4-5 days a week (this is a lab-heavy, hands-on role), with about 10% travel to test labs, our contract manufacturer and customer warehouses.