Construction Robot Operator, UK

Job description

Monumental is automating on-site construction with robotics and software. Our mission is to make construction software-defined and autonomous - a future where beautiful, bespoke buildings go up in a single day, with minimal labour. We're a growing team of engineers, operators and technicians from companies like Palantir, Qualcomm, Dyson, Shopify, Tesla, Meta and Google DeepMind. It's still the early days of building the company, and this is a chance to make an outsized impact on a problem that matters. From day one, you’ll be working with an experienced founding team, backed by a $32M Series B led by Khosla Ventures and Plural. You'll be part of our founding UK team - pilots and deployments are incoming, with facilities to follow. To get you started, we'll cover travel and accommodation for a few weeks of onboarding at Monumental HQ, in the city centre of Amsterdam. We have a beautiful facility with an fully equipped workshop and robot testing floor. We're explicitly not a hybrid or remote-first company - you can't build robots or walls from home, so we're onsite five days a week. Read more on why we believe you should spend your time working on construction, and learn about our vision https://www.monumental.co/our-vision/and company https://www.monumental.co/about/. You might enjoy Based in Europe’s film on how we’re fixing Europe’s housing shortage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Q2F0Fcx4A, or this video by Andreas Klinger of what our office looks like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOo8n19XEns. About the role We're looking for a Construction Robot Operator to introduce robots and automation to the construction industry in the UK, helping create affordable, beautiful, high-quality housing for everyone. Over the last couple of years, we’ve grown our Amsterdam Operator team from 0 to 45. Many of these came from retail, hospitality and events. Some studied civil, mechanical or computer engineering and wanted to do something more practical with it. Others grew up on farms, or around workshops, and most are sporty. They all have one thing in common: they'd rather be hands-on outside than stuck behind a desk. If that sounds like you, you'll fit right in. Given that this is a completely new role, we don’t expect any prior experience. What we're looking for is technical intuition, practicality, and an eye for detail, plus a bias for action: when something's going wrong, you take the initiative to work out what it is, and you're not afraid to get your hands dirty fixing it. The role itself is unlike anything else in construction or tech. You'll travel to and from site, prep a build, place markers for 3D reconstruction, and operate our robots using Atrium, our in-house OS for onsite construction https://www.monumental.co/atrium. When something doesn't go to plan, you'll work with our R&D and operations teams, who manage and support every build remotely. You'll be the face of Monumental on site. Our robots don't talk, so the general contractors, subcontractors, and trades you work alongside will talk to you instead. You'll spend most of your time building the housing, infrastructure, hospitals, and commercial spaces the UK needs. The rest of the time, you will be at our Hub, building test walls, learning how to service and maintain our robots, and prepping for your next deployment. For more on how we think about the role, read Jip's post on his experience joining Monumental as a robot operator https://buildmonumental.substack.com/p/the-best-product-job-isnt-in-engineering. Expect a lot of driving: you'll travel to construction sites across the country from our UK hub, and since construction starts early, you'll need to be comfortable with early mornings. You'll be one of the first people in the UK using software and robots to build, in an industry that's worked the same way for centuries. We are unable to support relocation or sponsorship for this role. Applicants must be based in the United Kingdom, eligible to work and able to commute onsite to London to be considered. What you’ll do - Prepping a real or test construction project: understanding what needs to be built, where, and scoping site conditions - Preparing the site by placing markers and taking photos for 3D reconstruction - Operating our construction robots using our in-house software system on a laptop - Taking notes as the system runs so our R&D team can keep improving the product - Troubleshooting with our engineering, ops, and manufacturing teams in Amsterdam when more complicated issues come up - Handling site tasks including: setting wall ties, cutting and loading bricks and pointing walls - Being an ambassador and the face of Monumental on a construction site What we’re looking for - A technical and analytical mindset. You don’t need an engineering degree, but you understand the difference between a hardware and software failure, and how to debug a problem when something breaks - your friends probably come to you for tech support - You love getting your hands dirty and don’t want to sit behind a computer all-day. You will frequently wake up early to drive to a construction site on-time and enjoy being in that context. - You are outcome and detail oriented. You understand that running the robots all day but leaving walls stained and dirty is still a failure when we’re building a house that someone will live in. - Previous experience on a construction site is a strong plus. - You have a drivers license and are comfortable driving a van. - You’re fluent in English (spoken and written). Employment and logistics - 5 days a week as a contractor/sole trader - UK-based, commuting from our hub for day-trips to sites. Sponsorship not available for this role. Why Monumental? The UK has missed its housing target by almost 100k homes every year for the last decade, all while the industry is facing a shortage of around 25,000 bricklayers. We're hiring the team that's going to deploy a new way of building to solve this. It is hard, messy, and deeply rewarding work. If you're driven by the idea of building real things with new technology, we want to hear from you. For open applications, or if you don't see an exact role match but think you'd be good at this, write to us at iwanttojoin@monumental.co. Tell us the most interesting or challenging project you've worked on, why you want to join, and your CV or portfolio. If you don't meet every line above but are excited about Monumental and feel you'd help us solve difficult problems, get in touch. We're open to generalists who get things done and are comfortable learning as they go.