Head of Engineering

Job description

ABOUT CHARGE Charge Robotics is a Series A startup building robots that build solar farms. Demand for new solar projects is booming (one-fifth of all the solar that exists in the US was installed last year!), but today’s construction companies can’t keep up due to limited labor resources. We thought this was insane, so we developed robots to directly address this bottleneck and speed up the world’s transition to renewables. We’ve shipped our first commercial system already, and are in the process of scaling up our operations to meet our massive demand. Charge is a fast-moving company, which means constant opportunities for learning and growth. You’ll have a large impact on the direction of our company and our product, which will be reflected in significant equity compensation. And you get to work with 🤖 giant robots 🤖. If you are excited to work on interesting technical problems with direct climate impact, you’re going to fit right in at Charge Robotics. Read more about Charge in recent press: - Fast Company - Solar Building Robots to Solve One of Climate's Biggest Problems https://www.fastcompany.com/91108331/these-solar-assembling-robotic-arms-could-solve-one-of-the-industrys-biggest-problems - MIT News - Making solar projects cheaper and faster with portable factories https://news.mit.edu/2025/charge-robotics-makes-solar-projects-cheaper-faster-portable-factories-0312 - YouTube - full video of our Gen1 robots building a solar farm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ2fP1Y5Z2E Charge’s funding: We’re MIT-founded and backed by Silicon Valley’s top investors, including Founders Fund, Energy Impact Partners, Lux Capital, YC (S21), and more. ABOUT THE ROLE Charge Robotics is hiring a Head of Engineering to lead the engineering team through our next stage of growth: transitioning from first commercial deployments to repeatable builds and performance at scale. You will lead a 15+ person, cross‑disciplinary team and stay hands-on where needed to keep execution fast and technical quality high. WHAT YOU WILL DO - Report directly to the CEO in order to lead, mentor, and grow an all-star, multi-disciplinary engineering team - Collaborate closely with company leadership to align the strategic direction of engineering initiatives with company goals and roadmap - Be a critical part of driving the design of our product while architecting the team structure and engineering processes required to bring it to deployed reality - Scale engineering operations from R&D through manufacturing, leading the transition from prototype development to full production - Internally and externally represent the engineering function of the organization to key stakeholders including employees, customers, executives, and investors - Establish and continuously improve engineering management processes, including performance reviews, planning, and organizational design - Set the bar for excellence across engineering activity, including implementing best practices for development, testing, and documentation - Continuously learn new industry best practices and emerging technologies As Head of Engineering at Charge Robotics, you’ll have a wide and critical impact which includes shaping our core technical team, expanding our existing culture of engineering excellence, creating effective processes, and helping ship a transformative product. You'll engage with internal and external teams to help ensure we’re successful in achieving our mission of creating a better way to build solar power. YOU - Gain satisfaction from personally playing a part in mitigating climate change - Have excellent verbal and written communication skills - Have excellent interpersonal relationship management skills - Have 5+ years of experience in an engineering leadership role - Have overseen multiple development cycles end-to-end and shipped complex electromechanical systems - Can roll up your sleeves to dive into a problem when needed, but maintain context of broader organizational goals and perspective - Are strongly opinionated but know how and when to compromise effectively - Are versed in walking the careful balance between shipping quickly and shipping quality - Operate effectively in the fast-paced environment of a rapidly growing startup - Have a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, Physics, or a related field - Are based in or can relocate to the SF Bay Area, and able to work 4-5 days/week from our San Leandro HQ - Are open to ~10% travel to field (solar construction sites) to work directly with our product in its deployment environment - Are excited to see our robots deployed onto actual solar farms! IT’D ALSO BE NICE IF YOU - Have extensive experience developing automation and robotics systems - Have experience working with solar power generation technologies - Have experience working directly in multiple different engineering disciplines Base pay is one element of our Total Rewards package which may also include comprehensive benefits and equity, depending on eligibility. The annual base salary range for this position is from $180,000 to $300,000. The actual base pay offered will be determined on factors such as years of relevant experience, skills, education and training. Decisions will be determined on a case-by-case basis. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.