Dusty Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Dusty Robotics develops robot-powered tools for the modern construction workforce.
While today's buildings are built predominantly with manual labor, Dusty envisions a future in which skilled labor makes use of robotic automation to make the work safer, more efficient, and more precise. We want to create a future in which construction workers don't need to retire early because their bodies give out. In Dusty's future, the buildings we live and work in are built by teams of creative and problem-solving construction crews who direct robots to do the dull, dirty, and dangerous work.
What We're Building
Dusty bridges the gap between the digital world of building design and the skilled labor operating in the field, accelerating the digital transformation of the construction industry. The centerpiece of our strategy is the FieldPrinter: a mobile printer-on-wheels that prints building floorplans full-size on the concrete floor of a construction site. When errors in layout can cause multi-million dollar mistakes, our product ensures that all field crews are building off of a single source of truth derived from the digital model.
The Role
Dusty Robotics is seeking a Senior Electrical Engineer to help design, develop, and manufacture the electrical systems that power our autonomous construction robots. This is a hands-on role for an engineer who thrives at the intersection of product development, system integration, and real-world deployment.
You will play a key role in architecting and delivering robust electrical hardware for next-generation robotic platforms, working closely with mechanical, firmware, software, and manufacturing teams. Your work will directly impact the reliability, performance, and manufacturability of products operating in demanding construction environments.
This is currently a one-person EE function, so you'll own electrical engineering end to end - there's a steady flow of new PCBAs to design and an ongoing need to support Manufacturing, plus real ambiguity in how work gets structured. You'll be given problems more often than playbooks, and part of the job is building the tools, processes, and documentation (Confluence pages, spreadsheets, test fixtures, schedules, cost estimates) that don't exist yet. We're looking for an engineer who has successfully developed complex electromechanical systems from concept through production and is excited by the challenge of bringing innovative robotic products to market.
What You'll Do
Electrical System Design & Development

• Design and develop electrical architectures for autonomous robotic systems
• Own schematic capture, PCB design oversight, component selection, and system integration
• Develop power distribution, battery management, motor control, sensing, and communication systems
• Define electrical requirements and interfaces across hardware and software subsystems
• Be responsible for EE prototype development, bring-up, debugging, validation, certification, and release to manufacturing

Product Development & Reliability

• Lead electrical hardware development from concept through production release
• Drive design reviews and ensure designs meet performance, reliability, safety, and cost targets
• Perform root cause analysis and troubleshooting for electrical and system-level issues, including diagnosing hardware returned from the field
• Develop and execute validation plans to verify system functionality and robustness
• Improve product reliability through testing, failure analysis, and continuous improvement initiatives - minimizing costly hardware do-overs through disciplined prototype testing and QA

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with mechanical, firmware, software, and systems engineers to develop integrated robotic solutions
• Partner with manufacturing and supply chain teams to support design for manufacturability, assembly, and serviceability
• Contribute to system architecture decisions and tradeoff analyses across multiple engineering disciplines
• Support field deployments and incorporate customer feedback into future product improvements
• Proactively drive cross-team collaboration - on a lean team, alignment doesn't happen unless someone owns making it happen

Manufacturing & Scale

• Collaborate with contract manufacturers and suppliers to support production builds
• Drive component selection, qualification, and lifecycle management
• Develop test strategies and production validation processes
• Support transition from prototype to volume manufacturing while maintaining product quality and reliability

Innovation & Technical Leadership

• Help define the electrical architecture of future generations of Dusty's robotic platforms
• Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies in sensing, power electronics, controls, and robotics
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to engineering best practices - several teammates are early in their careers and rely on your discipline and guidance
• Be part of a cross-disciplinary team solving challenges spanning robotics, electronics, firmware, software, printing, optics, and autonomous systems

What Success Looks Like

• In the first 90 days: you've demonstrated familiarity with our current boards, established strong working communication with the engineering team and company, and are producing elegant, well-reasoned designs.
• At one year: your PCBAs are running bug-free in the field, you own the handoff process to Manufacturing, and you've measurably improved Dusty's EE design and QA processes. As a stretch goal, you're beginning to show process-oriented leadership across ME, EE, and Manufacturing.
• How we'll know it was the right hire: PCBAs are released on time, there are no bad boards in production, and other engineers come to you for help.

Who You'll Work With
This role reports to a hands-off manager who provides guidance when asked, rather than day-to-day direction - you'll be trusted to drive your own work. Day to day, you'll partner most closely with the Product Manager, who is collaborative and skilled at breaking problems down into manageable pieces, and with mechanical engineering as new hardware comes online. The EE function is holding steady as a single-person team for the foreseeable future, so this is very much an ownership role rather than a lead-a-team role - though your mentorship of junior engineers still matters.
How We Work

• Moderate multitasking is the norm - you'll typically be balancing HW troubleshooting on returned units, keeping Manufacturing supported, and two or three development projects at once. That said, the team is respectful of focus time, so heads-down deep work is genuinely possible.
• Communication is Slack-first and mostly in-person - the team isn't meeting-heavy, and documentation lives in rigorously maintained Confluence pages.
• Expect real ambiguity, not a fixed playbook. Existing firmware and software give you a framework, but part of the job is challenging that framework's rigidity and building better structure - tools, docs, and processes - as you go.
• The culture is detail-oriented and collaborative; the engineers who thrive here move fast, stay focused, make decisions on technical merit rather than ego, and are just as willing to lend a hand to a teammate as to drive their own projects.

Who You Are

• Altium proficiency is a nice-to-have. Hands-on schematic capture and PCB design experience in Altium specifically is a non-negotiable for this role.
• 7+ years of experience developing electrical systems for complex electromechanical products
• Strong experience designing and debugging mixed-signal, embedded, and power electronics systems
• Experience taking products from prototype through production and manufacturing scale-up
• Experience with battery-powered systems, motor controls, sensors, and embedded hardware
• A genuinely hands-on attitude - comfortable breadboarding, testing, and consistently running QA on your own designs
• Strong hands-on debugging and lab troubleshooting skills
• Familiarity with design for manufacturability (DFM), design for testability (DFT), and reliability engineering principles, plus RF troubleshooting
• Experience working with contract manufacturers and suppliers
• Experience designing for EMC compliance and ESD hardening
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams
• Comfort with startup environments where priorities shift and resources are lean - and a genuine enjoyment of that pace
• Persistence: the traits that separate great engineers here are the willingness to stay with a hard problem until it's actually solved
• A holistic, "plays all the instruments" mindset - for example, understanding how mechanical design decisions affect your electrical work, rather than staying narrowly in your lane

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing robotics, autonomous systems, industrial equipment, or mobile platforms
• Experience with high-reliability products operating in harsh environments
• Familiarity with embedded firmware development and hardware/software integration
• Experience with battery management systems and power electronics
• Knowledge of I2C, SPI, CAN communication protocols, and sensor integration
• MS in Electrical Engineering or related field preferred, Python programming proficiency

Note on flexibility: deep circuit-design experience is an area where we're willing to flex for the right person - strong Altium skills, hands-on discipline, and the traits above matter more than checking every box.
Why You Should Join
In joining our team, you'll become an important part of a small and fast-growing company. We are daring to accomplish something big - do you want to be a critical part of Dusty's success? We are deeply committed to our mission, and we believe in removing roadblocks that distract us from reaching our goals.
To that end, we offer an unlimited vacation policy, a 401(k) with employer match, reasonable work hours, and flexible schedules. We know that our best work happens when we feel well-rested and capable of focusing all of our energy on making Dusty successful.
Strong, effective teams are composed of people with a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences who bring a variety of perspectives to their work. We actively encourage applications from a diverse pool, including those from historically underrepresented groups such as women, people of color, people who identify LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, and immigrants.
Our Code of Conduct
Dusty Robotics exists to serve a wide variety of customers from all walks of life. We believe that our mission is best served in an environment that is friendly, safe, accepting, and free of intimidation or harassment. We do not tolerate abusive behavior.