Lead Robotics Hardware Validation Engineer

About Origin

Origin (previously 10xConstruction) is building general-purpose autonomous robots for US construction to tackle rising costs, safety risks, and labour shortages. Our modular, multi-trade platform combines purpose-built hardware with real-time site intelligence to navigate complex environments and execute tasks with precision. Trained in high-fidelity simulation and already deployed on live sites, our robots deliver 5x faster execution, 250%+ margin expansion, and significant cost savings. Join India’s most talent-dense robotics team, consisting of individuals from IITs, Stanford, UCLA, etc.

About the role

We are looking for a Robotics Hardware Validation engineer who goes beyond traditional functional testing, someone who can build quality systems, not just validate them. You will partner directly with mechanical, electronics, firmware, and software engineers to catch failures early and ensure every unit that leaves the lab is production-grade and field-ready for harsh construction environments. You will define the framework that ensures our robots are safe and reliable and function as per the defined speed and quality metrics. This role is for someone who has strong fundamental knowledge of hardware and embedded systems and curiosity to take the whole system to its breaking point.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the end-to-end verification & validation strategy for hardware and embedded systems from component inspection through V&V, production release, and post-deployment feedback.
• Design and execute test protocols for electro-mechanical assemblies, embedded controllers, actuators, sensors, and full-system behaviour, including endurance and stress testing.
• Break the system deliberately. Design adversarial, edge-case, and stress tests that go beyond the happy-path scenarios teams test themselves with: unexpected environmental conditions, sensor degradation, partial hardware failures, and long-duration operational stress. Measure and grow the ratio of QA-discovered defects to field-discovered defects over time.
• Sign off on capabilities. Act as the final quality gate before deployment. Own the release checklist, run or oversee acceptance tests, and make the go/no-go call backed by evidence and defined criteria.
• Collaborate closely with the V&V team to execute test plans, track bugs, and ensure product quality, while contributing independently across testing and validation activities.
• Build and enforce regression processes. When a bug is fixed, define the regression test that covers it and ensure it runs on every subsequent build.
• Monitor and analyse production quality metrics such as field failures, first-pass yield, and escape rates, and support the team in identifying trends and improvement areas.
• Maintain comprehensive quality documentation, test reports, production inspection records, reliability data, deployment checklists, and compliance artefacts.

Required Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelor's or Master’s in mechanical, electrical, mechatronics, robotics engineering, or a related technical field.
• 3–5 years of validation experience on hardware and firmware products (robots, drones, consumer electronics, medical devices, and automotive) with ownership of test strategy, not just execution.
• Demonstrated experience taking at least one hardware product through the full validation cycle from test planning through validation, production sign-off, and real-world deployment.
• Proven ability to write detailed test cases, design test setups, document results clearly, collaborate closely with engineering teams on bug resolution, and maintain structured test logs and reports.
• An adversarial mindset instinctively thinks about what can go wrong; it can watch a demo and immediately generate a list of untested conditions, boundary cases, and failure modes.
• Ability to write test automation (Python, Bash) and work with robotics tooling to instrument, capture, and reproduce robot behaviour in repeatable test sequences.
• Familiarity with ROS/ROS2, robot telemetry, embedded diagnostics, or real-time systems. Experience with sensor validation, calibration verification, or surface-quality metrology.
• Experience with reliability testing HALT/HASS, accelerated life testing, thermal cycling, vibration, and IP rating validation.
• Knowledge of compliance standards ISO 9001, CE, UL, IPC, or industry-specific safety standards.
• Strong technical expertise in quality tools such as SPC, MSA, FMEA, and statistical analysis, combined with a solid understanding of manufacturing and NDT processes.
• Strong leadership, influencing, and communication skills (written and verbal) to collaborate cross-functionally, with high ownership, accountability, and attention to detail.

Preferred Experiences

• Experience working on physical AI systems where learned models, autonomy software, and hardware converge.
• Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), Six Sigma Green/Black Belt, Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE), or IPC certifications.