Member of Technical Staff: Quality Engineer

The posting, as Walden Robotics wrote it

At Walden Robotics, we envision a world where general-purpose robots dramatically improve the quality of life for all people—supporting us at home, at work, in factories, on farms, and beyond. To accomplish this, we are building a team of exceptional professionals who combine world-class technical skills with creative vision, grounded in humility and collaboration.

Position Summary

As a Member of Technical Staff, you will help define Walden's quality systems and build the quality team that runs them. You will co-design our Quality Management System with manufacturing, hardware and supply chain, and set the standards the company builds to. The goal is to build high-quality robots, increase throughput, and catch quality issues upstream, before they reach the line or the customer. This is a rare chance to shape quality at a robotics company before production starts. The systems, standards and team you put in place will define how every Walden robot is built, tested and supported for years to come.

This is a hands-on role as well as a strategic one. You will be at the bench and on the line measuring parts, running inspections and chasing root causes, working closely with manufacturing engineering, mechanical and electrical design, sourcing and field operations. Your first priorities are the core quality system, receiving inspection and pre-shipment inspection, and you will cover supplier and field quality until we hire dedicated people for those areas. You know how to scale rigor to the stage, light for prototypes and strict where safety or the customer is on the line, and you set standards through influence rather than authority.

Core Responsibilities

Success means robots that ship working, stay running at customer sites, and get better with every build. Process exists to serve that, not the other way around.

Build quality into new products

• Join DFM/DFA and design reviews to flag tolerance, inspection and assembly risks early.
• Partner with design engineers on DFMEAs, lead PFMEAs with manufacturing engineering, and turn them into control plans, inspection plans and in-process checks.
• Define end-of-line and pre-shipment acceptance criteria, and partner with the test team on what every robot must pass before it ships, from harness integrity to torque verification.
• Run first article inspections (FAI) and support EVT, DVT and PVT build readiness and pilot build reports.

Supplier quality

• Set supplier quality requirements and help qualify suppliers for machined parts, actuators, harnesses and PCBAs, including overseas shops.
• Stand up receiving inspection with sampling plans and acceptance criteria tied to critical-to-quality features.
• Drive supplier corrective actions (SCARs) to verified root cause and closure, not just a replacement part.

Close the loop from the field

• Work with field ops and robot operators to log, triage and trend failures from deployed robots.
• Lead structured root cause analysis (8D, 5 Whys,

[…]
CARs.

• Experience running quality programs across teams and mentoring engineers and technicians.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with quality standards such as ISO 9001, IATF 16949 or AS9100.
• Quality experience with cable harnesses (IPC/WHMA-A-620), PCBAs (IPC-A-610) or actuators and gearboxes.
• Background in a startup or NPI environment moving from prototype to first production.
• Familiarity with functional or machinery safety (ISO 10218, ISO 13849) for robots working near people.
• Experience with PLM, eQMS or ERP systems, and demonstrated use of AI tools to accelerate engineering work.

Walden Robotics offers a competitive total compensation program, including salary, annual cash bonus, company equity, company-subsidized insurance programs, 401(k) with company match, flexible PTO, daily lunch, and other benefits. The pay ranges noted on our posts are for salary only.

Walden Robotics is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to hello@waldenrobotics.com .

Walden Robotics participates in E-Verify. If you receive an offer of employment from Walden, you will need to go through the E-Verify process of digital verification of your employment authorization documents as provided on the Form I-9. Participation in E-Verify does not limit your right to work and verification will only be completed after you become an employee with Walden Robotics.