---
title: 'Director NPI & Industrialization at Sereact'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-npi-industrialization-sereact-stuttgart-2n9b5qsy59rw'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-02'
---

# Director NPI & Industrialization at Sereact

- **Company:** Sereact
- **Location:** Stuttgart, Germany
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-20
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-02
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sereact/cf0fd87e-0969-46a5-8990-5f94e549bf97

## Job description

Who We Are: We build the intelligence that lets robots sense, reason, and act in the real world, moving beyond the lab and into everyday industrial settings like warehouses and factories. Our technology closes the automation gaps that traditional systems can't solve. We are on a mission to redefine how physical work gets done, and we're looking for curious, bold thinkers to help shape the future of robotics with us. Overview: Our AI-driven pick-and-place and returns-handling cells combine robot arms, adaptive force-controlled grippers, AI vision and a safety cabinet, all driven by Cortex, our vision-language-action model. They already run in live warehouse operations across the EU and US. After our Series B, we are scaling from around 50 units a year to several hundred, built by external contract manufacturers. We're looking for a Director of NPI & Industrialization to own the hardware product from architecture to a frozen, documented design that a contract manufacturer can build to spec and our customers can rely on. You will report to the CEO and CTO and work closely with our Director of Supply Chain & Hardware Operations, who takes your released designs into volume production. Your Responsibilities: Product Architecture & Development

- Own the system design of the robotic cell across mechanical, electrical and controls integration, including robot arm integration, vision and sensor integration, cabinet, wiring and machine safety
- Lead development of our adaptive force-controlled gripper and end-effectors, which are core IP for Sereact
- Take each product from working prototype through DVT and qualification to a frozen, released design
- Work with the Cortex software team on hardware and software interfaces and trade-offs

Industrialization & Design Transfer

- Build design for manufacture, assembly, service and cost into every product from the start
- Set up and run a Design-Transfer Gate with Supply Chain, so every product handed to a contract manufacturer arrives as a complete, buildable package
- Design critical parts to be standardized and second-sourceable

Reliability, Quality & Documentation

- Install reliability engineering practice, including DVT, HALT, FMEA and tolerance and worst-case analysis
- Run a root-cause loop on field failures with Technical Support and drive design-related returns down
- Set up PLM, BOMs, drawings, specifications, configuration management and ECN/ECO discipline so every revision is documented and reproducible

Roadmap, Cost & Team

- Own the hardware roadmap, including the next-generation cell and the split between bespoke builds and a standardized product line
- Run design-to-cost programs and bring BOM cost per unit down over time
- Hire and lead the hardware and mechatronics engineering team and set its working cadence and accountability

Qualifications: Education and Experience

- 10+ years in hardware, mechatronics or electromechanical product engineering, including several years leading engineering teams
- A track record of personally taking a complex electromechanical product from prototype through design freeze into series production at hundreds of units per year
- Experience building a hardware engineering or industrialization function from scratch in a scaleup or growth-stage company
- Degree in mechanical, electrical or mechatronics engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience

## Skills

- Hands-on depth across mechanical, electrical and controls integration
- Strong command of DfX (DfM, DfA, design for service and cost)
- Reliability engineering experience with DVT, HALT and FMEA
- Experience setting up PLM, configuration management and change control
- Direct experience handing a released design to a contract manufacturer or EMS partner and supporting the first builds
- Fluent English and willingness to travel to suppliers and customer sites

Additional Skills / Nice to Have

- Robotics or manipulation experience, such as grippers, end-effectors, force control, robot arm integration or machine vision
- Machine safety experience, including CE marking, the Machinery Directive and functional safety
- Experience integrating hardware with an AI or software stack
- Experience turning demos and pilots into repeatable production products
- German fluency

What We Offer:

- Competitive salary and equity in a fast-growing Series B robotics company
- Flexible PTO and a collaborative, high-ownership culture
- Ownership of the hardware product and the team that builds it as we scale to hundreds of units a year

## About Sereact

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Sereact provides an embodied AI software layer that enables autonomous robotic picking, sorting, and inspection in industrial warehousing and logistics.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B – $110M raised in May 2026)
- **Headquarters**: Stuttgart, Germany (with additional offices in Mason, Ohio, USA and Boston, Massachusetts, USA)
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Not publicly listed (the company was founded by a team of engineers from the University of Stuttgart / ARENA2036 ecosystem)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Industrial robotics / AI software for logistics and supply chain
- **Target customers**: B2B – 3PLs, e‑commerce fulfillment centers, manufacturing, and retail enterprises
- **Mission**: “Bridging the gap between artificial intelligence and physical execution” – building the foundational software layer for the next era of industrial robotics.

## Products & Services
- **Cortex (VLAM – Vision Language Action Model)**: The core AI brain that enables zero-shot adaptation across standard 6‑axis and humanoid robot arms. Handles picking, placing, sorting, and inspection without retraining or tuning.
- **Robotic Picking**: Autonomous pick‑and‑place with 98% first‑attempt success and peak speeds >650 UPH.
- **Putwall Automation**: Batch picking and sortation for high‑throughput fulfillment.
- **Return Handling**: Automated inspection, sorting, and routing of returned items.
- **Embodied AI for Humanoids**: Dexterity module for changing tasks and mixed‑SKU environments.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric – Total Funding**: $140.78M (including $110M Series B led by Headline, closed ~May 2026)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Headline (lead Series B); customers include Daimler Truck, Material Bank, Ludwig Meister
- **Growth Signals**:
  - 50+ deployments across five continents
  - 500M+ real production picks processed
  - 99.9% uptime in live environments
  - 1 robot replaces 3–4.5 FTE, saving customers up to €111,000/month
  - Expansion into US market (offices in Ohio and Boston)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Zero‑shot adaptability**: No retraining or retooling required when SKU mix changes – works out of the box on new items.
- **Production‑proven VLAM**: Trained on millions of real‑world picks; works in brownfield sites, not just lab conditions.
- **High reliability**: 98% first‑attempt pick success, >99% uptime, minimal human intervention (1 intervention per ~53,000 picks).
- **Platform agnostic**: Supports standard 6‑axis and humanoid robot architectures.

## Strategic Focus
- Scale deployments globally, especially in the US and Europe.
- Continue advancing the Vision Language Action Model to handle increasingly complex manipulation tasks (e.g., humanoid dexterity).
- Deepen partnerships with major logistics and manufacturing players.
- Grow engineering and research teams to accelerate product development.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Fast‑paced, collaborative, with a strong emphasis on ownership and end‑to‑end project responsibility. Described as “uncharted territories” – ideal for engineers who want to push boundaries.
- **Flexibility**: Flexible working hours and remote/hybrid options (specific policy not detailed, but “flexible working” is listed as a standard benefit).
- **Perks**: Wellpass (wellness/fitness membership), regular team events, and a modern office in Stuttgart’s ARENA2036 innovation hub.
- **Engineering focus**: Work on cutting‑edge embodied AI, computer vision, and robotics – from research to deployment. Steep learning curve and visible impact.
- **Global exposure**: Opportunities to work across European and US teams.

## Sources
1. [sereact.ai – Homepage](https://sereact.ai/)
2. [sereact.ai – About](https://sereact.ai/about)
3. [sereact.ai – Careers](https://sereact.ai/careers)
4. [jobs.ashbyhq.com – Sereact Job Board](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sereact)
5. [cbinsights.com – Sereact Company Profile](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/sereact)

## Other roles at Sereact

- [Field Marketing Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/field-marketing-manager-sereact-stuttgart-vs2b6gxy3dhq) — Stuttgart, Germany
- [Chief Science Officer](https://feeny.ai/job/chief-science-officer-sereact-stuttgart-jcxrqsj7pzcy) — Stuttgart, Germany
- [Partner Manager (m/f/d)](https://feeny.ai/job/partner-manager-m-f-d-sereact-germany-3vcxd9mgdp4t) — Germany
- [Director Technical Support & Field Service](https://feeny.ai/job/director-technical-support-field-service-sereact-stuttgart-6rgvn8b0khc8) — Stuttgart, Germany
- [Director Supply Chain & Hardware Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/director-supply-chain-hardware-operations-sereact-stuttgart-54cb5rwvzvpj) — Stuttgart, Germany
- [Internship G2M (m/f/d)](https://feeny.ai/job/internship-g2m-m-f-d-sereact-stuttgart-szp64ba16kq1) — Stuttgart, Germany
- [Senior Support Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-support-engineer-sereact-boston-87rvr3pe58y4) — Boston, MA
- [Member of Technical Staff (m/f/d)](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-m-f-d-sereact-zurich-kdcnsnp7bq1j) — Zurich, Switzerland
- [Mechanical Design Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-design-engineer-sereact-boston-hafyy6q4wytn) — Boston, MA
- [Electrical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/electrical-engineer-sereact-boston-mffg80t4dgqt) — Boston, MA