---
title: 'Lead Prototype Engineer at Humanoid'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lead-prototype-engineer-humanoid-us-boston-88vjwzbd8g2x'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-05'
---

# Lead Prototype Engineer at Humanoid

- **Company:** [Humanoid](https://feeny.ai/companies/humanoid)
- **Location:** US Boston, MA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-15
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-05
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/humanoid/c234c345-4481-421e-a410-a701e1bed42d

## Job description

Here at Humanoid, we believe in a future where robots amplify human potential. That’s why we’ve set out on a mission to build the world’s most capable, commercially-scalable, and safe humanoid robots. We’re bringing that mission to life with HMND‑01 - our rapidly developed humanoid platform being deployed in real industrial environments - and we’re growing the team to take it even further.

## About the Role

As Lead Prototype Engineer on the Core Platform team, you will lead and grow a team of prototype engineers and technicians while staying hands-on at the bench. You’ll set the technical standard for how we build, diagnose, and evolve advanced humanoid robotic platforms. Your focus is electrical integration, bring-up, and root-cause analysis across the full hardware lifecycle, from concept and prototyping to field repair. You’ll emphasize reliability and repeatable processes.

## What You'll Do

- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of prototype engineers and technicians. Set priorities, allocate work, and raise the team’s technical and process standards.
- Stay hands-on: personally drive troubleshooting and resolution of the most complex electrical issues in prototype humanoid robots, across operational and in-development systems. Lead detailed failure analysis and share learnings with hardware and software engineering teams.
- Own electrical bring-up of new prototype builds, including power distribution, motor drive and actuator electronics, sensor integration, communications buses, and high-density electromechanical integrations.
- Collaborate closely with electrical, mechanical, firmware, and software engineers on prototype design, assembly, and design-for-test.
- Define, maintain, and enforce test procedures, troubleshooting guides, and repair runbooks for the prototyping lab, and make sure the team follows them.
- Design, document, and iterate on cable assemblies, wiring harnesses, and test jigs built for repeated use on dynamic robotic platforms.
- Own lab planning and priorities: build schedules, resource allocation, tooling, equipment, and spares. Balance competing demands from multiple engineering teams.
- Identify and drive continuous improvement in processes and products, reducing downtime, improving test and repair efficiency, and raising first-pass yield and manufacturability.
- Build strong feedback loops across design, build, and test, and communicate status, risks, and lessons learned to engineering leadership.

## What We're Looking For

- Strong, hands-on electrical engineering background in rapid prototyping, debugging custom hardware, and troubleshooting complex electrical systems in robotics or similar domains.
- Deep working knowledge of low-voltage power and mixed-signal circuits, motor drives, connectors, sensors, and compact electromechanical systems. You are comfortable using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, and other bench instrumentation to diagnose faults.
- Experience reading schematics and PCB layouts, performing board-level rework and repair, and designing or specifying harnesses and cable assemblies.
- Prior experience leading or mentoring engineers or technicians, formally or as a technical lead. You are comfortable taking on direct reports and balancing people management with hands-on work.
- Track record of communicating concisely through documentation, procedures, test plans, diagnostics, and lessons learned.
- Adept at collaborating across electrical, mechanical, and software boundaries to solve urgent, ambiguous problems. Mechanical prototyping skills are a plus.
- Comfortable in a high-velocity, high-ambiguity startup setting where priorities shift fast.

Preferred:

- Experience designing for manufacturability and reliability in human-sized or mobile robotics.
- Familiarity with automated test and diagnostic tools used in modern hardware labs.
- Experience building or scaling a prototyping or field engineering team, including hiring and setting up lab processes.
- Mechanical assembly and integration experience alongside strong electrical skills.

## What We Offer

- Comprehensive health coverage for US‑based employees, including fully paid medical, dental, and vision insurance, with virtual care and employee assistance resources.
- Meaningful time off to rest and recharge: 23 days of PTO (accrued), separate sick leave, and paid company holidays.
- 401(k) retirement plan with 4% employer match.
- Competitive equity: stock options with meaningful upside as we scale.
- Free daily catered lunch, snacks, and drinks in‑office.
- Collaboration with top‑tier engineers, researchers, and product experts in AI and robotics.
- Freedom to influence the product and own key initiatives.

For this role in Massachusetts, the expected base salary range is $150K–$200K USD per year; your placement in that range depends on how your experience maps to our internal leveling.

## About Humanoid

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Humanoid builds commercially scalable, safe, and reliable humanoid robots designed to automate labor-intensive industrial tasks across warehousing, logistics, manufacturing, and retail.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: London, United Kingdom (HQ) with offices in Cambridge, MA, USA; Burnaby, BC, Canada; and additional presence in Germany, Georgia, and the UAE.
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Artem Sokolov (CEO & Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Robotics Engineering, Humanoid Robotics, Industrial Automation, Artificial Intelligence
- **Target customers**: B2B / Enterprise — industrial sectors including retail, e-commerce, third-party logistics (3PL), manufacturing, and automotive.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Empowering humanity by building the most reliable, safe, and helpful humanoid robots.” The company aims to free people from repetitive, dangerous, and tedious work, allowing them to engage in more creative and meaningful activities.

## Products & Services
- **HMND 01 Alpha Wheeled**: A robust industrial-grade wheeled humanoid robot designed for material handling, pick-and-place, and visual inspection in warehouses and factories. Prioritizes reliability, low total cost of ownership (TCO), and minimal maintenance.
- **HMND 01 Alpha Bipedal**: A bipedal humanoid robot for more complex environments requiring advanced locomotion, navigation of confined spaces, and higher dexterity. Features human-level manipulation speeds and walking speeds up to 1.5 m/s.
- **KinetIQ**: An AI framework for orchestrating fleets of humanoid robots across both wheeled and bipedal platforms, enabling centralized control and task optimization.
- **Modular Garments**: Exchangeable protective “garments” that allow HMND 01 robots to adapt to different use cases and environments, minimizing contamination and collision damage while enabling functional customization.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of **$50 million** (Seed round closed October 2025, with 1 lead investor).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Strategic partners include leading global companies in AI, cloud computing, and research. Specific partner names are not publicly listed on the website, but the company highlights collaboration with commercial partners to scale deployment.
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount grew **139.2% YoY** to ~182 employees (as of mid-2026), with 65 active job postings.
  - Opened offices in London, Boston, and Vancouver within its first year.
  - Team includes talent recruited from major robotics and AI firms: Sanctuary AI, Boston Dynamics, Dyson, Arrival, Ocado Technology, 1X, Wayve, Apptronik, and Brain Corp.
  - Focus on initial target sectors representing a combined $12 trillion in annual payroll and 250 million workers.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Human-centric design**: The world is already designed for humans, so humanoids can seamlessly integrate into existing environments without costly redesign.
- **Modularity**: HMND 01’s hardware/software modularity enables multi-task performance and easy repurposing, reducing the need for specialized robots.
- **Reliability & low TCO**: Prioritizing hardware and software stability over raw performance to deliver industrial-grade robustness suitable for mass commercialization.
- **KinetIQ fleet orchestration AI**: Proprietary framework for managing mixed fleets of wheeled and bipedal robots, differentiating from competitors focused on single-form-factor robots.
- **Experienced leadership**: CEO Artem Sokolov previously scaled a family manufacturing business into a billion-dollar enterprise (EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2021). The CTO, Jarad Cannon, has extensive experience translating research into deployment-ready robotics systems.

## Strategic Focus
- **Near-term (2027)**: Deploy robots for physical tasks in manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, and retail — tackling repetitive, dangerous, and tedious manual work.
- **Medium-term (2029)**: Expand into the service sector, targeting the 70-80% of the global economy that will be services, with a focus on assisting an aging population (1.4B people over 60).
- **Long-term (2031+)**: Enter households as assistants and companions, potentially revolutionizing everyday life across 3.5 billion homes.
- **Core strategy**: Partner with leading global companies in AI, cloud, and research for technology development, and with commercial partners for scaled deployment. The company believes the humanoid TAM will reach $38 billion by 2035 and $1 trillion by 2050.

## Why Work Here
- **High-growth environment**: Company grew headcount by 139% in a single year, indicating rapid scaling and opportunity for career advancement. 65+ open roles suggest strong hiring momentum.
- **Talent from top robotics firms**: Team includes alumni from Boston Dynamics, Sanctuary AI, Dyson, Ocado Technology, Arrival, Wayve, and others — offering a deep learning and collaboration environment.
- **Technical focus**: Engineering and technical roles represent 38% of the workforce, with senior-level hires at 23% of the team. The company emphasizes hardware, AI, machine learning, and control systems.
- **Mission-driven**: Clear purpose to automate undesirable, unsafe, and repetitive work — appealing to candidates who want to make a tangible societal impact.
- **Global presence**: Offices in London (HQ), Cambridge (USA), and Burnaby (Canada), plus operations in 16 countries — offering potential for international mobility and remote collaboration.
- **Innovation culture**: Described as a place where engineers and researchers “move from demo to deployment” and “not just in the lab.” The CTO emphasizes building systems that perform in the real world from day one.
- **Office/Hybrid policy**: Not explicitly stated, but the company has physical offices in three countries and a distributed team across 16 nations — likely supports hybrid/remote with in-office collaboration for engineering roles.

## Sources
1. [thehumanoid.ai](https://thehumanoid.ai/)
2. [thehumanoid.ai/about-us/](https://thehumanoid.ai/about-us/)
3. [thehumanoid.ai/team/](https://thehumanoid.ai/team/)
4. [thehumanoid.ai/careers/](https://thehumanoid.ai/careers/)
5. [LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanoidai)
6. [Jobs.ashbyhq.com/humanoid](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/humanoid)

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- [Engineering Lab Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-lab-manager-humanoid-us-boston-gwsjybx8r0te) — US Boston, MA
- [Test and Validation Engineer - Contract](https://feeny.ai/job/test-and-validation-engineer-contract-humanoid-canada-vancouver-r5kewqy9gbdd) — Canada Vancouver, Canada
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- [Shift Supervisor / Field Service Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/shift-supervisor-field-service-technician-humanoid-germany-5rkne6a7vwkx) — Germany
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