Manufacturing Engineer at Watney (San Francisco, CA)
Watney· San Francisco, CA·
Role details
Job description
Our Mission
Expand human ambition in the physical world.
Critical infrastructure is constrained by labor shortages, hazardous working conditions, and operational complexity. Watney builds and deploys autonomous robotic systems that increase the speed and capacity of buildout, starting with data centers.
About the Role
At Watney, Manufacturing Engineers build the test capability that gets a robot from prototype to the manufacturing production floor. This role owns the validation process that runs across multiple checkpoints and catches real-world failures before they reach a customer. You'd take primary ownership of a release safeguard our partners depends on.
What You'll Do
- Own end-of-line test procedures through manufacturing and shipping.
- Diagnose defects that don't respect the line between mechanical, electrical, and software.
- Take a working test capability from functional to production-reliable against a build date.
You May Be a Good Fit If You:
- Have taken manufacturing test equipment from a lab bench to a production line.
- Have designed test fixtures and procedures that a manufacturer signed off on to schedule a build.
- Have chased an intermittent hardware defect across mechanical, electrical, and software causes to a real root cause.
We’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive team. At Watney Robotics, we welcome people of all backgrounds and identities, and we make hiring decisions based on skills, experience, and potential. If you’re passionate about robotics but don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply!
Why work at Watney
- In-Office culture: All roles are based in San Francisco (HQ); the company emphasizes in-person collaboration.
- Ground-floor opportunity: With outsized ownership and visibility, employees shape the “rollout playbook” for a category-defining robotics company.
- Technical challenge: Work on real systems that combine robotics, AI, hardware, and infrastructure at scale.
- Notable peers: Colleagues include alumni from Scale AI, Amazon Web Services, Tools for Humanity, Warburg Pincus, and the US Army Corps of Engineers.
- Growth trajectory: A very young company (founded 2024) with rapid hiring and clear product-market fit, ideal for early-stage career builders.