---
title: 'Robotics Technician at Generalist'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-technician-generalist-san-mateo-6s93yqcagymy'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-14'
---

# Robotics Technician at Generalist

- **Company:** Generalist
- **Location:** San Mateo, CA / Somerville, MA
- **Compensation:** $26–$50/hr
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-09
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/generalist/6d0698f0-6669-4100-9129-494e8088da48/application

**Skills:** Mechanical assembly, Electrical wiring, Hand tools, Power tools, Build instruction execution, Quality inspection, Hardware builds, Basic electrical work

> This hands-on role involves assembling mechanical and electrical components into functional robotic systems. The technician performs precise assembly, inspects builds for quality, and identifies defects to ensure reliable production processes.

## Job description

## About Generalist

At Generalist, we are on a mission to build general intelligence for the physical world and make it useful to everyone. We believe the industries and homes of the future will depend on humans and machines working together in new ways. Robots can help us build more and get more done. We build embodied foundation models, starting with a focus on dexterity. This requires advancing the frontiers of data, models, and hardware, to enable robots to intelligently interact with the physical world. The company embraces both large-scale AI and robotics as core to its DNA. Our team of researchers, roboticists, and company builders come from OpenAI, Boston Dynamics, Google DeepMind, and other frontier labs—with a track record of shipping AI breakthroughs. Before Generalist, we pioneered large embodied multimodal models and vision-language-action models https://research.google/blog/palm-e-an-embodied-multimodal-language-model/ [RT-2](https://deepmind.google/blog/rt-2-new-model-translates-vision-and-language-into-action/), [Gemini Robotics](https://deepmind.google/models/gemini-robotics/)), launched and scaled [ChatGPT](https://chatgpt.com/) and [GPT-4](https://openai.com/index/gpt-4-research/) to hundreds of millions of users, engineered the foundations of autonomous driving, built next-generation robots ([Atlas](https://bostondynamics.com/atlas/), [Spot](https://bostondynamics.com/products/spot/), [Stretch](https://bostondynamics.com/products/stretch/)) and pushed the limits of what they can do (from [parkour](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF4DML7FIWk) to [manipulation](https://bostondynamics.com/blog/large-behavior-models-atlas-find-new-footing/), and [testing robustness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFuA50H9uek)). We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Robotics Technician

## About the Role

This is a hands-on, execution-driven role at the center of building, operating, and maintaining our robots. As a Robotics Technician, you'll work across a wide range of hardware activities — from assembling new robotic systems to troubleshooting, repairing, and improving existing ones. You'll help ensure our robots are built correctly, operate reliably, and remain ready for use. In practice, you'll assemble mechanical systems, perform electrical work, integrate hardware components, test and troubleshoot robots, and help resolve issues as they arise. One day you might be building a new robot, the next diagnosing a hardware failure, replacing components, or supporting an engineering test. This role is about being adaptable, solving problems, and helping keep our robotic systems moving forward. You'll be responsible for:

- Assembling, integrating, and maintaining robotic systems and hardware
- Performing mechanical and electrical work, including wiring, connectors, component installation, and hardware replacement
- Diagnosing, troubleshooting, and repairing mechanical and electrical issues
- Testing, inspecting, and validating robotic systems to ensure proper functionality and reliability
- Using hand tools, power tools, diagnostic equipment, and specialized tools to perform precise technical work
- Reading and following technical documentation, assembly instructions, and standard operating procedures
- Identifying hardware defects, performance issues, and opportunities for improvement
- Supporting engineers with hardware modifications, prototype builds, testing, and integration work
- Performing routine maintenance, repairs, and upgrades on existing robotic systems
- Documenting work performed, tracking issues, and communicating findings to engineers and teammates
- Maintaining a safe, clean, and organized workspace
- Contributing to improvements in build processes, maintenance procedures, and overall hardware reliability

You might thrive in this role if you:

- Have hands-on experience working with mechanical systems, electronics, robotics, or other complex hardware
- Are comfortable using tools to assemble, troubleshoot, modify, and repair physical systems
- Have experience or familiarity with basic electrical work, including wiring, connectors, and electrical components
- Enjoy figuring out why something isn't working and taking the initiative to fix it
- Are detail-oriented and take pride in producing clean, reliable work
- Can follow structured instructions while also thinking independently when unexpected issues arise
- Are comfortable learning new tools, equipment, and technical processes
- Can adapt quickly between different projects and priorities
- Are reliable, resourceful, and comfortable working in a fast-moving environment
- Enjoy working alongside engineers and other technical teams
- Like working with your hands and seeing the direct impact of your work

What This Role Is Not

- This is not a purely theoretical or design-focused engineering position
- This is not a robotics software or controls engineering role
- This is not limited to repetitive assembly or production-line work
- This is not a position where you'll only follow instructions without opportunities to solve problems

Instead, this role sits at the intersection of robot assembly, hardware integration, testing, and maintenance. You'll be expected to develop a broad understanding of our robotic systems and contribute wherever hands-on technical support is needed. Growth & Impact As we scale our robotic fleet and hardware capabilities, this role will evolve alongside the complexity of our systems and operations. You'll have opportunities to develop deeper expertise in robotics, take ownership of increasingly complex technical work, and contribute to improvements in how our robots are assembled, tested, maintained, and supported. Whether your interests lean toward mechanical systems, electrical integration, troubleshooting, or robotics engineering support, this role offers exposure to a broad range of technical challenges. If you enjoy building things, solving problems, and working directly with advanced robotic systems, this is an opportunity to make a tangible impact on how real-world robotics scales.

## About Generalist

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Generalist is a frontier AI research and product company building general-purpose intelligence for the physical world through embodied foundation models for robots.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: San Mateo, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Pete Florence (Co-Founder & CEO), Andy Zeng (Co-Founder & Chief Scientist)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Robotics Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Embodied AI
- **Target customers**: B2B – enterprises operating factories, warehouses, laboratories, restaurants, and logistics centers; eventually homes.
- **Mission**: “Make general-purpose robots a reality. We build embodied foundation models for the physical world.”

## Products & Services
- **GEN-1**: General-purpose AI model for robotics that achieves ~99% average success rate on tasks (vs. 64% for prior state-of-the-art) and completes tasks roughly 3x faster. Trained on half a million hours of real-world data collected via low-cost wearable devices. Available to early-access partners as a model or API. [therobotreport.com](https://www.therobotreport.com/generalist-introduces-gen-1-general-purpose-model-for-physical-ai/)
- **GEN-0**: Previous generation model that demonstrated scaling laws in robotics. Used as the foundation for GEN-1.
- **Data Collection Devices**: Proprietary low-cost wearable hardware that captures human activities at scale, enabling pretraining without large teleoperation or simulation datasets.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly available
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding – $128M (Series A closed March 2025; earlier seed round led by NVentures) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/generalistai)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: NVentures (seed lead); Board Director Ellen Chisa. Series A investor not named in public data.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 325% YoY to 42 employees. GEN-1 model released five months after GEN-0, with production-level reliability. Early-access partnerships underway. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/generalistai)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Model performance**: GEN-1 achieves 99% average success rate across tasks like kitting auto parts, folding T-shirts, packing phones – a step change from sub-70% success by previous models.
- **Data efficiency**: Trained primarily on human demonstration data (wearable devices) rather than expensive robot teleoperation data; can match previous models with 10x less task-specific data.
- **Algorithmic innovations**: Custom training kernels, paged attention for real-time inference, Harmonic Reasoning, and RL post-training enable improvisation and recovery from unexpected scenarios.
- **Team pedigree**: Founders and key hires from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Boston Dynamics – bringing experience from ChatGPT, GPT-4, PaLM-E, RT-2, Gemini Robotics, Atlas, Spot, and Stretch.

## Strategic Focus
- Current priorities: Scale GEN-1’s embodied foundation model to master more complex physical tasks, expand into economically valuable settings (manufacturing, logistics, healthcare), and build the data infrastructure needed for general-purpose robots. The company is “accelerating the next phase of factories, homes, and the broader physical world.”

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Tight-knit, research-forward environment with a mix of AI and hardware engineering. On-site presence in San Francisco (SFO) and Boston (BOS). [generalistai.com/careers](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/generalist)
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: All open positions are listed as “On-site” (no remote or hybrid options).
- **Notable Perks**: Not explicitly disclosed, but the startup’s rapid growth and $128M funding suggest competitive compensation and equity. The team consists of leading roboticists and AI researchers, offering exposure to cutting-edge work.
- **Engineering Culture**: Heavy emphasis on technical staff (Software Engineers in ML Infra, Robotics Controls, ML Optimization, Infrastructure; Research Scientists in pretraining and post-training). Roles include hands-on robot operation and systems building.

## Sources
1. [generalistai.com](https://generalistai.com/)
2. [generalistai.com/careers](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/generalist)
3. [generalistai.com/about](https://generalistai.com/about)
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/generalistai)
5. [therobotreport.com](https://www.therobotreport.com/generalist-introduces-gen-1-general-purpose-model-for-physical-ai/)

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