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Founding Robotics Engineer

Starlife |
Full-time
New York
Salary: $170,000 - $350,000/Yr
Advanced (5-10 yrs)
We are Starlife, a humanoid robotics company turning physical jobs into remote work. We believe that instead of replacing jobs, humanoids can be a vessel to create jobs, unlocking a world where anyone can do any physical job from anywhere, starting with healthcare reception

Within 11 weeks, we went from an idea to a deployed robot and secured a $3M pre-seed round. We are moving at an incredible pace, and we are looking for a fellow pioneer to join us.

Your Mission

Build the physical humanoid robot that will become the body through which human intelligence reaches into the physical world - reliable, lovable, and manufacturable at scale.

What You'll Achieve in Your First 12 Months

You Are In Charge Of Making These Things Happen

  • Design a semi-humanoid humanoid (wheel-base + 2 arms) with BOM under $2,500 and assembly time under 2 hours.
  • Deliver 5-DOF arms with 3-finger grippers, 2kg payload capacity, sub-centimeter positioning accuracy, and backdrivable joints for safe teleoperation.
  • Craft a human-robot interaction to achieve 50%+ end-user preference over on-site staff, validated through structured user testing.
  • Achieve reliability of 500+ hour MTBF across deployed fleet through robust mechanical design, reliable software, sensor integration, and fail-safe systems.
  • Establish repeatable manufacturing process with documented assembly procedures, quality checks, and component sourcing for 50+ unit production runs.

What We're Looking For

We are looking for a world-class engineer who embodies these five core competencies:

  • Mechatronics & Integration: You've built robots from scratch, integrating motors, sensors, actuators, and compute into cohesive systems.
  • Design for Manufacturing: You design with cost, assembly time, and supply chain in mind. You understand tolerances, material selection, and scalable production.
  • Rapid Prototyping: You go from idea to physical prototype in days. Expert in CAD, 3D printing, quick-turn fabrication. Comfortable with ambiguity.
  • Embedded Software & AI: You write reliable firmware and deploy ML on edge systems. Comfortable with real-time constraints and low-latency code.
  • Human-Robot Interaction Intuition: You have instinct for what makes robots feel trustworthy vs. creepy. You understand the uncanny valley and design around it.
  • First-Principles Thinking: You question assumptions others take for granted. You invent novel solutions rather than copying existing approaches.
  • Radical Ownership: You see a problem and start solving it. You don't wait for permission. You own outcomes, not tasks.

Why us

We are not offering a typical role. We are on a mission to fundamentally change the fabric of society and are offering the unique opportunity to do your life's work. Read our https://starlife.ai/why and our thoughts on the future of work.

  • Write Human History: Become part of the founding team that will hasten the arrival of humanoid robots and fundamentally change the nature of work.
  • Radical Autonomy: You will have an exceptionally high level of ownership and responsibility to build the core of our company.
  • Insane Learning Curve: You will be solving some of the hardest challenges in robotics, AI, and software at a pace that is impossible anywhere else.
  • Significant Ownership: A meaningful stake in the company with a total compensation of $170K-$350K, health insurance, and free housing in our hacker house.

About Us

We’re https://www.linkedin.com/in/satrajit-chatterjee/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/leandermaerkisch/ . We’ve worked on robots at CMU, NASA JPL & Lockheed Martin ATL and built https://en.floy.com/ (radiology AI, 270+ partner clinics, $14M raised). We’re backed by world-class investors including Outlander (first check in Lyft and Scale AI), Amar Shah (Co-founder, Wayve), and Thomas Wolf (Co-founder, Huggingface).
About the company
Starlife
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Job code
EX-ADA25FA6
Job type
Full-time
Location
New York
Work mode
On site
Experience level
Advanced (5-10 yrs)
Work schedule
Regular schedule