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Founding Fabrication Technician
Posted 1 hour ago• Technician
Compensation
$80,000–$120,000/year
Job Description
This is a full-time, in-office role building real robots that operate in messy, real-world road environments. If you love turning half-baked ideas into rugged hardware, thrive in early-stage chaos, and want your work deployed in the field, not stuck in CAD, this role is for you.
Key Responsibilities
- Build and iterate on early-stage robotic systems designed for unstructured outdoor environments
- Fabricate custom robot components using CNC machining, welding, 3D printing, and manual machining
- Work hands-on with metal and plastic fabrication (aluminum, steel, composites, polymers, etc.)
- Rapidly prototype, assemble, modify, and repair robot hardware in support of aggressive field testing
- Collaborate closely with EE and CS teams to integrate mechanical systems with electronics, sensors, and compute
- Own mechanical builds from concept through deployment, including tolerancing, fixturing, and assembly
- Troubleshoot mechanical failures in the field and redesign for durability, reliability, and serviceability
- Improve manufacturability and repeatability of designs as systems mature
- Help define and build out the company’s fabrication processes, tooling, and workshop capabilities
- Move fast, make tradeoffs, and get hardware working under real constraints of time, cost, and environment
Qualifications
- Proven experience building robots or complex electromechanical systems at early-stage startups
- Strong hands-on experience with:
- CNC machining (mills and/or lathes)
- Welding (MIG/TIG preferred)
- 3D printing (FDM/SLA)
- General metal and plastic fabrication
- Comfortable reading and working from CAD and engineering drawings
- Experience assembling systems that integrate motors, actuators, sensors, wiring, and enclosures
- Experience working cross-functionally with electrical and software engineers
- Ability to rapidly prototype, test, break, fix, and improve hardware in tight iteration loops
- Strong intuition for mechanical design tradeoffs: strength, weight, cost, tolerances, and reliability
- Comfortable operating in a fast-paced startup environment with incomplete information
- Self-directed, detail-oriented, and biased toward action
Portfolios, photos of past builds, or examples of shipped hardware are highly encouraged.
Interview Process
Recruiting Call
Hiring Manager Interview
Onsite - Final
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Job Details
- Category
- Technician
- Employment Type
- Full Time
- Location
- San Francisco, CA, US
- Posted
- May 11, 2026, 03:40 PM
- Listed
- Mar 24, 2026, 04:27 PM
- Compensation
- $80,000 - $120,000 per year
About Pave Robotics
Part of the growing frontier tech ecosystem pushing the edges of what's possible.
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Founding Fabrication Technician
Pave Robotics