Senior Robotics Hardware Engineer UAVs & Docking - GoodAI

The Role

You’ll own the next-generation Prometheus drone hardware and the dock . Your job is to take what a small team prototyped and turn it into something we can confidently put into customers’ hands for industrial inspection / indoor operations , with 24/7 capability via docking + self-charging or automatic battery hot-swap .

This is a builder role: design → prototype → break → iterate → harden → repeat. Minimal meetings. High ownership.

This is not a research-only role . In the early phase, you will also build and assemble drones and docks for customers in low volumes , take responsibility for practical quality checks, and fix things that break in the field. Over time, manufacturing will move to a dedicated process/team, but initially this role includes hands-on building, testing, and pragmatic QA. This role is focused on raising technology readiness (TRL) — turning prototypes into repeatable, reliable hardware suitable for pilots and early customers, not exploratory research.

Key Responsibilities:

Airframe & endurance

• Design the next drone iteration focused on meaningfully longer mission time , stability, robustness, and serviceability (current version V1 can be seen here: https://www.goodai.com/swarm-robotics/ ).
• Drive propulsion/weight/thermal tradeoffs with explicit budgets (mass, power, noise, cooling, crash energy, etc.).
• Design for close-to-obstacles indoor flight with protections (guards, bump tolerance, maintainability).

Docking & energy replenishment (core)

• Own the dock mechanical system and the drone-side interface:
• precision landing guidance & alignment features
• contact charging OR inductive charging OR automatic hot-swap interface (your recommended solution)
• safe retention/locking, E-stop behaviors, fail-safe states
• Design for repeated cycles, dirt/dust, misalignment, and abuse.

Hardening for customer environments

• Turn prototype “works in our observation space” into “works reliably for pilots and customers”:
• shock/vibration, protective structures, connectors, cable management
• repairability: fast swap of arms/guards, modular components
• environmental constraints: dust, temperature, light smoke residue, etc.

Engineering process (lightweight, but real)

• Implement DFM/DFA thinking early (fast assembly, reduced part count, reliable fasteners, tolerances).
• Define acceptance tests, reliability tests, and a “flight hours → failures → fixes” loop.
• Own suppliers for mechanical parts and iterate rapidly (3D print, CNC, composites—whatever fits).
• Comfort defining and tracking basic quality metrics (failure rate, repair time, cycle count).

What success looks like (first 3–6 months)