Staff Hardware Systems Engineer

About Gather AI

Are you ready to build the future of supply chain? At Gather AI, we're not just creating software; we're pioneering a new era of warehouse intelligence. We've developed a groundbreaking, vision-powered platform that uses autonomous drones and existing equipment to capture real-time data, completely digitizing workflows that have historically been manual and error-prone. This means facilities operate smarter, safer, and more efficiently, ultimately redefining "on-time, in full" delivery.

If you're looking for an opportunity to contribute to truly transformative technology and make a significant impact in a vital industry, Gather AI is the place for you. We're leading the charge in the rapidly evolving robotics industry, and we invite you to join us in reshaping the global supply chain, one intelligent warehouse at a time.

About the role

We're hiring a Staff Hardware Systems Engineer to own requirements, integration and verification and validation (V&V) for our warehouse robotics hardware: autonomous inventory drones, forklift-mounted vision systems, and the charging and battery systems that support them. You'll make sure every Gather hardware product is built from testable requirements, de-risked one technology block at a time, integrated cleanly with firmware, software and autonomy, and released on objective evidence that holds up in real warehouses.

This is a hands-on individual-contributor role on a small, senior hardware team in Pittsburgh. You'll set up the framework and do the work yourself: scout and test new technologies, write the requirements, build the test rigs, run the tests and analyze the data.

What you'll do

• Own the requirements and V&V framework for our hardware products, from system requirements down to subsystem, technology-block and interface requirements, with traceability to verification evidence.
• Scout, characterize and compare candidate technologies (cameras, illumination, propulsion, wireless charging, batteries and more), and recommend which to take into the next product.
• Own integration of electrical, firmware, software and autonomy into the hardware product design, including bring-up, integration testing and root cause of interface failures.
• Write and run V&V plans: test methods, rigs, fixtures and instrumentation; statistically based sampling plans; design of experiments; clear conclusions with stated uncertainty.
• Own environmental and compliance testing (shock and vibration, thermal and condensation, ingress, EMC/FCC), working with external test labs.
• Own technical budgets (power, thermal, mass, EMC/RF), lead system-level hazard analysis, and feed DFMEA.
• Deliver decision-ready evidence for design reviews, design freeze and release, and assess the verification impact of engineering changes.
• Close the loop from field failures back to requirements and tests, and shape production test strategy with our contract manufacturer.

What success looks like

• 30 days: Own verification for our next-generation forklift vision system and break its system requirements down to hardware level.
• 60 days: Define requirements and the V&V plan for a new charging system, and get the requirements cascade and verification matrix in use on a live product line.
• 90 days: Requirements cascade and verification matrix in use across active product lines; test plans for current technology blocks; a reusable library of environmental test profiles.
• 1 year: V&V evidence built into every hardware stage gate, next-generation products released against that standard, and a production test coverage proposal handed to manufacturing.

What you bring

• You've owned requirements through V&V on an electromechanical product taken from concept to production: decomposing product requirements to subsystem level with traceability, and writing and running V&V plans with objective, measurable acceptance criteria.
• You've integrated hardware with firmware and software in a robotic, embedded, autonomous or complex electromechanical system, including bring-up and root-causing interface failures.
• You use statistics to make engineering decisions: design of experiments, data analysis and statistically based sampling plans (confidence/reliability, AQL or similar).
• You build the test, not just the plan: test methods, rigs, fixtures and data acquisition, including measurement system analysis (e.g., Gauge R&R).
• BS in an engineering field with 10+ years of relevant experience, or an MS (preferred) with 8+ years.

Nice to have

• Environmental and compliance qualification with external labs: shock and vibration, thermal cycling and condensation, IP ingress, EMC/FCC.
• Vision and power technology: camera characterization and illumination, lithium batteries and charging systems, and trade studies to choose between them.
• Regulated product development (medical, aerospace, automotive), with the judgment to scale that rigor to a startup.
• Experience with drones/UAVs, material handling equipment or robotics.

Location

Pittsburgh, PA. On-site 4 - 5 days a week (this is a lab-heavy, hands-on role), with about 10% travel to test labs, our contract manufacturer and customer warehouses.