Lightspeed Systems
VP Engineering
Northbrook, IL · Vp
Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 12 days ago
PythonC++CI/CDDevOpsMachine LearningComputer VisionProject ManagementPerformance ManagementRoboticsElectrical EngineeringSensorsControlsTCP/IPLeadershipCommunicationCollaborationMentoring
About the role
- This is a hands-on technical leadership role, not a strategy-only position.
- You will be responsible for shipping reliable, high-performance robotic systems as we scale from 3 deployed cells to 100+ over the next 18 months.
Responsibilities
- As Vice President of Engineering, you will lead LightSpeed's engineering organization and own the execution of our robotics platform from development through production deployment.
- Make hands-on architecture and design decisions for real-time control systems, robot coordination, and production infrastructure
- Drive technical standards for code quality, testing, CI/CD, and release management across the engineering org
- Hire, onboard, and develop engineers as the team scales to support 100+ cell deployments
- Lead the transition from monolithic application architecture to scalable, multi-cell systems supporting 100+ deployments
- Collaborate with Operations on cell deployment, commissioning, and field support processes
Requirements
- 8+ years of hands-on robotics engineering, with direct experience programming and deploying industrial or collaborative robot systems
- Deep proficiency with ROS2 architecture, MoveIt2/MoveIt Pro for motion planning, and real-time robot control
- Experience with industrial robot platforms (Hyundai, FANUC, ABB, KUKA, Universal Robots, or similar)
- Hands-on experience with robotics simulation tools (MuJoCo, IsaacSIM, Gazebo) and sim-to-real deployment
- Robotics & Technical Expertise
- Working knowledge of sensor integration: LIDAR, depth cameras, force/torque sensors, encoders
- 3+ years leading or managing engineering teams (10+ engineers), including hiring, performance management, and mentorship
- Track record of shipping production systems in hardware-intensive, real-time environments
- Experience scaling engineering teams and processes through rapid growth phases
- Ability to context-switch between hands-on technical work and people management without losing effectiveness in either
Nice to have
- Experience with multi-robot coordination and distributed robotic systems
- Background in automated manufacturing, industrial automation, or construction technology
- Experience with production monitoring, DevOps, and CI/CD for robotics deployments
- Contributions to open-source robotics projects (ROS2, MoveIt, or related)
- Startup or high-growth company experience where you built engineering processes from scratch
- MS or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field
- Hands-on technical leadership: this role stays close to the metal, not trapped in meetings
- Direct impact on scaling from 3 to 1,000 deployed robotic cells
Compensation
- Competitive compensation including salary, equity participation, and comprehensive benefits
Benefits
- Directly manage and mentor a multidisciplinary engineering team (currently ~10 engineers across robotics, AI/ML, computer vision, and hardware)
Equal opportunity
- LightSpeed Build Technologies is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace.
- We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and experiences.
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This listing is sourced directly from Lightspeed Systems's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.