Director of NPI & Industrialization (Robotics)

Location: Stuttgart, Germany; hybrid work

Company

hirify.global develops AI-driven robotic cells for pick-and-place and returns handling in warehouses and factories, combining robot arms, adaptive force-controlled grippers, AI vision, machine safety, and the Cortex vision-language-action model.

What you will do

• Own robotic cell architecture across mechanical, electrical, controls, robot arm, vision, sensor, cabinet, wiring, and machine safety integration.
• Lead development of adaptive force-controlled grippers and end-effectors, and collaborate with the Cortex software team on hardware-software interfaces and trade-offs.
• Take products from working prototypes through DVT and qualification to frozen, released designs.
• Build design-for-manufacture, assembly, service, and cost principles into products; establish design-transfer gates and prepare complete packages for contract manufacturers.
• Install reliability and quality practices, manage field-failure root-cause analysis, and establish PLM, BOM, drawing, specification, configuration-management, and ECN/ECO processes.
• Own the hardware roadmap and design-to-cost programs, and hire and lead the hardware and mechatronics engineering team.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in hardware, mechatronics, or electromechanical product engineering, including several years leading engineering teams.
• Track record of personally taking a complex electromechanical product from prototype through design freeze into series production at hundreds of units per year.
• Experience building a hardware engineering or industrialization function from scratch in a scaleup or growth-stage company.
• Degree in mechanical, electrical, or mechatronics engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Hands-on depth across mechanical, electrical, and controls integration, with strong command of DfX, including DfM, DfA, design for service, and design for cost.
• Reliability engineering experience with DVT, HALT, FMEA, tolerance analysis, and worst-case analysis.
• Experience setting up PLM, configuration management, and change control.
• Direct experience handing released designs to contract manufacturers or EMS partners and supporting first builds.
• Fluent English and willingness to travel to suppliers and customer sites.

Nice to have

• Robotics or manipulation experience, including grippers, end-effectors, force control, robot arm integration, or machine vision.
• Machine safety experience, including CE marking, the Machinery Directive, and functional safety.
• Experience integrating hardware with an AI or software stack.
• Experience turning demos and pilots into repeatable production products.
• German fluency.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity in a fast-growing Series B robotics company.
• Flexible PTO.
• Collaborative, high-ownership culture.
• Ownership of the hardware product and the team as production scales to hundreds of units per year.