Engineering Manager – Robot Intelligence

About the Role at RobCo RobCo is building the category of Autonomous Industrial Robotics and we're doing it fast. We believe that automating the ordinary frees humans to do the extraordinary, and we're building the end-to-end robotics infrastructure to make that possible - hardware, software, and AI in one stack that just works.   We are now looking for an ambitious Engineering Manager - Robot Intelligence (m/f/d) to help us establish RobCo as a leading provider of autonomous automation solutions. In this key role, you will lead the “brain” of our autonomous robots - the physical AI harness that works with different models and skills. Managing a full-stack team of software and machine learning engineers, you will balance applied research with business value delivery on a daily basis. Your mission is to translate the latest advancements in physical AI foundation models and complex robotic functionality into a stable, scalable product that thrives in real-world factory environments. Your Responsibilities: - Drive Engineering Excellence: Set rigorous standards for code quality, automated testing, and CI/CD pipelines to ensure 24/7 reliability of our robots. - Lead Senior Talent: Act as a people-first leader for a team of Senior and Staff engineers, fostering a culture of high ownership and steady delivery. - Bridge Software and Hardware: Oversee the lifecycle of products spanning from ML training, AI inference to Linux-based industrial interfaces. - Balance Research and Delivery: Establish a strong applied research and experimentation culture, and build a process where the results directly contribute to delivery and practical outcomes. - Management Framework: Work with real-time metrics and steer the team to continuously improve productivity, predictability and quality of what we ship. - Operational Governance: Manage technical debt and architectural health to ensure long-term system stability as we scale. - Strategic Alignment: Partner with Product Management to transform customer needs into concrete technical requirements and actionable sprints. - Cross-Team Leadership: Mentor junior EMs and help evolve company-wide engineering best practices and software-first principles. We are looking for someone who has: - Completed a university degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Engineering, Data Science or a related field. - 3+ years of experience leading high-performing teams in complex technical environments like robotics or industrial IoT. - Deep experience with AI and machine learning, including dataset curation, model training and optimization techniques and hands on experience building agentic harnesses. - Proven track record of driving an AI-first engineering culture and implementing agentic workflows that measurably accelerate team velocity and system efficiency. - Expert knowledge in modern SDLC practices, with a track record of improving deployment frequency and system stability. - Culture-aligned mindset characterized by hardware empathy, a passion for software-defined hardware, and a strong culture of high ownership. - Strong experience with full-stack software development, robotics engineering is a big plus. - Very good English skills with the ability to navigate complex architectural discussions with Staff engineers while clearly communicating risks to stakeholders. Why join RobCo? - Develop modular, software-defined robotics solutions with us that set new standards in automation. - Help us build robots equipped with state-of-the-art AI that perceive their environment, analyze data, and make intelligent decisions in real time. - As part of a very dynamic and fast-growing scale-up, you will take on responsibility from day one, drive your own projects, and see the direct impact of your work. - Flat hierarchies, open communication, and regular 360° feedback enable fast decisions and support your professional and personal development. - Wellpass membership (7,200+ studios across Germany), regular team events, and a team that takes both the work and the culture seriously. - Flexible working hours, a modern office, and - depending on the role - the option to work from home. - Regular team events - from relaxed beer & pizza nights on the rooftop terrace to shared experiences on ski trips or at Oktoberfest. About RobCo Founded in Munich in 2020, RobCo leads the transition toward fully Autonomous Industrial Robotics. Our mission is to deploy RobCo in every factory - solving the industrial labor shortage through end-to-end robotics that just works. Powered by Physical AI, our solutions combine a scalable modular hardware architecture with intelligent software that continuously learns and improves, requiring zero upfront investment through our Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) model. We solve our customers' most pressing pain points - labor shortage, cost pressure, workplace safety, and national reshoring - across the full spectrum of Autonomous Industrial Robotics. In October 2026, RobCo reached unicorn status with a valuation exceeding one billion US dollars, with its valuation doubling in less than nine months. With $200M raised from investors including Sequoia, Lightspeed, Lingotto, Kindred, Cherry Ventures, and the European Tech Collective, 225+ people globally, and 3.5M+ operating hours in the field, we are deploying robots in factories across Europe and the United States - with our US operations headquartered in Austin, TX, and our Bay Area Lab in San Francisco. Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. At RobCo, applicants are selected regardless of ethnic origin, religion, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation. All decisions throughout the recruitment process are based solely on applicants’ qualifications, skills, knowledge, and experience, as well as relevant business requirements.