A Palo Alto robotics startup backed by Y Combinator and deep-technology investors is emerging from stealth to hire three principal engineers across mechanical, firmware, and software domains. The company builds wearable robotic devices designed to reduce the metabolic cost of carrying heavy loads over distance, enabling users to travel farther with less fatigue. Hardware is already deployed on real users in demanding field conditions, creating a tight feedback loop between design and deployment.

Each principal engineer role carries $200-250K base salary plus 1-2% equity and full benefits, with full domain authority and no inherited design constraints. The mechanical lead owns structures, joints, actuator integration, and field serviceability for high-performance actuated systems. The firmware lead controls the embedded stack including real-time BLDC motor control, sensor fusion (IMUs, encoders, current sensing), OTA updates, and debug tooling. The software lead builds device-to-cloud telemetry, test and log databases, data pipelines, and user applications for hardware fleets.

What distinguishes this opportunity is the weeks-not-months timeline from code to user hardware. Candidates are asked to demonstrate built projects — photos, videos, and links preferred over resumes — sent to [email protected]. The roles demand proven experience shipping physical robots or autonomous systems, not simulation work.