Hardware Engineer Job at Intelletec Energy in San Francisco

Hardware Engineer (Founding Team)

Travel: ~50% to real construction sites

About Crewline AI

Crewline AI is building the world’s most advanced construction company by retrofitting heavy equipment—bulldozers, excavators, dump trucks—with plug-and-play perception and teleoperation kits. In just months, we’ve gone from zero to live deployments, generated $220K ARR, and raised $5.5M from top-tier investors and 20+ unicorn founders.

Construction is facing a global labor crisis. Our mission is to rebuild society’s ability to shape the world—making housing affordable and restoring large-scale building capability. We move fast, deploy constantly, and solve real problems in the field while competitors stay stuck in autonomy R&D.

Join a team of second-time founders who scaled their last company to $30M ARR in under 2 years—and help define the future of construction robotics.

Role Overview

We’re hiring a Hardware Engineer to design and deploy rugged, reliable perception and teleoperation systems for autonomous heavy equipment. This is a hands‑on, 0→1 role for someone who loves building real hardware, debugging in the field, and shipping product that survives harsh environments.

You’ll split roughly 50% of your time on construction sites—traveling in our company RV, integrating hardware on machines, running tests, and iterating fast. If you want to work in a quiet office all day, this is not the role.

What You’ll Do

• Design and develop teleoperation and autonomy hardware—including power systems, compute modules, and control electronics for heavy machinery retrofits.
• Integrate, calibrate, and validate advanced sensor suites (LiDAR, radar, GNSS/RTK, IMU, stereo/mono cameras).
• Create robust wiring harnesses, enclosures, and sensor/actuator mounting systems built for harsh, vibration‑heavy environments.
• Implement and debug communication protocols such as CAN, LIN, J1939, Ethernet, Serial, and GMSL.
• Lead system bring‑up and HIL testing, working closely with software and perception engineers.
• Prototype rapidly—3D printing, machining, modifying hardware directly on machines.
• Deploy frequently to active construction sites and iterate hardware based on real operational feedback.
• Influence core engineering processes, from DFM to reliability testing to field diagnostics.

What Makes You a Great Fit

• Experience (2–10 years) in robotics, autonomous vehicles, heavy machinery, industrial automation, or other electromechanical systems.
• Electrical + mechanical integration (harness design, power distribution, sensor mounts, enclosures).
• Interfaces like CAN, LIN, J1939, Ethernet, Serial, GMSL.

Bonus signals

• Prior founding engineer or startup 0→1 experience (successful or not).
• Demonstrated ownership, grit, and comfort with extremely fast iteration cycles.

What We’re Looking For (Mindset)

• You prefer building hardware over planning it.
• You thrive in unpredictable real‑world environments.
• You love turning messy field problems into clean engineering solutions.
• You take extreme ownership and ship fast.
• You want your work deployed on machines shaping real construction sites.

What We’re Not Looking For

• Someone who wants a desk‑only, office‑first job.
• Someone coming from a slow, legacy autonomous machinery program (e.g., large OEMs with years‑long roadmaps).

Why Join

• Founding role with meaningful ownership (1–3% equity).
• Work on a mission with massive societal impact.
• No bureaucracy—your work shows up on machines in the field within days.
• SF office with full electronics lab, metal shop, and 3D printing station.
• 100% paid top‑tier health/dental/vision + 401k contribution.