Engineering Manager, Production Engineering

About Tutor

We believe robots are the biggest lever we have to making the physical world a better, more affordable place. But robots are a rounding error in our society: nearly nine out of ten American factories and warehouses don’t even have a single robot, and robots have yet to make their way into our homes or places of business.

Tutor Intelligence is changing that.

Tutor is a robotics research and deployment company, building generally capable robot hardware and artificial intelligence to enable robots to go where no robots have gone before. Our robots range from a semi-humanoid with frontier dexterity approaching the human form to workhorses that do back-breaking work, moving boxes, pallets, and bulk goods for businesses from family-owned manufacturers to some of the largest brands in the world. Tutor robots are manufactured at scale and operate as a network, combining the whole fleet’s learned experience to train ever more capable robot artificial intelligence.

Founded at MIT and headquartered in Watertown, MA, our team is full stack: we design and manufacture robot hardware, train our own models, work directly with the smallest and largest end-customers, and maintain our fleet across the United States. We’re a team of researchers, engineers, technicians, operators, and sellers who love building things and solving hard problems.

Our mission is grand: robots everywhere, for the common good, raising the standard of living across North America, and then the world.

The Role

You lead our Production Engineering team: the engineers and technicians who take robot designs from prototype to mass production. You report to the Head of Manufacturing.

Your job is to design the system and the machine that build our robots: the processes, test systems, tooling and change control that let Manufacturing produce high-quality robots at a competitive cost, even as designs change fast.

This is a player-coach role. You set direction, assign the work and grow the team, and you stay hands-on. You are in design reviews, at the bench with a scope, and on the floor debugging a robot that needs to ship.

Why This Role Matters

Every robot we ship has to be built right, tested right and delivered on time, while the design behind it keeps improving. That only works with a strong team and a production system built for change. Much of that system doesn't exist yet. You build it, and the team that runs it.

What You'll Own

• Lead the team: Set priorities and assign work across production engineers, test and bring-up engineers, technicians and contract engineers. Hold clear technical standards and review the team's work.
• Grow the team: Hire, mentor and develop engineers. Shape a team structure that scales as production grows.
• Prototype to production: Own how new designs move from prototype through pilot builds into volume production, with the processes, work instructions, tooling, fixtures and station design to support them.
• Test and bring-up: Own the test strategy across the line, from subassembly bench tests to station tests, robot bring-up and final acceptance, so defects are caught early and never reach a customer.
• Engineering change: Represent Manufacturing in design change reviews and own how changes are cut in on the line without losing quality or output.
• Design for manufacturing: Partner with hardware engineering so designs arrive buildable, testable, serviceable and cost-effective.
• Recurring failures: Use data from the line and the field to drive recurring problems to root cause and permanent fixes.
• Stay hands-on: Debug electrical, mechanical and system-level issues yourself when a robot needs to ship.

What Success Looks Like

In your first few months: You've worked the floor with the team and earned their trust. Every engineer knows their priorities and what they own. The top recurring build failures have clear root causes and fixes underway, and you've laid out a plan for test, change control and the team.

In your first year: Robots move through bring-up and final test with little rework. Design changes reach the line cleanly. New designs arrive production-ready. The team is growing, owns its work and holds a high bar without you in the room.

Required

• Bachelor's in Electrical, Mechanical, Computer or Mechatronics Engineering. A Master's is a plus.
• Proven experience leading engineers: setting priorities, assigning work, reviewing output and developing people. A formal manager or technical lead title both count. We care about what you did with the team you had.
• Deep hands-on hardware experience designing, integrating and debugging complex electromechanical systems. You still find root cause yourself.
• Strong electrical fundamentals. You read schematics, use scopes and meters, and isolate problems across power, boards, harnesses, sensors, actuators and communication interfaces.
• Experience taking hardware from prototype through new product introduction into volume production.
• Experience building production test systems: fixtures, bring-up, end-of-line or automated test.
• Hands-on design-for-manufacturing and design-for-test work with design engineering.
• Experience managing engineering change on an active production line.
• You use AI tools daily in your engineering work and can show us how.

Preferred

• Built or scaled a production or manufacturing engineering team at a hardware startup.
• Robotics or industrial automation experience.
• Cost reduction work: should-cost, value engineering, or BOM and labor reduction.
• Python for test automation, diagnostics or data analysis.
• Experience with MES, traceability or change control systems.
• Contract manufacturer or supplier bring-up.

Why Join

• Build the team and the system. You shape how we build robots and who builds them.
• Lead without leaving the hardware. You manage a team and still get your hands dirty.
• Real hardware, real stakes. Your fixes run on robots working at customer sites.
• AI is how we work. You have the tools and the backing to automate what most factories still do by hand.
• Direct line to leadership. Work side by side with hardware, software and deployment teams.

How We Work: Our Values in This Role

We hire against our values, and we'll interview you against them too. Here's what they look like in this seat:

• Love of the Game. You lead from the bench, not from a slide deck.
• Gumption. When a robot won't ship, you and your team are already on the floor finding out why.
• Beginner's Mindset. You question how we build and test today, and you change your mind fast when the data says to.
• Belief in Each Other. You give your engineers real ownership, help them grow, and earn the hardware team's respect by being right and being fair.
• Keep Moving Forward. You find the fix that keeps the line moving today, then make it permanent.
• Customer Obsession. Every shortcut on the line shows up at a customer site. You and your team build it right.