{"id":3898041,"url":"https://alion.io/job/y-combinator-hardware-lab-manager","title":"Hardware Lab Manager","company":{"id":703946,"name":"Y Combinator","domain":"ycombinator.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/y-combinator","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":true,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Work at a Startup","truth_index":null},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"middle","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":200000,"max":275000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":275000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Dropbox","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-29T03:35:45Z","employer_posted_date":null,"last_verified_at":"2026-10-29T03:35:45Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":null,"days_open":11,"trust":{"level":"not_scored","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":11},"description":"Y Combinator is the leading startup accelerator for entrepreneurs. Since 2005, YC has invested in over 6,000 companies, including Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Reddit, Instacart, DoorDash, and Coinbase. YC hardware alumni include Stoke Space, Flock Safety, Starcloud, Hubble Network, Boom, and May Mobility. Today, YC has built the most powerful startup community in the world alongside the products and programs to support founders for the life of their company.\nJob Description:\nY Combinator is seeking a Lab Manager who will help manage our YC Hardware Lab. Over 20% of YC startups are now hardware startups, and you’ll help support these founders. The Lab Manager will support founders by managing a space, purchasing and maintaining equipment, reviewing prototypes, and providing founder feedback.\nThe ideal candidate will have built products from prototype to scale. They will have worked with key prototyping machines like CNCs, 3D printers, PCBs, and more. They will have extensive experience maintaining equipment.\nYou’ll enjoy many perks for working at Y Combinator - competitive salary and excellent benefits including fully-paid health care benefits and unlimited vacation - while mentoring the founders of the future.\nIn your first month, you might:\nProvide input, purchase, and set up equipment.\nProvide tutorials on how to use equipment to founders.\nCreate the lab’s safety policy.\nSupport founders in using the equipment.\nKey Responsibilities:\nManage and run operations of the hardware lab from purchase to maintenance.\nManage all lab policies.\nSchedule lab equipment.\nAdvise hardware startups.\nConnect founders with vendors.\nHelp scale the lab from initial launch to expansion.\nSkills:\nYou have built hardware products before.\nYou have worked in a lab where hardware products have been built as a machinist or manager.\nYou know how to run and maintain hardware prototyping equipment like CNCs and 3D printers.\nExperience:\nAt least 3 years of experience building hardware.\nHave built hardware from prototype to manufacturing.\nHave mentored or managed other builders.\nYou have managed or supported a hardware space before.\nLocation: YC is headquartered in the SF Bay Area, and this lab will be near our office in Dogpatch, San Francisco. Candidates must live in the SF Bay Area or be willing to relocate. Our Hardware Lab Manager will be onsite FT, Monday through Friday.\nBenefits: Our full benefits package includes medical, vision, and dental plans, an infertility benefit, STD/LTD, life insurance, commuter benefits, a flexible spending account, a health savings account, a 401(k) with 4% matching, generous parental leave, paid holidays, and a flexible paid time off policy.\nWork Authorization: This position does not support work authorization/visa sponsorship.\nY Combinator considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law, including San Francisco’s Fair Chance Ordinance. Y Combinator is committed to protecting the privacy of job applicants' personal information and to complying with the California Consumer Privacy Act. The privacy policy of Ashby, Inc., the hiring platform used by Y Combinator, governs the collection of such data and is available here.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3239,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":3,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Life insurance","Parental leave"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Venture Capital","Angel Networks & Startup Accelerators"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-06T23:42:07Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":79,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.837,"p_room":0.945,"age_days":11,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["seen:11","win:mid"],"computed_at":"2026-11-09T06:03:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":275000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/y-combinator-hardware-lab-manager","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/y-combinator-hardware-lab-manager.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-09T11:49:13Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":14168,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-10T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":703946},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=703946"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fy-combinator-hardware-lab-manager"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fy-combinator-hardware-lab-manager"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fy-combinator-hardware-lab-manager"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/y-combinator-hardware-lab-manager\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fy-combinator-hardware-lab-manager"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3898041}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"ycombinator.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3898041},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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