Slip Robotics is a B2B Robotics-as-a-Service company deploying autonomous loading and unloading robots at warehouse and fulfillment sites across North America. Our customers include some of the largest shippers and 3PLs in the industry. We build the robots, we deploy them, and we keep them running — and we're scaling fast.
The Associate Field Robotics Engineer is the reliability execution layer within Slip Robotics’ Service Delivery organization. This role owns the fleet-wide reliability function for all deployed products — establishing the root cause analysis infrastructure and preventative maintenance program that keep the deployed fleet performing at spec as the company scales enterprise accounts.
The Associate Field Robotics Engineer is an investigator and a builder. They receive initial failure characterization from Diagnostic Engineers and take the analysis further — forming hypotheses, designing validation approaches, and performing hands-on testing to confirm or eliminate root causes before a corrective action is defined. They do not hand off findings and wait; they drive failures to closure in partnership with Quality.
This is also a program-building role. With no PM infrastructure for legacy products, the Associate Field Robotics Engineer will define maintenance schedules, procedures, and intervals from scratch — working from field failure history, technical documentation, and hands-on product knowledge. The ability to move from raw field data to a deployable maintenance program is core to what this role must do.
Responsibilities:
- Root Cause Analysis & Failure Investigation
- Own fleet-wide root cause analysis for systemic failures across all deployed products Receive structured failure characterization from Diagnostic Engineers and conduct deeper analytical and hands-on investigation to identify true root cause
- Form and test hypotheses through bench-level and field validation; design test protocols and execute them directly or in coordination with Diagnostic Engineers and Field Maintenance
- Produce formal RCA reports that document failure evidence, causal chain, validated root cause, and corrective action recommendation — written to a standard that supports engineering review and corrective action tracking
- Drive RCA findings to verified closure in partnership with Quality; an RCA is not complete until the corrective action has been validated
- Distinguish systemic failure patterns from one-off incidents; escalate confirmed systemic issues through the appropriate cross-functional channels
- Maintain the failure knowledge base for the deployed fleet: documented RCAs, failure modes, corrective actions, and trend data that inform both PM program development and future diagnostic work
- Preventative Maintenance Program
- Own the development and deployment of the preventative maintenance program for all deployed Slip Robotics products — defining schedules, procedures, and intervals across SlipBot and SlipLift ALRs, and establishing PM as a structured, repeatable function within Service Delivery
- Define PM schedules, procedures, task descriptions, and maintenance intervals for SlipBot and SlipLift ALRs based on field failure history, product knowledge, and reliability analysis
- Partner with Field Maintenance and Field Engineering to validate PM procedures in the field before full deployment; iterate based on technician feedback and observed outcomes
- Own the rollout and ongoing management of the PM program across all active customer sites; coordinate with Field Maintenance to ensure PM tasks are executed on schedule
- Track PM compliance across the fleet; identify and resolve gaps in execution in coordination with Field Maintenance management
- Update PM procedures as new failure modes are identified through RCA or field observation; the PM program is a living document, not a one-time deliverable
- Cross-Functional Reliability Execution
- Serve as the primary reliability partner to the Diagnostic Engineering team: provide guidance on complex failure characterization, review initial analyses, and identify when a ticket-level failure warrants fleet-level investigation
- Partner with Quality on RCA closure: co-own the corrective action validation process and ensure findings are formally documented and tracked to resolution
- Surface confirmed systemic findings to relevant stakeholders — Field Engineering Manager, Quality, and, where appropriate, Engineering and Manufacturing — with structured documentation, not informal observation
- Support the Field Engineering Manager in building the reliability infrastructure that Service Delivery owns: documentation standards, RCA templates, PM tracking systems, and escalation criteria
- Contribute to Diagnostic Engineer development: share failure knowledge, explain analytical methods, and help build diagnostic capability across the Field Engineering team
Requirements
- 3–6 years of experience in reliability engineering, sustaining engineering, field service engineering, or a closely related technical role with a strong failure analysis component
- Demonstrated experience conducting structured root cause analysis using formal methodologies (8D, FMEA, fishbone/Ishikawa, 5-Why, or equivalent); able to produce formal RCA documentation, not just informal findings
- Hands-on electromechanical troubleshooting experience — this role must understand the physical systems they are analyzing and be capable of performing bench-level validation independently
- Ability to form, design, and execute hypothesis-driven test plans; moves from observation to structured investigation without waiting for direction
- Strong technical writing skills: RCA reports, Preventative Maintenance procedures, and failure documentation must be clear, structured, and usable by both technical and non-technical audiences
- Comfortable operating without established processes; able to build structure where none exists
- Ability to travel up to 50%
Preferred:
- Experience in robotics, industrial automation, warehouse automation, EV systems, or a hardware-as-a-service environment where assets are deployed and operated at customer sites
- Prior experience building or formalizing a preventative maintenance program — defining intervals, writing procedures, and deploying to a field team
- Familiarity with fleet monitoring tools, telemetry data, or operational dashboards used to identify failure trends across a distributed asset base
- Experience working in a reliability or sustaining function that was absorbed by an operations or field services team rather than supported by a dedicated engineering organization
- Proficiency with Jira, Zendesk, Confluence, or similar platforms used for ticket management and technical documentation
Benefits
- Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
- Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
- Stock Option Plan
Slip Robotics is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate candidates on the merits of their experience and their fit for the role. We welcome applicants from every background.