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Sereact builds AI-driven robotics systems for industrial automation, combining robot arms, adaptive grippers, vision systems, and a proprietary vision-language-action model called Cortex. The company is scaling from ~50 units annually to several hundred units per year following Series B funding, with systems already deployed in live warehouse and factory operations across the EU and US.
As Director of NPI & Industrialization, you will own the complete hardware product lifecycle from architecture through design freeze and production readiness. You report to the CEO and CTO and partner closely with the Director of Supply Chain & Hardware Operations to transition your released designs into volume manufacturing.
Key responsibilities include:
**Product Architecture & Development:** Own the system design of the robotic cell across mechanical, electrical, and controls integration, including robot arm integration, vision and sensor systems, cabinet design, wiring, and machine safety. Lead development of the adaptive force-controlled gripper and end-effectors, which represent core IP. Shepherd each product from working prototype through DVT and qualification to a frozen, released design. Collaborate with the Cortex software team on hardware-software interfaces and trade-offs.
**Industrialization & Design Transfer:** Embed design for manufacture, assembly, service, and cost into every product from inception. Establish and operate a Design-Transfer Gate with Supply Chain to ensure every product handed to contract manufacturers is a complete, buildable package. Design critical parts for standardization and dual-sourcing.
**Reliability, Quality & Documentation:** Implement reliability engineering practices including DVT, HALT, FMEA, and tolerance/worst-case analysis. Run root-cause analysis on field failures with Technical Support to drive design-related returns down. Set up PLM, BOMs, drawings, specifications, configuration management, and ECN/ECO discipline to ensure every revision is documented and reproducible.
**Roadmap, Cost & Team:** Own the hardware roadmap, including next-generation cell design and the balance between bespoke builds and standardized product lines. Run design-to-cost programs to reduce BOM cost per unit over time. Hire and lead the hardware and mechatronics engineering team, setting working cadence and accountability.
**Requirements:**
- 10+ years in hardware, mechatronics, or electromechanical product engineering, including several years leading engineering teams
- Proven track record of personally taking a complex electromechanical product from prototype through design freeze into series production at hundreds of units per year
- Experience building a hardware engineering or industrialization function from scratch in a scaleup or growth-stage company
- Degree in mechanical, electrical, mechatronics engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience
- Hands-on depth across mechanical, electrical, and controls integration
- Strong command of DfX (DfM, DfA, design for service and cost)
- Reliability engineering experience with DVT, HALT, and FMEA
- Experience setting up PLM, configuration management, and change control
- Direct experience handing a released design to a contract manufacturer or EMS partner and supporting first builds
- Fluent English and willingness to travel to suppliers and customer sites
**Nice to have:** Robotics or manipulation experience (grippers, end-effectors, force control, robot arm integration, machine vision); machine safety experience (CE marking, Machinery Directive, functional safety); experience integrating hardware with AI or software stacks; experience turning demos and pilots into repeatable production products; German fluency.
