Hardware Engineering Lead

London, E17 | 5 days per week on-site

AUAR is automating homebuilding. We deploy robotic MicroFactories that produce a home's full timber structure directly on site, on demand, in sync with the build.

About Us

AUAR is a physical AI and robotics company, with construction as its vertical. We automate construction, starting with homes.

While technology has transformed almost every other sector, homes are still built largely by hand, in slow, expensive and fragmented processes. We're changing that by building the technology layer for a new way of making homes: faster, more affordable, and with less waste.

AUAR combines software, robotics and physical AI to turn building designs into physical homes. Our software platform, MasterBuilder, takes a design and translates it into the instructions needed to manufacture the timber structure of a home. Our robotic MicroFactory then deploys directly on a construction site and produces building components on demand: walls, floors and roofs, ready for assembly.

We're shipping our first commercial MicroFactories this year. The systems we build now will decide how homes are manufactured at scale.

We're a rapidly growing team of around 30 engineers, roboticists, operators and designers, working from an 11,000 sq ft R&D and demonstration facility in London. We're looking for people who want to work on real-world AI and robotics, move fast, take ownership, and see their work become part of real homes, for real people.

The Role

We're looking for an exceptional hardware engineer who can design and build complex machines to a high level of product maturity, and lead others doing the same.

As Hardware Engineering Lead, you own the mechanical design, product maturity, procurement and delivery of the MicroFactory as a machine. You take it from where it is today to the more capable, robust and scalable system it needs to become. You bring the expertise to manufacture and deploy from 10 to 1000 machines across the world.

You'll work at the systems level, with deep mechanical design at the core, while collaborating across electrical integration, pneumatics, sensors, motion, safety, controls interfaces and industrial robot integration — you work with these disciplines but don't need to own them. You come in at the middle-to-late stages of design rather than early ground-up architecture, and you go deep and design the hard parts yourself: mechanisms, end effectors, tooling, fixtures and subsystems that need to survive real production.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You set the technical direction for hardware, own our CAD management practices, raise the standard for how we design and build machines, and bring the hardware team with you. You will manage people, but you'll spend the majority of your time doing design and engineering. You'll be in the workshop, on the factory floor and next to the robot, not managing from a distance.

You'll work closely with software, automation, robotics and our field operations, because the machine only matters when the whole system runs.

This role is for someone who has built complex automated machines in large numbers, integrated robots into them, and knows what it takes to move from prototype to production-grade hardware.

Problems You'll Work On

• The MicroFactory as a machine. Owning the mechanical design, detailing, manufacturing and delivery of a deployable robotic production system, and making the right trade-offs across mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, motion, safety and robot integration. Making deliberate design decisions across the whole machine, not just one subsystem.

• Industrial robot integration. Turning industrial robots into reliable production components: end effectors, tooling, fixtures, cell layout, safety, reach, motion constraints, interfaces and recovery paths. No prior robotics experience is required. The robot arm itself is not the product. The machine around it is what makes it useful.

• Material handling in the real world. Designing systems that work with construction materials as they actually are: timber that bends, twists, varies, splits, carries knots and arrives with tolerances. Making the machine robust to physical reality, not just perfect CAD.

• Reliability on site. Taking a machine that works in an R&D environment and making it dependable in the field. Designing for commissioning, maintenance, uptime, repairability, transport, operator use and customer deployments.

• Continuous improvement of the MicroFactory. Driving the hardware roadmap through continuous improvement: faster, more capable, easier to deploy, easier to maintain and ready for many simultaneous deployments.

• Raising the hardware team. Leading hardware engineers, setting the standard for design quality, reviews, documentation, build discipline and technical decision-making — while staying close enough to the work that people learn by working with you.

What Good Looks Like

• You've taken complex machines from concept to working hardware produced in large numbers, and you can point to the ones you designed yourself.
• You're happy in the details: specifying tolerances on drawings, working with manufacturers to fabricate parts, and overseeing hardware assembly.
• You think at the systems level, then go deep wherever the hard problem is. You do not hide behind "architecture"; you can still design the mechanism.
• You make confident hardware decisions with incomplete information, and you are right often enough that the team trusts your judgement.
• You understand that reliability is designed in early: access, maintainability, tolerances, field repair, commissioning, safety and operator use are not afterthoughts.
• You can move between a whiteboard, CAD, a machine build, a supplier call, a safety review and a field deployment without losing the thread.
• You make the engineers around you better because they can see how you think, how you design, and how you make trade-offs.
• You feel the stakes. The machine has to run on a real site, on schedule, in front of a customer. That sharpens how you design.
• You build the capability for us to continue working better over time, driving improved engineering standards and tooling (FMEA, PLM etc.)

Who This Is For

You're an experienced hardware, mechanical or mechatronics engineer who has built complex automated machines and wants to own one end to end.

You might come from special-purpose machinery, industrial automation, robotics integration, manufacturing equipment, logistics automation, aerospace ground systems, advanced manufacturing, or another field where complex machines have to work in the real world.

What matters more than your exact background is this: you can design complex hardware yourself, at depth, and you can lead a team while doing it. You are a systems thinker who is still a builder. You have integrated industrial robots or automation systems into larger machines, and you understand what that actually takes. No prior robotics experience is required.

This role suits people who thrive with ambiguity and ownership. If you need a detailed spec before starting, or if you have moved away from hands-on engineering into pure management, this is not the right environment.

What we're looking for

• Substantial experience designing complex automated machines and taking them to working hardware.
• Strong mechanical design depth: mechanisms, structures, actuated systems, fixtures, tooling, tolerances and manufacturability.
• Experience integrating industrial robots, automation systems or motion systems into larger machines or production environments.
• Systems breadth across mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, sensors, motion, controls interfaces and safety, enough to own the machine as a whole and make the right trade-offs across domains.
• Hands-on engineering depth: you can do the hard design work yourself, not just direct it.
• Experience taking hardware through build, test, debug and iteration cycles, with a strong understanding of what breaks between CAD and the real world.
• The ability to lead and develop other engineers while staying technical.
• Preferred: start-up experience, or a clear-eyed understanding of what you are signing up for: fast-pace, incomplete information, real deadlines and work that will not always fit neatly inside a job description.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary based on experience
• Share options so we all grow together
• 28 bookable days + bank holidays + seasonal office closure
• Health and dental insurance via Bupa
• Pension via Smart Pensions
• An 11,000 sq ft R&D and demonstration facility in E17, where you work alongside the machines you're building
• High autonomy, high accountability and a team that takes the mission seriously

Our Values

• #ownyourmission - we take responsibility and execute with focus and urgency.
• #forpeopleandplanet - we strive to do the best for people and planet.
• #buildtogether - we succeed through deep collaboration with our team, partners and customers.
• #gooddesign - we centre good design in everything we do, holistically.
• #beboldberadical - we think creatively; we are ambitious, bold and radical.

Application Process

1. Initial Application
2. Hiring Manager Call (45 mins, remote)
3. Case-based Working Session & Values Interview (60-90 mins, in-person) - qualifying a real AUAR challenge
4. Final founder interview (30 mins, in-person)

This is a London role, 5 days a week in our E17 office. You'll need the right to work in the UK. We can sponsor visas if you're a standout candidate. If this is a fit, tell us, we'd rather hear from you than not.

We're proud that 50% of our technical team and 50% of our leadership are women. We believe great work comes from diverse perspectives, and we hire on potential as much as experience. If part of this role speaks to you, apply. Let's make housing better, together.

We are committed to creating an equitable, inclusive and diverse workplace. If you feel there is any area we could improve, please let us know at info@auar.io.