Vice President, Hardware Engineering – Matter Compiler

About the Role

This executive leadership role is one of the most pivotal and technically broad at Atomic Machines. Reporting to the CEO and managing a team of 50+ Mechanical Engineers, you will be the executive responsible for the development of Atomic Machines' digital manufacturing "Nodes," each of which implements a class of physical manufacturing process, as a fully automated digital machine built upon our robust hardware and software platform that enables sophisticated interaction with all other Nodes, ultimately manifesting in the Matter Compiler (MC). You will lead a team of exceptional principal-level mechanical engineers (both ICs and ICMs) to design and build the Nodes -- from initial prototypes and DoEs through to commercial readiness -- required for the launch of our first product and beyond, and your team will work in the context of our fully operational Hybrid Fab, which provides a unique agile development/deployment environment for all aspects of the MC. Importantly, we are growing rapidly, and you will play a key role in further building out the team with additional bar-raising talent.

What You’ll Do

• Cultivate a high-performing leadership team by managing managers and directors while ensuring their teams consistently deliver against strategic objectives and engineering excellence standards.
• Own the node hardware architecture: mechanism selection, kinematics, structural design, thermal control, sensing, actuation, and serviceability - with clear interfaces to software, controls, and manufacturing.
• Drive hardware requirements and error budgets for precision, throughput, and reliability (accuracy, repeatability, stiffness, settle time, drift, MTBF/MTTR, uptime) and translate them into subsystem specifications and verification plans.
• Lead design and industrialization of motion subsystems (stages/gantries, rotary axes, Z/force axes), end-effectors, fixturing, and in-situ metrology aligned with sub-micron performance needs.
• Establish rigorous design processes: design reviews, interface control documents (ICDs), GD&T and tolerance analysis standards, DFMEA/PFMEA, verification & validation (V&V) plans, and disciplined engineering change control (ECO/ECN).
• Build scalable calibration and alignment strategies into the hardware (datums, fiducials, kinematic mounts, reference artifacts) and partner with software to automate calibration, compensation, and drift detection.
• Partner with Manufacturing Engineering to develop the prototype-to-production pipeline for node hardware: supplier strategy, DFM/DFA/DFS, first-article inspection, incoming quality, build documentation, assembly/test fixtures, and ramp to stable yields.
• Drive reliability engineering for nodes: test strategy (lifetime, wear, thermal cycling, vibration, contamination), FRACAS, root cause analysis, preventive maintenance design, and reliability growth metrics.
• Hire, develop, and lead a high-performing multi-disciplinary hardware organization (ME, opto-mechanics, test/validation) with a strong bar for technical excellence and execution.
• Partner cross-functionally to integrate nodes into complete manufacturing systems and debug factory issues with urgency, rigor, and high standards.

What You’ll Need

• 15+ years leading cross-org teams (including managers/directors) and driving org-level hiring/talent strategy, plus 7 years as an IC building complex robotics, precision automation, or advanced manufacturing systems.
• Demonstrated ownership of multiple hardware systems shipped to production: from early prototypes through manufacturing ramp and sustained field operation.
• Deep expertise in one of the following: precision mechanism design: stiffness/compliance, vibration/dynamics, thermal drift, error budgeting (including Abbe errors), and practical metrology.
• Strong command of GD&T, tolerance stack-ups, and design for manufacturability/assembly/service (DFM/DFA/DFS), including collaboration with suppliers and quality teams.
• Experience selecting and integrating sensors and actuators (encoders, force/torque, vision, capacitive/inductive, pneumatics, motors, bearings) with clear understanding of physics and failure modes.
• Track record of building hardware test and validation frameworks: DVP&R, fixture design, automated test where appropriate, and clear pass/fail criteria tied to requirements.
• Strong reliability and failure analysis skills: DFMEA/PFMEA, RCA, DOE, CAPA, wear/fatigue, contamination, and field-debug discipline in production environments.
• Systems-level leadership and communication across mechanical, electrical, controls, software, vision, manufacturing, and supply chain domains.
• Cultural alignment with first-principles reasoning, accountability, disciplined thinking, high standards, and truth-seeking teamwork.
• Minimum bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related field with deep hands-on hardware execution.