Head of Engineering

Location: San Francisco ABOUT HUMAN ARCHIVE Human Archive is a research lab focused on modeling human embodied intelligence. Humans are the most sophisticated biological systems we have ever observed, yet we still do not fully understand ourselves. Research into human physical intelligence — including the human hand, proprioception, and vision — remains largely unsolved. Our mission is to recover human embodied intelligence as a learned model. To achieve this, we build custom hardware products, deploy them globally at scale, and publish research. Today, our data is used for robotics and world modeling, but the broader opportunity is advancing scientific research into intelligence itself. Founded by Stanford and UC Berkeley researchers, we are lean, deeply technical, and operate at extreme speed, taking on unglamorous and conventionally impossible problems that directly unlock step-function gains in model capability. The deployment of capable humanoids at scale will permanently redefine human labor. Undesirable physical work will disappear, and human effort will shift toward a new era of abundant creativity. We are building the infrastructure to accelerate that transition by assembling the Human Archive mafia. You will own meaningful systems from day one and see your work directly impact model capabilities. This is a once-in-a-generation inflection point. If you want to help reshape physical labor and work on problems that matter at civilizational scale, join us. About the Role This is a full-stack hardware engineering role spanning mechanical, electrical, firmware, embedded systems, and manufacturing. The engineer in this role will own integration across all layers of the system and drive manufacturing execution in China — from vendor selection through production ramp. You will work directly on wearable sensing systems involving synchronized cameras, motion capture, tactile sensing, embedded compute, and power systems operating under real-world deployment constraints. Mandarin fluency and established relationships in Chinese manufacturing are required. A background in mechatronics, systems engineering, robotics, or embedded hardware is strongly preferred. Open to exceptional new graduates and early-career engineers (2023–2026). What You’ll Do - Lead hardware engineering and manufacturing execution for Human Archive’s multimodal wearable systems - Own integration across power systems, sensor synchronization, embedded compute, thermal systems, and mechanical packaging - Debug failures across electrical, firmware, thermal, RF, and mechanical layers under real-world deployment conditions - Review CAD, schematics, PCB layouts, and embedded firmware behavior and drive corrective action with engineering justification - Prototype, wear-test, deploy, and iterate rapidly on wearable sensing systems used in large-scale global operations - Work directly with stereo depth cameras, IMUs, motion capture systems, tactile hardware, and embedded sensing platforms - Coordinate across hardware, software, operations, and data teams to translate product requirements into manufacturable systems under aggressive timelines What We’re Looking For - Strong background in mechatronics, robotics, systems engineering, embedded systems, or equivalent hands-on experience - Experience building battery-powered electronics, embedded Linux systems, sensor integration systems, or wearable hardware - Ability to debug hardware and embedded systems using serial tools, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and low-level debugging workflows - Strong mechanical judgment with the ability to review CAD and identify structural, ergonomic, thermal, or reliability issues - Ability to move quickly in ambiguous, high-ownership environments with aggressive timelines - Strong communication skills and ability to coordinate across engineering, manufacturing, and operations teams - Comfortable operating as both an individual contributor and technical leader in a fast-moving startup environment Strong Plus - Mandarin fluency and active manufacturing relationships in China (Shenzhen, Dongguan, or equivalent ecosystems) - Experience working with motion capture systems, IMUs, stereo depth cameras, tactile sensing, or wearable robotics - Experience bringing hardware products from prototype through mass production deployment - Experience working on robotics, embodied AI, multimodal sensing, or large-scale wearable systems Location Globally deployed. Primary operational presence in China (Shenzhen / Dongguan) and San Francisco.