Head of Engineering

Valstad is a manufacturing technology company with a mission to rebuild America's shipbuilding capacity from the ground up. The United States has fallen from the world's leading shipbuilder to producing less than 1% of global commercial output — while demand for domestic naval and commercial vessels continues to surge.

We're closing that gap by developing autonomous robotic fabrication systems that produce precision structural ship components at unprecedented speed, quality, and scale. Our platform combines industrial robotics, machine vision, and adaptive manufacturing to do what decades of manual processes have not — deliver the throughput and consistency the industry needs to build again.

We're building the machine that builds the ships. Our engineering team owns the full system — machine design, software, controls, and machine vision — taking it from concept to commissioning on real steel in real shipyards.

This is a role for someone who has built and shipped complex hardware-software systems and wants to own the technical direction of an entire platform. You should be as comfortable making architectural decisions across disciplines as you are reviewing a drawing package or debugging a system on the shop floor.

What You'll Do

• Define and own the technical vision and architecture for Valstad's robotic fabrication platform

• Build, lead, and mentor a cross-disciplinary engineering team spanning machine design, software, controls, and robotics

• Make the hard tradeoffs across mechanical, electrical, and software domains that determine whether systems integrate cleanly and ship on time

• Drive engineering rigor — design reviews, test protocols, documentation standards — without killing velocity

• Work hands-on with the team through prototyping, integration, commissioning, and field deployment

• Establish technical partnerships with robot OEMs, component vendors, and technology providers

What You'll Bring

• 10+ years of experience in engineering, with 5+ years leading cross-disciplinary technical teams

• Track record building and shipping complex electromechanical or robotic systems into production environments

• Deep expertise in at least one core domain (machine design, controls, robotics, or software) with strong fluency across the others

• Ability to set a high technical bar while maintaining pace — you know when to optimize and when to ship

• Hands-on instinct — you should want to be in the lab and on the floor, not just in meetings

• BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, CS, or related field

• Experience in industrial automation, heavy manufacturing, or defense is a strong plus