Field Engineering Manager

Slip Robotics is a B2B Robotics-as-a-Service company deploying autonomous loading and unloading robots — SlipBots and SlipLifts — at warehouse and fulfillment sites across North America. Our customers are some of the largest shippers and 3PLs in the industry, and we're scaling fast. We build the robots, we deploy them, and we keep them running.The Field Engineering Manager owns the engineering backbone of Slip Robotics' field operations: the diagnostic procedures, repair standards, escalation processes, and technical campaigns that determine how reliably our fleet performs in the hands of customers. This is a player-coach role — you will lead a team of Field Engineers while remaining close enough to the technical work to set and enforce high standards.You are inheriting a capable team and stepping into a function where the opportunity — and expectation — is to replace tribal knowledge and reactive heroics with structure, documented standards, and scalable execution. You will be the connective tissue between what Field Engineers observe at customer sites and what Design, Mechanical, and Product Engineering teams act on.Responsibilities: Direct TeamLead, mentor, and develop a team of 3-5 Field Engineers — setting clear performance expectations, individual growth paths, and a team culture grounded in disciplined engineering practiceEstablish the operating cadences that make the team predictable: structured escalation paths, weekly standups, escalation reviews, and 1:1s that replace reactive firefighting with a defined, repeatable workflowDefine and own the diagnostic procedures that Field Engineers follow when resolving product failures in the field — from initial triage through root cause confirmation to repair validation. Every technician who encounters a known failure mode should have a clear, tested procedure to followBuild and maintain a Repair Standards Library covering all SlipBot and SlipLift failure modes: step-by-step remediation procedures, required tooling, and expected outcomes. This library is the team's institutional memory — it must be current, not archivalConvert individual expertise into documented, repeatable standards accessible to the entire organization. Knowledge that lives only in someone's head is a liabilityOwn hiring and onboarding for future Field Engineers as the team scales with Slip's growing fleetCross-Functional PartnersEnsure that field-observed failures reach Service Engineering with sufficient documentation — symptom, context, frequency, and operational impact — to support meaningful root cause investigationServe as the field's authoritative voice in cross-functional RCA sessions, design reviews, and product development discussions. Translate field observations into engineering-quality inputs without requiring Field Engineers to own the engineering workPartner with Service Engineering on RCA intake protocols, resolution validation, and feedback loops — ensuring fixes developed upstream are validated in the field and outcomes are reported backTranslate monthly fleet health findings from Service Engineering into actionable field execution: updated repair standards, new diagnostic procedures, and targeted campaignsPartner with Applications Engineering to ensure fleet-wide technical standards flow into site-specific deployment configuration sheets at the time of new customer onboarding — reducing failures born from inconsistent commissioningIdentify configuration or installation patterns that correlate with downstream failures and feed those findings back into Applications Engineering's pre-deployment checklistsMaintain JIRA-based tracking for field-side RCA contributions — every open failure with a systemic signature should have a corresponding ticket, owner, and status visible to cross-functional partnersFleet and CustomersOwn the end-to-end lifecycle of field campaigns: identify the failure or risk (in partnership with Service Engineering), develop the field-side remedy and procedure, coordinate deployment logistics with the team and customers, and confirm resolution across the fleetPrioritize campaigns based on safety impact, customer operational risk, and fleet-wide exposure — not by loudest customer or highest ticket volumeBuild campaign playbooks executable by any qualified Field Engineer, with clear go/no-go criteria, rollback procedures, and post-campaign validation stepsServe as the senior technical escalation point for complex or recurring product failures surfaced through Jira, ensuring resolution with documented, reproducible outcomes — not one-off fixesEstablish and track field engineering KPIs: MTTR, first-time fix rate, escalation recurrence rate, and campaign closure rate. Use these to drive continuous improvement and report progress to Service Delivery leadershipOwn Confluence space as the team's active knowledge platform — documentation must be current, organized, and genuinely usedRequirements5+ years of experience in field service engineering, service engineering, or technical support in a hardware or robotics-intensive environment — including direct hands-on diagnosis and repair of complex electro-mechanical systemsDemonstrated experience designing and implementing diagnostic procedures, repair standards, or technical troubleshooting frameworks used by a team in the fieldSolid understanding of electro-mechanical systems: motor drives, actuators, sensors, embedded controllers, and the interplay between hardware and software in autonomous platformsExperience contributing to root cause analysis (RCA) processes in collaboration with product or design engineering teamsProficiency with field service tooling: ticketing platforms (Zendesk or equivalent), documentation systems (Confluence), and engineering project tracking (JIRA)Familiarity with autonomous mobile robot (AMR) or industrial automation platforms is strongly preferred; ROS familiarity is a plus but not requiredAbility to read and interpret mechanical drawings, electrical schematics, and technical specificationsBachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related technical field requiredLeadership & Organizational: 2+ years of direct people management experience — ideally leading a technical field team with geographically distributed responsibilitiesProven track record of building structure in ambiguous environments: creating processes, documentation frameworks, and team norms where none previously existedStrong cross-functional influencer — able to operate credibly with Design, Mechanical, and Product Engineering teams and translate field observations into engineering-quality inputsExcellent written communication skills; able to produce clear, concise technical documentation — procedures, RCA summaries, campaign briefs — that technicians can follow without hand-holdingData-driven operator with the ability to identify trends in service data, prioritize by impact, and communicate findings to technical and non-technical stakeholders alikeComfortable operating at a fast-growing startup: you bring structure without requiring it, move with urgency, and recognize that building the playbook is part of the jobBenefitsCompetitive salary and equity in an early-stage robotics companyComprehensive benefits including health, dental, and visionPermissive time off policySlip Robotics is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate candidates on the merits of their experience and their fit for the role. We welcome applicants from every background.