Description
Compensation
Estimated Base Salary $60K – $70K
Position Overview
We're an early-stage venture, building an automated physical system driven by robotic arms, live sensing, and a real-time software layer. We need a technician who can build, modify, and fix the physical machine.
Responsibilities
- Modify and retrofit tools and equipment so they can be driven by our control system - fabricating brackets and mounts, cutting, drilling, tapping, adapting pneumatics, adding actuation to tools that shipped as handheld
- Install and wire sensors, switches, actuators, and I/O; route and terminate cabling; build and label harnesses that survive a production cell
- Assemble, align, and calibrate robot cells, tooling, and fixtures as new builds come up; measure and verify that what you built matches what was drawn, and make mechanical adjustments as designs change
- Troubleshoot mechanical, pneumatic, and electrical faults on arms, tooling, and conveyance - isolate the root cause, fix what you can, and hand engineering a clear, specific description of what you found
- Work safely around energized and moving equipment: apply lockout/tagout before service, use appropriate PPE, and speak up when a guard, e-stop, or procedure isn't right
- Keep the machine's real state documented - redline schematics and drawings as things change, label what you build, record measurements, and log fixes so the next person isn't starting from zero
- Help stand up our preventive maintenance routine and spare parts list from scratch, and support demos and test runs end to end
- Other duties as assigned - this is an early-stage team and the work shifts
Required Qualifications
- Hands-on trade experience - mechanic, millwright, maintenance tech, fabricator, machinist, automotive/equipment tech, or similar, in a real physical setting
- Fabrication and mechanical work - confident with hand and power tools, drilling and tapping, basic metalwork, mounting and shimming things so they stay put
- Metrology - fluent with calipers, micrometers, dial indicators, squares, feeler gauges, and levels. You can measure to a stated tolerance, check flatness, squareness, and parallelism, verify fixture and tool alignment, and recognize when a stack-up of small errors is what's actually causing the problem
- Reading mechanical drawings and following a stated tolerance; comfortable with GD&T basics or willing to learn them fast
- Working knowledge of safe practices around industrial equipment - lockout/tagout, PPE, and the awareness that a robot cell can crush, pinch, or move unexpectedly
- Diagnostic instinct - able to work a problem from symptom to cause on a machine you didn't build, without a troubleshooting tree
- Comfortable with ambiguity and change: most of what we build has no manual and will be different next month
- Clear communication, including writing down what you did
- High school diploma or equivalent. Trade school, apprenticeship, or an associate's in a technical field is a plus, but we care far more about what you've built and fixed than about credentials
Preferred Qualifications
- Electrical work - reading electrical schematics, terminating connectors, wiring control panels and remote I/O, using a multimeter to check continuity, voltage, and signal
- Pneumatics, hydraulics, VFDs, servos, or stepper systems
- Advanced metrology - laser trackers, CMM, optical alignment, or robot cell calibration work
- Robot cell experience - teach pendants, jogging arms, touching up taught points, tool changes, fixture setup
- Microcontroller tinkering - Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or any experience hacking a chip into something that didn't have one
- Welding, machining, or CNC
- Woodworking, framing, cabinet shop, or lumber handling background
- Forklift or scissor/aerial lift certification
Working Conditions
- On-site at our Northbrook, IL facility, 5 days/week
- Shop environment: noise, sawdust, moving machinery, and varying temperatures. PPE required
- Regularly lift and carry up to 50 lbs; stand, kneel, climb ladders, and move for a full shift
- Occasional evenings or weekends ahead of demos and milestones - we'll tell you in advance, and it isn't every week
Why Join LightSpeed
- Build real machines: work hands-on with the robot cells, tooling, and fixtures in our manufacturing facility
- Direct impact: the systems you build and keep running produce homes and help address the housing crisis
- Grow with the system: learn robotics, controls, and automation alongside the engineers designing it
- Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits