Sakar Robotics
Website:
sakarrobotics.com
Job details:
JD - Vice President – Technology
Location: Pune, Maharashtra (On-site)
Employment Type: Full-time, Leadership Role
Experience Required: 7+ years in Computer Vision, Robotics, or AI with hands-on product building
Reports To: Founders & CEO
About Sakar Robotics
Sakar Robotics is a Pune-based deep-tech company building intelligent mobile manipulation platforms that bring autonomy to regulated and throughput-critical industries. Our flagship platform, SakarBot, combines advanced perception, sensor-fused SLAM-based navigation, safe manipulation, and adaptive orchestration to execute high-value tasks in environments ranging from pharmaceutical labs and manufacturing lines to high-throughput commercial operations.
We architected a composable stack where perception, autonomy, manipulation, and orchestration work natively together — replacing fragmented, bespoke automation with a single extensible platform. We are a small, mission-driven team of roboticists, AI engineers, systems designers, and operators, and we iterate on production reality, not lab abstractions.
Role Overview
We are seeking a VP of Technology to lead our engineering organization and own the end-to-end technology vision for our autonomous mobile manipulation platform. You will be responsible for translating our product roadmap into robust, field-deployable systems — spanning computer vision, autonomy, robotic manipulation, embedded systems, and cloud orchestration.
This is a builder's leadership role. You will architect, code-review, hire, mentor, and ship. You will work directly with the founders on strategy while remaining deeply hands-on with the technology.
Key Responsibilities
Technology Strategy & Architecture
- Define and own the technology roadmap across perception, navigation, manipulation, fleet orchestration, and platform software.
- Make and defend core architecture decisions: sensor stacks, compute platforms, ML frameworks, middleware (e.g., ROS 2), simulation environments, and cloud infrastructure.
- Balance rapid prototyping with production-grade reliability, safety, and compliance requirements (including FDA-aligned and regulated-environment deployments).
- Evaluate build-vs-buy trade-offs and manage the technology cost structure as we scale.
Product Development & Delivery
- Lead the full product development lifecycle: requirements, system design, development, integration, field testing, deployment, and continuous improvement.
- Drive productization of R&D — converting research prototypes in vision, SLAM, and manipulation into reliable, repeatable, customer-deployed systems.
- Establish engineering processes: sprint cadence, code quality standards, CI/CD, hardware-software integration protocols, and release management.
- Own uptime, safety, and performance benchmarks of deployed robots in customer environments.
Team Leadership
- Build, hire, and mentor a multidisciplinary engineering team across CV/ML, robotics software, controls, embedded systems, and mechanical/electrical engineering.
- Create a high-ownership engineering culture that ships fast without compromising safety or quality.
- Set OKRs, run performance reviews, and grow future technical leaders within the team.
Customer & Business Engagement
- Partner with founders on customer discovery, solution architecture for new deployments, and technical due diligence during fundraising.
- Represent the company's technology to customers, partners, investors, and regulatory stakeholders.
- Translate field feedback from regulated, high-mix, and throughput-critical deployments into roadmap priorities.
Innovation & IP
- Drive the company's IP strategy: patents, trade secrets, and publications where appropriate.
- Stay ahead of developments in foundation models for robotics, VLA models, learned manipulation, and edge AI, and assess their applicability to our platform.
Required Qualifications
- 7+ years of professional experience in the Computer Vision, Robotics, or AI industry, with a demonstrated track record of building and shipping products (not research-only roles).
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related field (PhD is a plus, not a requirement).
- Deep hands-on expertise in at least two of the following:
- Computer vision / perception (object detection, segmentation, pose estimation, 3D vision, sensor fusion)
- Robot autonomy (SLAM, localization, motion planning, navigation in dynamic environments)
- Robotic manipulation (grasping, arm control, force/torque control, end-effector design integration)
- Machine learning / deep learning for robotics (training pipelines, model optimization, edge deployment)
- Strong programming proficiency in C++ and Python; experience with ROS/ROS 2, and ML frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
- Experience deploying and maintaining robotic or AI systems in real-world production environments — factories, warehouses, labs, or field operations.
- Proven experience leading and scaling engineering teams (direct people management of 5+ engineers, or clear readiness to step into it).
- Strong systems thinking across hardware-software boundaries: compute selection, sensor integration, power, real-time constraints.
Preferred Qualifications
- Prior experience at a robotics or deep-tech startup, ideally through 0→1 product development and early customer deployments.
- Exposure to regulated environments (pharma/GMP, medical, food, or similar) and associated validation, traceability, and safety standards.
- Familiarity with functional safety standards for robotics (e.g., ISO 10218, ISO 3691-4, IEC 61508) and AMR/cobot safety practices.
- Experience with simulation toolchains (Gazebo, Isaac Sim, MuJoCo) and sim-to-real workflows.
- Experience with fleet management, edge-cloud architectures, OTA updates, and robot telemetry/observability.
- Track record of patents, publications, or open-source contributions in robotics/CV.
- Experience supporting fundraising or technical due diligence at an early-stage company.
What Success Looks Like (First 12 Months)
- 90 days: Full command of the current SakarBot stack; engineering processes and hiring plan in place; near-term reliability and deployment bottlenecks identified and prioritized.
- 6 months: Measurable improvement in deployment velocity and field reliability; key engineering hires onboarded; technology roadmap aligned with commercial pipeline.
- 12 months: Platform architecture proven across at least two distinct customer domains; engineering organization scaled and operating with strong ownership; technology story strengthening customer and investor confidence.
What We Offer
- A rare opportunity to shape the technology direction of a fast-growing robotics company at the ground level.
- Significant ownership: meaningful ESOPs commensurate with a founding-leadership role, plus competitive compensation.
- Direct collaboration with founders and full authority over technical decisions.
- The chance to ship real autonomous systems into production environments — not demos.
- A mission-driven, fast-iterating engineering culture.
Click on Apply to know more.