Lead Systems Engineer

Our Company

MISO develops technology that elevates human lives in the commercial kitchen.

We’re engineering production-ready robotic systems that tightly integrate perception, real-time decision making, and electromechanical controls to automate the most dangerous, least desirable tasks in food preparation. That means building software that understands the physical world as it actually behaves, and hardware that can execute precisely in the face of chaos. Success is measured in uptime, throughput, and trust from our customers, not demos.

Our flagship platform, Flippy, is already operating in high-volume restaurant kitchens across seven states. Zippy, our Kitchen Intelligence software centralizes all operational data in our broader ecosystem, expanding the role of AI enabled autonomy in real-world operations. Backed by industry leaders, including Ecolab (NYSE: ECL), Miso combines the stability of a proven commercial product with the technical depth and ambition of a company passionately innovating to solve foundational problems in robotics and restaurant operations.

If you’re excited by hard constraints, real customers, and the challenge of making software and machines perform reliably where failure isn’t an option, you’ll find meaningful problems to work on here.

The Role
The Lead Systems Engineer is responsible for defining, integrating, verifying, and optimizing the end-to-end system architecture for Miso Robotics' autonomous robotic platforms. This role serves as the technical leader responsible for ensuring seamless integration across mechanical, electrical, embedded, software, cloud, and AI systems while driving system performance, reliability, safety, and product quality from concept through production and field deployment. In addition, this position leads Miso's Design Verification & Systems Engineering (DVSE) team, providing technical leadership, mentoring, and execution oversight to ensure successful product releases and continuous improvement across verification, validation, and systems engineering processes. 

Key Responsibilities

Systems Architecture & Requirements

• Define, own, and evolve the overall system architecture for Miso Robotics' robotic platforms, ensuring alignment across mechanical, electrical, embedded, software, cloud, and AI subsystems.
• Translate customer, operational, and business requirements into measurable system requirements and technical specifications.
• Develop and maintain system requirements documentation, interface control documents (ICDs), architecture diagrams, and technical specifications using systems engineering best practices.
• Establish and maintain complete requirements traceability from customer needs through design, implementation, verification, validation, and production.

Verification & Validation (V&V)

• Own the end-to-end hardware and software verification and validation (V&V) strategy across all product releases.
• Develop system-level verification plans, test strategies, procedures, and traceability matrices spanning hardware, firmware, software, and cloud services.
• Define verification acceptance criteria and entry/exit criteria for unit, integration, system, regression, and production acceptance testing.
• Lead system integration efforts, coordinating cross-functional engineering teams to validate subsystem interfaces and end-to-end robotic performance.
• Develop and improve automated and manual testing frameworks, including Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) and Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) environments.
• Track and report key quality metrics including test coverage, defect density, verification status, and release readiness.

Reliability, Risk & Compliance

• Lead Miso's system reliability engineering program by defining reliability requirements, targets, and system performance objectives.
• Conduct reliability growth analysis and monitor KPIs including Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), field failure rates, and other reliability metrics.
• Analyze field performance and customer data to identify trends, drive root cause investigations, and implement corrective actions.
• Lead system-level risk management activities including FMEAs, hazard analysis, and risk mitigation planning.
• Ensure products meet applicable robotics, industrial automation, safety, and regulatory standards including ISO, UL, RIA, and other compliance requirements.

Configuration & Product Lifecycle Management

• Lead configuration management efforts to maintain baseline integrity across hardware, firmware, software, and cloud releases.
• Support the complete product lifecycle from concept through design, manufacturing, deployment, field support, and end-of-life.
• Collaborate with Manufacturing and Operations to ensure designs support scalability, serviceability, manufacturability, and long-term reliability.

Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Lead the Design Verification & Systems Engineering (DVSE) team, providing technical leadership, mentorship, and day-to-day guidance to systems and verification engineers.
• Prioritize team workload, assign engineering tasks, and ensure execution aligns with product milestones and company objectives.
• Review and approve system requirements, test plans, verification procedures, validation reports, and engineering documentation.
• Foster a culture of engineering excellence, accountability, continuous improvement, and technical rigor.
• Partner closely with Mechanical, Electrical, Firmware, Software, AI, Cloud, Product Management, Manufacturing, Field Operations, and Program Management teams to successfully deliver robotic systems.
• Communicate technical risks, project status, and system readiness clearly to engineering leadership and executive stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Mechatronics, Computer Science, or a related engineering discipline.
• 5+ years of systems engineering experience supporting complex multidisciplinary products (or equivalent combination of education and experience).
• Demonstrated experience leading systems engineering, integration, verification, and validation efforts for robotics, automation, embedded systems, or similar complex products.
• Experience working with Linux environments, SQL, and Python and/or C++.
• Experience developing system requirements, interface documentation, verification plans, and requirements traceability.
• Experience performing system-level FMEAs, hazard analysis, reliability engineering, and risk management.
• Working knowledge of ISO, UL, RIA, or similar robotics and industrial safety standards.
• Strong understanding of embedded systems, electronics, software, cloud infrastructure, networking, and complex electromechanical systems.
• Excellent analytical, troubleshooting, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, highly collaborative product development environment.

Preferred

• Robotics experience strongly preferred
• Master's or Ph.D. in Systems Engineering, Robotics, or a related engineering discipline.
• Experience leading engineering teams or mentoring systems, verification, or test engineers.
• Experience with Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL), Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), and automated testing frameworks.
• Experience with requirements management and systems engineering tools (e.g., DOORS, Jama, Polarion, Cameo, MagicDraw, or similar).
• Knowledge of Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Reliability (DFR), and Design for Serviceability (DFS).
• Experience analyzing field performance data to improve product reliability and customer satisfaction.
• Must be able to work onsite at Miso Robotics headquarters in Pasadena, California. 
• Occasionally lift and move equipment weighing up to 25 pounds.
• May require occasional travel to customer sites, manufacturing partners, or field deployments.

Compensation 

$140,000- $160,000 plus benefits

The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base salary range for candidates residing in the Los Angeles Metro area and excludes additional earnings such as bonus and benefits. If your salary requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply.

At Miso Robotics, we are committed to fostering an inclusive, diverse, and equitable workplace where every team member is valued and respected. We believe that diversity in our team drives innovation and creativity, which is why we strive to create a welcoming environment for everyone, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or veteran status.