7percent Ventures

office • GBR • unknown • Не указана

Flexible, deformable materials are one of the last unsolved problems in physical automation. 7percent Ventures is working with an early-stage stealth startup building software-defined production systems leveraging intelligent material handling. The company is funded, building in London. We're looking for a hands-on founding engineer to design, instrument, and improve our first production cell from scratch. **What the first year looks like** Rather than a wish list, here's what you'd actually be measured on: * First 90 days - instrument the full workflow yourself, then come back with a ranked list of automation targets scored on minutes saved × frequency × feasibility × cost. Build and test two prototypes against the top of it. * By 6 months - two systems running in live production, each cutting handling time on its operation by 30% or more, without pushing defect rates up. * By 12 months - one system through 1,000 production cycles with documented failure modes, MTBF and maintenance needs, written up so another engineer could rebuild it from your drawings without asking you anything. **Responsibilities** * Design the layout and workflow of the first production cell * Instrument machines with sensors, cameras, lighting and job tracking * Capture real production data: cycle time, idle time, defects, rework, bottlenecks * Build jigs, fixtures, guides and operator-assist tools that make messy manual steps measurable and repeatable * Prototype handling systems for flexible materials - alignment, feeding, positioning, gripping, transfer between operations * Wire physical events into the software and data layer * Source equipment, components, tools and fabrication partners **What we're looking for** * ~3-8 years in mechatronics, automation, robotics, manufacturing systems or hardware prototyping. What you've built matters far more than how long you've been doing it. * You've personally taken physical systems from design → build → commissioning → operation. Not simulated, not specified for someone else to build. * Strong across mechanical, electrical and practical build work - comfortable with CAD, sensors, cameras, microcontrollers, edge devices and rapid prototyping * Enough software to make hardware talk to data: scripts, APIs, logging, simple machine-control interfaces * A real pull toward hard physical problems involving deformable or flexible materials * Side projects. Things you built because you wanted them to exist. * Systems thinker, strong bias to build, comfortable in early-stage ambiguity This is a founding role, not a graduate one. Mechatronics rewards generalists, and every generalist has gaps - we'd far rather hear about yours than watch you work around them. **Bonus** Flexible-material or web handling, soft robotics, end-effectors, feeding or alignment systems Machine vision, QC systems or test rigs in a production setting Physics simulation, digital twins, or sim-to-real workflows **Details** Full-time, London, hands-on in the production environment. Salary plus meaningful founding equity, reflecting experience and the founding nature of the role. Starting December 2026 (flexible).