Robotics Assembly Lead

Job Title: Robotics Assembly Lead

Department: Manufacturing – Robot Build

Employment Type: Full Time

FLSA: Exempt

Location: Houston, TX – Onsite

Reports To: Production Manager

Who We Are

Persona AI is developing and commercializing rugged, multi-purpose humanoid robots that perform real work. Persona AI founding team has a decades-long history in humanoid robotics, bionics, and product development delivering robust hardware that has touched the stars, worked miles below the surface of the ocean, and even roamed Disney Parks. Our mission is focused squarely on shipping beautiful, reliable products at massive scale, while building a customer-focused team to achieve these aims.

Why Join Persona AI

• We offer competitive compensation, a performance-based bonus, 99% employer covered medical benefits, early-stage equity, competitive PTO, and a company-wide paid winter break between December 24th and January 2nd.

• You'll shape technology that's redefining the possibilities of robotics and human interaction.

• Work alongside passionate teammates who value creativity, and continuous learning.

About the Role

You will run the floor and still build robots. Persona AI's humanoids weld, grind, and inspect in shipyards and heavy fabrication shops. Two cells build them — one assembles the hands and end effectors under magnification, the other the torsos, limbs, and load-bearing joints — and you will lead both.

This is a working lead role, not a desk job. Roughly two-thirds of your week is hands-on build and verification; the rest is sequencing work, qualifying assemblers, buying off first pieces, and keeping the Production Manager ahead of problems instead of behind them.

The two cells could not be more different. One works in newton-centimeters under a stereo microscope; the other works in foot-pounds with torque multipliers and an overhead crane. We do not expect you to arrive expert in both. We expect you to be genuinely strong in one, competent enough in the other to check work and spot trouble, and willing to become qualified in both. We will get you there.

You will need to have a familiarity with electronics and delicate cable assemblies.

If you have run a crew before — as a lead, a foreman, a shop supervisor, or a military maintenance NCO — and you still like building things yourself, this is that job. We are building machines that take on the worst jobs in heavy industry, directed by the crews who know that work best.

What You'll Be Doing

• Build. You carry a station when the line needs it, and you stay current on the work you are checking.

• Assign and sequence work across both cells against the build schedule, and say so early when the schedule and reality disagree.

• Perform first-piece and first-article verification and buy off finished assemblies against acceptance criteria — joint backlash, running torque, runout, alignment, tendon pre-tension, and range of motion — and keep torque tools and gauges in calibration.

• Train, qualify, and re-qualify assemblers on stations and tooling, and own the training records that say who is signed off on what.

• Own work instruction accuracy across both cells. When a step doesn't work as written, you get it corrected with manufacturing engineering rather than working around it — including on prototype and pilot builds, where documentation is thin and the sequence is still being worked out.

• Control matched-set and serialization discipline in both cells — the highest-consequence documentation step in the building — and serve as first escalation for damaged, nonconforming, or missing parts, including material review and kit readiness.

• Own floor safety for both cells — rigging and crane practice on the structural side.

• Report daily build status, constraints, and quality escapes to the Production Manager, and recommend hiring, leveling, and promotion decisions. Your read on a candidate's hands will carry weight.

What We're Looking For

• High school diploma or GED.

• Five or more years of hands-on mechanical assembly, machine build, or industrial maintenance in tolerance-critical work.

• Demonstrated depth in either fine-motor precision assembly or heavy precision mechanical assembly, working competence in the other, and the willingness to become qualified in both.

• Experience directing other people's work — as a lead, foreman, crew chief, shop supervisor, trainer, or military maintenance NCO — including checking their work and telling them when it's wrong.

• Fluency with mechanical drawings, work instructions, bills of materials, and precision measuring tools, and the ability to teach all of it.

• Judgment about when to stop work. A lead who never stops the line and a lead who stops it constantly are both expensive.

• Clear communication — you are the interface between the floor and engineering — plus basic computer skills for build and training records.

• Availability for overtime and weekend work during production pushes, paid at 1.5x, and willingness to flex across shifts as the build schedule requires.

Bonus Skills

• Experience standing up a new assembly line or cell, or bringing a new product into production.

• Both fine-motor and heavy precision assembly experience in the same career — rare, and worth a lot here.

• Material review board, nonconformance, or root cause analysis experience, or ownership of a torque tool and gauge calibration program.

• Overhead crane, hoist, forklift, or rigging certification, and the ability to train others on it.

• Military maintenance supervision — machinist's mate, hull technician, maintenance NCO, or avionics or ordnance chief.

Physical Requirements

• Handling components and assemblies weighing up to 50 lbs, occasionally throughout a shift. Hoists, lift assists, and team lifts are available and expected for heavier assemblies.

• Moving between bench stations and the structural line for the duration of a shift, accessing assembly points at varying heights and orientations, involving frequent bending, reaching, and kneeling.

• Sustained fine motor manipulation of small components and precision hand tools, including work under magnification, while wearing required PPE and ESD equipment. All of the above can be performed with or without reasonable accommodation.

Persona AI is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.