Field Services Technician - Robotics startup

About this role

TLDR: Field Service Technician, based on the East Coast or Midwest, covering customer sites in that region. Requires an initial onboarding/training period at Glacier's San Francisco HQ before starting in-region. Hands-on troubleshooting, repairs, and maintenance on deployed robotic systems, up to 75% travel, base comp $70K-$85K.

Hey, we're Glacier! Series A startup based in San Francisco tackling one of the world's most pressing problems: trash. Did you know that in the US, we send over half of our recyclables to the landfill? We're working to fix that. In doing so, we'll also be reducing carbon emissions, energy consumption, and depletion of natural resources.

Glacier builds custom sorting robots designed to sort apart recyclables as well as AI-powered business analytics that enable recyclers to superpower their plants and improve our society's circularity. From major CPG companies like Colgate and Amazon https://www.packworld.com/sustainable-packaging/recycling/article/22953724/colgatepalmolive-amazon-glacier to municipal recycling facilities, our clients trust us to turn recycling data into actionable insights. Our technology has been recognized as one of TIME's Best Inventions https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2025/7318523/glacier-recycling-robots/ and featured in a TIME documentary https://www.pmi.org/project-management-for-impact/sustainability-ai, TechCrunch, Fortune, and CBS.

As we scale our fleet across the US, we're looking for a Field Service Technician based on the East Coast or Midwest to help keep our robots operating reliably in the field. You'll be the hands-on expert responsible for troubleshooting, repairing, maintaining, and improving deployed systems while partnering closely with engineering to maximize robot uptime and customer success.

After an initial onboarding and training period at our San Francisco headquarters, you'll be based in your home region and cover customer sites across the East Coast and Midwest, primarily supporting preventative maintenance and installations. Expect regional travel to nearby deployments with periodic travel to other sites as the fleet grows.

This role reports to our Director of Technical Customer Success and is ideal for someone who enjoys solving mechanical and electrical problems, working directly with customers, and spending time in the field. You'll play a critical role in ensuring our robots perform reliably while helping improve future generations of the product through direct field feedback.

Responsibilities:

Keep Our Fleet Running

- Perform troubleshooting, preventative maintenance, and repairs on deployed robotic systems.

- Travel to customer sites to diagnose issues, complete repairs, and return robots to service as quickly as possible.

- Execute installations, upgrades, retrofits, and hardware improvements across the fleet.

- Perform basic network and connectivity troubleshooting to bring offline or degraded units back online.

- Manage a field parts kit and on-site spares — receive shipments, track usage, and coordinate replenishment with the inventory team.

- Monitor fleet health and proactively identify opportunities to improve reliability and uptime.

Partner with Engineering

- Document field issues thoroughly and provide actionable feedback to mechanical, electrical, and software engineering teams.

- Assist with testing prototypes, validating design improvements, and installing new hardware revisions.

- Support root cause investigations and continuous improvement efforts across the fleet.

Support Customers

- Build trusted working relationships with customer operators during site visits.

- Create and improve service documentation, work instructions, and troubleshooting guides.

- Ensure customer-impacting issues are tracked and resolved in a timely manner, coordinating customer-facing communications with the Customer Success team.

- Train operators on basic robot operation and maintenance best practices.

- Represent Glacier professionally during customer interactions and help build long-term customer relationships.

Build the Startup

- Help improve field service processes, tooling, and documentation as Glacier scales.

- Take ownership of ambiguous technical problems and drive them through resolution.

- Participate in an on-call rotation and support occasional nights, weekends, and off-hours work during deployments or critical customer issues.

What you bring:

- Associate's or Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Engineering Technology, Aviation Maintenance, Industrial Maintenance, Mechatronics, Automotive Service or Maintenance, or 4+ years of equivalent hands-on experience

- 2+ years troubleshooting electromechanical equipment in the field

- Strong mechanical and electrical troubleshooting skills

- Comfortable using hand tools, multimeters, and diagnostic equipment

- Experience reading mechanical drawings and electrical schematics

- Basic network and connectivity troubleshooting (routers/modems, cellular, checking whether a device is online)

- Excellent documentation and communication skills

- Comfortable working independently with minimal supervision

- Willingness to travel up to 75%, primarily across the East Coast and Midwest, including periodic domestic flights across the US.

- Valid driver's license, clean driving record, and reliable transportation for regional site visits

- Comfortable working in recycling facilities and industrial environments

Physical requirements & work environment:

- Able to lift and carry up to 50 lbs, stand and walk for full shifts, and work in bent, kneeling, or overhead positions.

- Comfortable working at height, on ladders/platforms, and around heavy moving machinery.

- Willing and able to work in active recycling facilities — noise, dust, and variable temperatures — with required PPE.

- Familiarity with industrial safety practices such as lockout/tagout (LOTO) and OSHA standards, or

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