What the work actually involves

You are the human in the loop for a fleet of robots running real commercial tasks. A typical day means bringing robots up through a prescribed startup sequence, deploying them into an active environment, then watching them repeat the same motion hundreds of times while you catch what went wrong — a gripper that slipped, a perception failure, a joint that sounds different than it did yesterday. Each of those observations becomes a Jira ticket that an engineer will read without you in the room, so the quality of your written description is the deliverable. You will also handle teleoperation equipment under safety protocol, run shutdown procedures, keep the work area and component inventory in order, and flag process improvements that only someone standing next to the hardware all day would notice.

What the platform screens for

micro1 is staffing this on behalf of a robotics customer, and the screen is less about robotics theory than about whether you can sustain careful attention across a long, monotonous shift and describe a failure precisely enough to be actionable. Expect probing on:

  • Concrete examples of hands-on, protocol-driven work — lab, fabrication, maintenance, clinical, or field settings all count
  • How you distinguish a reproducible bug from a one-off, and what detail you put in a ticket
  • Willingness to follow a procedure exactly even when you think you know a shortcut
  • Honest confirmation of the physical demands: full days standing and moving, lifting up to 50 lbs
  • Genuine availability for in-person work in San Francisco

Logistics

This engagement is onsite in San Francisco, CA — it is not remote or async, and there is no hybrid arrangement described in the listing. Work is structured around project days in an active commercial environment, so hours track the customer's operating schedule rather than your own. Engagement is as a contractor. Observed pay for this listing sits in the $10–20/hr band, stated as posted and not guaranteed; confirm the rate and expected weekly hours with the recruiter before committing, since the physical nature of the role makes shift length material. A recent academic or practical background in robotics or mechatronics is preferred but explicitly not required.