Director Technical Support & Field Service

Who We Are: We build the intelligence that lets robots sense, reason, and act in the real world, moving beyond the lab and into everyday industrial settings like warehouses and factories. Our technology closes the automation gaps that traditional systems can't solve. We are on a mission to redefine how physical work gets done, and we're looking for curious, bold thinkers to help shape the future of robotics with us. Overview: Our AI-driven pick-and-place and returns-handling cells combine robot arms, adaptive force-controlled grippers, AI vision and a safety cabinet, all driven by Cortex, our vision-language-action model. They run in live warehouse and logistics operations across the EU and US, and our deployed fleet is growing from around 50 cells to several hundred. Customer uptime now needs a dedicated owner. We're looking for a Director of Technical Support to build our customer-facing support function, covering everything from a customer opening a ticket to a cell back at target uptime. This is a player-coach role: you will stay hands-on technically while you hire the team and put the systems in place. You will work closely with our Hardware Product Engineering and Supply Chain leads. Your Responsibilities: Support Desk & Remote Diagnostics • Stand up the support desk, including ticket intake, triage, severity tiers, response and restore targets and an SLA framework • Define a coverage model for the EU and a plan for US time zones as the fleet grows • Build remote diagnostics on top of Cortex telemetry so most issues are triaged and fixed without a site visit Escalation & Field Service • Run a closed escalation loop with Engineering, so field failures are triaged, root-caused and fixed in the product • Coordinate field service, including dispatch, on-site playbooks and third-party field technicians where needed • Identify the top recurring field failures and get them onto the product roadmap Spares, RMA & Customer Enablement • Own the customer-facing RMA process and spare parts availability at customer sites, working with Supply Chain on procurement and logistics • Build customer onboarding, operator training, documentation and a knowledge base so customers can handle routine issues themselves Metrics & Team • Own fleet uptime, MTTR, first-contact and first-visit resolution, SLA attainment and CSAT, and drive them up as the fleet grows • Hire and lead the first support and field engineers • Take front-line support duty off the founders and wider team Qualifications: Education and Experience • 8+ years in technical support, field service or after-sales for complex hardware, including several years leading teams • A track record of building a technical support, field service or after-sales function from scratch for a deployed hardware product as the installed base grew from tens to hundreds of sites • Hands-on experience setting up remote diagnostics and telemetry, ticketing and SLAs, escalation to engineering, spares and RMA, and field service coordination • Degree in mechatronics, electrical or mechanical engineering, automation or a related field, or equivalent practical experience Skills • Technical depth in mechatronics, controls or robotics, plus comfort working with software and telemetry data • Strong command of service metrics such as MTTR, uptime, SLA attainment and first-contact resolution • Calm, structured escalation management with customers and internal teams • Fluent German and English • Willingness to travel to customer sites Additional Skills / Nice to Have • Experience in robotics, warehouse automation, AMRs or industrial automation, or in service for other deployed complex hardware such as energy storage, drones, medical or lab equipment, semiconductor equipment or machinery • Exp