About the company
Relocalize is reimagining the food supply chain. Our mission is to decarbonize and decentralize food production with automated, hyperlocal micro-factories that cut food waste, eliminate trucking and slash CO2 emissions. We are a clean-tech startup scaling breakthrough automation technology. By co-locating production and packaging at distribution centers, we make supply chains cleaner, faster and more resilient.
What you’ll do
You will own the robotics and controls of our autonomous food and beverage micro-factories. Roughly 65% of the role is robot programming, controls and cell commissioning; the other 35% is broader automation work: integrating, troubleshooting and improving the whole production system around the robots.
Reporting directly to the CTO, you will join a small, hands-on engineering team as an individual contributor. You will work on-site with our technicians to run the system, find what limits uptime and cycle time, then design and validate the next iteration in our Montreal lab before rolling it out to our factories.
You might be an experienced robotics integrator looking for a purpose-driven career change, or a young controls engineer looking for challenge and growth. Either way, if you like making robots do real work in production, we want to talk to you.
Responsibilities
Robotics & controls (about 65%)
- Program, optimize and maintain our ABB robot cells (RAPID), on both IRC5 and OmniCore controllers.
- Build and use RobotStudio stations for offline programming, reach and payload studies, cycle-time analysis and virtual commissioning before changes reach the floor.
- Lead robotics for new cell deployments, from robot selection (payload, reach, inertia) through layout, programming, commissioning and handover to operations.
- Integrate robots with PLCs, safety systems, end-of-arm tooling and third-party equipment over industrial networks (e.g. EtherNet/IP).
- Design and validate robot safety: SafeMove configurations, guarding, interlocks and risk assessments to CSA Z434 / ISO 10218.
- Build robust error handling and recovery so the cell keeps running with minimal operator intervention.
Automation & system integration (about 35%)
- Travel to our Relo factories in Canada and the USA to deploy, support production, diagnose failures and get the line back online.
- Turn field learnings into improvements, test them in our Montreal lab and integrate them into the product.
- Collect and analyze machine data (cycle times, faults, downtime) to prioritize what to fix next.
- Work with the mechanical design team on tooling, fixtures and cell layout so designs are robot-friendly.
- Track developments in robotics, automation and machine learning and bring the promising ones into our roadmap.
What you bring to the team
- Education: Bachelor’s degree or diploma in automation, electrical, mechatronics or mechanical engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
- Experience: 3+ years programming, commissioning and troubleshooting industrial robots in a production environment.
- Mobility: Willing and able to travel up to one week per month within Canada and the USA.
Technical expertise
- Industrial robotics: Strong hands-on programming of industrial robots. ABB (RAPID, IRC5 / RobotWare 6, OmniCore / RobotWare 7) is a major asset; KUKA or FANUC experience is welcome.
- Simulation: Advanced ABB RobotStudio skills: station building, offline programming, reach and payload validation, cycle-time optimization and virtual commissioning.
- Large robots: Experience with heavy-payload, long-reach robots (e.g. IRB 4600 / 5710 / 5720 class), including load identification, tool and work-object calibration, and motion tuning.
- Controls: PLC programming (Preferably Rockwell), HMI development and industrial networks (EtherNet/IP). Able to read and mark up electrical schematics.
- Safety: Practical knowledge of machine and robot safety (CSA Z434, ISO 10218, ISO 13849). ABB SafeMove experience is a strong asset.
- Assets: Grippers and end-of-arm tooling, Python or similar for data analysis and code automation, CAD literacy (Onshape is a plus).
Mindset & approach
- Equally comfortable with a teach pendant, a laptop and a wrench: You can write clean, structured RAPID at a desk, then go to the cell and touch up targets, swap a sensor or trace a fault on the I/O.
- True ownership: You are not just a robot programmer. You do whatever it takes to keep the factory running, whether that means recovering a crashed robot, diagnosing a network fault or troubleshooting an unfamiliar third-party system. Then you use the lesson to make the next version more robust.
- Simulate first, test smart: You validate changes virtually before risking production, and you document what you learn so the team doesn’t solve the same problem twice.
- Execution & drive: You thrive in a fast-paced startup, manage your own time well and work independently on a small team.
What good looks like
- Measurable gains in robot cell uptime and cycle time
- New robot cells commissioned on schedule and running reliably
- Fewer operator interventions thanks to better error recovery
- Respectful, collaborative feedback in design discussions
- Continuous improvement and personal and professional development
- A real passion for our cause: reducing carbon emissions
Perks
- A fun, friendly work environment with flexible hours
- Health benefits
- A mentor
If you want robots doing real work for a real mission, we’d like to meet you.