Lab Manager

At Serve Robotics, we’re reimagining how things move in cities. Our personable sidewalk robot is our vision for the future. It’s designed to take deliveries away from congested streets, make deliveries available to more people, and benefit local businesses. The Serve fleet has been delighting merchants, customers, and pedestrians along the way in Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Atlanta and Chicago while doing commercial deliveries. We’re looking for talented individuals who will grow robotic deliveries from surprising novelty to efficient ubiquity. WHO WE ARE We are tech industry veterans in software, hardware, and design who are pooling our skills to build the future we want to live in. We are solving real-world problems leveraging robotics, machine learning and computer vision, among other disciplines, with a mindful eye towards the end-to-end user experience. Our team is agile, diverse, and driven. We believe that the best way to solve complicated dynamic problems is collaboratively and respectfully. JOB OVERVIEW The Lab Manager oversees the daily execution of fleet maintenance, spare parts logistics, and the integrity of the sustaining data ecosystem. This role creates value by ensuring the Sustaining Technicians are optimized for high-throughput repair while maintaining a robust supply chain of mission-critical components. This role owns the repair process and failure documentation, resolves operational bottlenecks and provides the engineering team with clean, closed-loop data needed to drive fleet-wide hardware improvements. This position leads the development of new processes and standardized workflows to support increased fleet volume and complexity. JOB DUTIES - Lead the design and implementation of scalable "Return-to-Ready" workflows and depot SOPs - Ensure that as fleet volume increases, operational standards are established to maintain quality and safety. - Oversee the daily workflow of Sustaining Technicians, setting repair priorities based on fleet demand and depot capacity. - Audit all repair logs to ensure every field incident is correctly linked to a root cause, technical resolution, and part consumption record. - Manage the end-to-end procurement, stocking levels, and distribution of spare parts to ensure zero "downtime" caused by component shortages. - Synthesize raw closed-loop data into actionable "Heat Maps" and reliability reports for leadership, highlighting recurring failure modes and depot efficiency. - Identify areas where current manual processes need to be transitioned into automated or standardized systems to support rapid fleet expansion. - Interface with suppliers to track lead times for custom components and manage quality-control expectations for incoming spare parts. - Monitor and balance volume between regional depots to prevent backlogs and maintain high fleet availability. EXPERIENCE, QUALIFICATIONS, & SKILLS Required Experience, Qualifications, and Skills - 5-10 years of experience managing technical teams, maintenance operations, or hardware logistics. - Proven ability to develop and implement new operational frameworks in a fast-growing hardware or robotics environment. - Professional experience managing "closed-loop" systems or complex ticketing ecosystems where data accuracy is a primary KPI. - Professional experience in parts forecasting, procurement, and inventory control. - Ability to interpret technical failure modes to ensure technicians are logging data with high precision. Preferred Experience, Qualifications, and Skills - HaaS (Hardware as a Service) Experience: Prior work in a company managing a deployed fleet of vehicles. - Systems Evolution: Experience transitioning teams through different stages of growth, specifically moving from spreadsheet-based tracking to automated systems (ERP/CMMS). - Analytical Tools: Advanced proficiency in Excel, SQL, or BI platforms to visualize scaling trends. Additional Information - This role is based onsite in Los Angeles. - Must be comfortable being "hands-on" on the shop floor to identify where new processes are needed before drafting and implementing formal standards.