About the role
About TACTILIA
At TACTILIA, we are building the industry-ready robotic hand that closes one of the biggest gaps in Physical AI. Spun out of SCHUNK, the global market leader in gripping technology, we combine a decade of robotic-hand expertise and real industrial access with the speed and ambition of a deep-tech startup.
This isn't a research project waiting for its first customer. We already have a product, customers are ready to use it, and we are launching now. Your work will directly shape the electronics, actuators, and embedded systems that make that possible.
You will join at the moment when the hard engineering questions become real product decisions: how do we make a highly capable robotic hand reliable, manufacturable, serviceable, and simple enough to deploy on a real shop floor?
The Role
As Senior Industrialization & Supply Chain Manager you will take ownership of the industrialization perspective throughout the product development process. Working closely with R&D, engineering and external manufacturing partners, you will ensure that manufacturing considerations are integrated into product design from the earliest development stages.
You will challenge existing design decisions where necessary, identify more suitable manufacturing technologies and processes, and drive the transition from engineering concepts and prototypes to manufacturable, scalable products.
This is a key role for someone who enjoys operating at the intersection of engineering, product development and manufacturing – and who is equally comfortable discussing technical trade-offs with R&D engineers, negotiating with suppliers and engaging directly with people on the production floor.
What you will do:
Drive industrialization from early product development: Work closely with R&D engineers from the beginning of the development process, integrating manufacturing expertise into design decisions and challenging concepts where necessary to improve manufacturability, cost and scalability.
Define manufacturing strategies and technologies: Evaluate, select and implement appropriate manufacturing technologies, processes and production methods for complex mechanical and electromechanical components.
Optimize product design for manufacturing: Identify opportunities to simplify designs, reduce component complexity, improve production feasibility and find more cost-effective manufacturing solutions without compromising product performance.
Drive design for manufacturing of electronics and sensorics hardware: Work with R&D on the hardware design of electronics and sensor systems (PCBs, sensor modules, cabling and assembly) with manufacturing and supply chain requirements in mind. Ensure designs are producible, testable, cost-efficient and robust in series production.
Develop external manufacturing partnerships: Identify and establish relationships with suitable manufacturing partners, particularly specialised SMEs. Work directly with company owners, technical experts and production teams to identify solutions and build reliable partnerships.
Build up the supply chain and procurement strategy: Define and implement the supply chain and procurement strategy together with SCHUNK SE and external partners. Leverage SCHUNK's established supplier network and purchasing expertise where it makes sense, and build additional sourcing channels, including second sources, for critical components.
Drive manufacturing readiness: Take ownership of manufacturing bottlenecks, technical feasibility, supplier lead times and production challenges, ensuring a smooth transition from prototypes to repeatable and scalable production.
Build industrialization capabilities: Establish manufacturing processes, methods and standards that support TACTILIA's future growth and increasing production requirements.
What you bring:
Several years (5 years) of experience in industrialization, manufacturing engineering, production engineering or a comparable technical role.
Broad knowledge of manufacturing technologies and processes, ideally involving complex mechanical, precision or electromechanical products.
Proven experience translating engineering designs into practical, cost-efficient and manufacturable products.
Experience with design for manufacturing of electronics and sensor hardware (PCB assembly, component selection, test strategies), ideally in an electromechanical or mechatronic product.
Experience identifying, evaluating and working with external manufacturing partners and suppliers.
Experience building or managing supply chains and procurement strategies, including working with a parent or group company's purchasing organization.
Comfortable engaging with different stakeholders, from R&D engineers and senior management to supplier owners, technicians and blue-collar production teams.
Entrepreneurial, pragmatic and hands-on mindset, with the ability to take ownership and drive topics independently.
Strong communication skills and the confidence to challenge engineering decisions constructively.
Fluent in English; German is an advantage.
The next chapter of robotics won't be built in a lab. It will be built by people who care about what happens when technology meets the real world.
At TACTILIA, you'll work on one of the hardest open problems in robotics: giving machines the dexterity, reliability and robustness to interact with the physical world at industrial scale.
The technology is taking shape, the team is being built, and the standards around robotic hands and their skills are still open. That means your decisions will have a lasting impact — not just on a product, but on what comes next for Physical AI.
Build the hand. Define the standard. Shape what comes next.
If you're excited by the challenge of building robotic hands that work reliably in the real world, we'd love to hear from you.
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