Human Factors Engineer, Teleoperation
About the role
We build exoskeleton-based teleoperation systems with force feedback, letting operators control robots that take on physically demanding industrial work. Operators see the remote scene through VR and feel it through haptics, often for a full shift.
We're looking for a human factors engineer to own the human side of that system: the work people do today, the body of the person wearing our exoskeleton, and how they perceive, decide and act through our interface. You'll turn what you find into requirements and design recommendations that shape our hardware and interface.
What you'll do
- Conduct video task analysis of industrial jobs on site, and capture human movement with motion capture (whole-body and upper-limb kinematics).
- Translate human motion and force data into requirements for robot and exoskeleton design, such as degrees of freedom and range of motion. Identify gaps between how people naturally perform tasks and what our system allows, and flag where those gaps limit which tasks are possible.
- Recommend compensation strategies where the system can't fully reproduce natural movement or perception. These can be physical (tooling, fixtures, task redesign) or part of the interface (sensory substitution, visual aids, assistive automation).
- Evaluate operator ergonomics in the exoskeleton: posture, fatigue, fit and force feedback, plus broader comfort and safety factors such as vibration, heat and pinch points. We expect you to spot the issues we haven't thought of yet.
- Design for the full range of operators, from body size to eye spacing, glasses and depth perception.
- Evaluate how operators perceive the remote scene, including depth perception, situational awareness and visual comfort. Assess and reduce motion sickness and visual fatigue in VR.
- Measure cognitive load and how it changes with task difficulty, latency and session length.
- Evaluate control mappings and modes, such as how operators coordinate the mobile base with arm movement, and study where visual, haptic and audio feedback work together or conflict.
- Design and run human subject studies and usability tests, analyze the results, and turn them into clear design recommendations.
- Shape onboarding, comfort settings and defaults so most people can work comfortably from their first session, not just experts.
- Gather feedback from operators in the field and turn it into improvements.
- Work closely with our mechanical design, controls and VR engineering teams.
What we're looking for
- MS in human factors, industrial engineering (human factors or ergonomics), biomechanics, engineering psychology, HCI, cognitive science, or a related field.
- Experience analyzing physical work and evaluating complex operator interfaces, covering ergonomics, workload, situational awareness and usability.
- Hands-on experience with motion capture and human movement analysis, including machine learning–based or markerless tracking tools.
- Working knowledge of visual perception, including depth perception and visually induced motion sickness.
- Strong skills in experimental design and statistics, and experience running human subject studies, including ethics review and informed consent.
- Proficiency in Python, R or MATLAB.
- Ability to turn research findings into practical recommendations engineers act on.
- Ability to build trust with frontline workers while observing and recording them on the job, and willingness to travel occasionally to industrial and partner sites.
Nice to have
We don't expect any one candidate to have all of these.
- PhD or published research on human movement, perception, cognition or human-machine interaction.
- Experience evaluating exoskeletons, wearables or haptic interfaces.
- Experience designing or evaluating operator interfaces that involve physical controls and force interaction: vehicles, heavy equipment, cockpits, control rooms, or teleoperated and surgical robots.
- VR/XR user research or spatial interaction design, and the ability to prototype in Unity, Unreal or Figma.
- Industrial ergonomics in manufacturing or assembly, or a background in occupational therapy or activity analysis.
- Background in motor control or the neuroscience of human movement.
- Familiarity with shared autonomy, human-automation interaction or trust in automation.
- Experience with eye tracking or physiological measures of workload.
- CPE or similar ergonomics certification.
About Mundane
Mundane builds force-feedback teleoperation for dangerous, hands-on work. A skilled tradesperson wears our exoskeleton and works through a robot on site, seeing in stereo and feeling the forces it meets, from outside the hazard. We're starting with energized electrical work and expanding across the trades. Every job also produces the force-rich data that robot learning is missing. We're a small, venture-backed team in Palo Alto.
Work authorization
Please tell us whether you're authorized to work in the US and whether you'll need visa sponsorship now or in the future.
Equal opportunity
Mundane is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants from every background and don't discriminate on the basis of any legally protected characteristic.