Full-Time

Principal – Systems/Mechanical Engineering

HDS Global

HDS Global

51-200 employees

Direct-to-consumer online grocery delivery

No salary listed

Boston, MA, USA

In Person

Category
Mechanical Engineering (2)
,
Requirements
  • BS in Engineering; mechanical or electrical preferred
  • 15 years working in hardware new product development involving electrical and mechanical assemblies and mechanisms, controls systems, and automation/robotics
  • Ability to get into design details with the rest of the design team, having a deep understanding of mechanical and electrical engineering, with knowledge of controls engineering and software engineering
  • Ability to troubleshoot and diagnose problems with mechatronic systems
  • Experience leading teams, delegating tasks, creating team schedules, and setting priorities
  • Significant knowledge of mechanical design, drawing standards, mechanical tolerances and stack-ups, fabrication techniques
  • Significant knowledge of electronics; ability to understand electrical schematics
  • Experience with optical, proximity, IR, LIDAR, ultrasonic, RFID and other sensing technologies typically used in robotics
  • Solid understanding of the general scope of HW and SW product development activities
  • Understanding of and experience with various safety and regulatory compliance requirements (CE, UL, robot, 13849, 62061, etc)
  • Familiarity with wifi networks
  • Hands-on experience building prototypes
  • Experience with large-scale industrial automation system implementation a major plus
  • Solidworks experience a plus; Onshape experience a major plus
  • Experience with SW development, SQA, release practices; coding experience not needed but a major plus
  • Demonstrated ability to architect complex mechatronic and enterprise-level systems (implied by responsibilities)
  • Willingness to operate at system-level across mechanical, electrical, controls, and software domains
Responsibilities
  • Develop, track, and be responsible for creating system-level engineering specifications from market/business requirements
  • Lead a team, consisting of direct and/or matrixed reports
  • Develop complex system/product development plans
  • Find and fill in all the gaps that are not captured uniquely by hardware, software, or controls disciplines
  • Develop interface specifications between system components
  • Create system-level Theory of Operations documents touching on mechanical, electrical, controls, and software
  • Develop system level safety architecture with Head of Controls and Head of Electrical
  • Help architect complex mechatronic and enterprise-level systems
  • Work closely with design engineers during all phases of product development to ensure that the mechanical, electrical, controls, and software systems will operate properly together as a single, complex system
  • Establish system reliability/availability/maintainability metrics
  • Establish standards for development of complex systems and how we will document system interfaces, communication protocols
  • Ensure that products are designed with future needs in mind (e.g., processor selection, motor sizing, board expandability, etc)
  • Conduct system-level design reviews, DFMEA, risk assessments
  • Serve as our expert and go-to person regarding how everything works together
  • Participate in hardware and software design reviews and provide valuable and significant insights
  • Identify system needs/gaps before these create problems; anticipate areas of difficulty that require more attention
  • Lead system-level regulatory and safety compliance efforts
Desired Qualifications
  • None

HDS Global runs a direct-to-consumer online store for groceries, general merchandise, and well-known brands, delivering fresh items to customers' homes. It uses RoboFS, a proprietary automated fulfillment system that uses AI and robotics to pick and pack orders, aiming to reduce manual labor and costs and speed up delivery. RoboFS automates fulfillment in company centers so orders are assembled quickly and accurately and delivered with no fees or tips. The company differentiates itself with a no-fee, no-tip model backed by founder Louis Borders’ retail and e-commerce experience, aiming to provide fresher groceries and rapid, affordable home delivery.

Company Size

51-200

Company Stage

Early VC

Total Funding

$46M

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Founded

2012

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Jeffrey Rayport and Chris Hofmeister joined executives on October 20, 2025, boosting strategy.
  • New Lowell, Massachusetts automation lab opened for customer testing and innovation.
  • Toyota and Ingram Micro partnerships validate RoboFS across multiple industries.

What critics are saying

  • Amazon Fresh and Walmart+ dominate 60% U.S. online grocery market with superior scale.
  • HDS burns capital since 2013 with only $5M funding and no revenue by 2026.
  • Louis Borders' Webvan bankruptcy erodes investor confidence without profitability proof.

What makes HDS Global unique

  • RoboFS delivers patented end-to-end robotic fulfillment for groceries and merchandise.
  • Proprietary tray storage and AI-driven picking enable touchless, high-throughput automation.
  • Hyper-dense warehouses support 100,000 SKUs with fresher-than-store goods.

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Benefits

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

401(k) Retirement Plan

Company Equity

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

0%

1 year growth

-1%

2 year growth

-1%
Cision
Oct 20th, 2025
Business Strategist Jeffrey Rayport and Robotics Lead Chris Hofmeister Join HDS Global as the Company Scales Operations

Business strategist Jeffrey Rayport and robotics lead Chris Hofmeister join HDS Global as the company scales operations. News provided by. HDS Global New executive hires and robotics lab expansion position HDS Global for accelerated growth and market-scale deployment of its RoboFS fulfillment platform PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ - HDS Global, a leading provider of next generation robotic fulfillment systems, today announced the addition of two seasoned leaders to its executive team: Jeffrey Rayport, a Harvard Business School professor and growth strategy expert, who will serve as Chief of Strategy, and Chris Hofmeister, formerly with Walmart Advanced Systems & Robotics (ASR), who joins as Senior Vice President of Robotics Engineering. The appointments come as HDS opens a new automation lab and prepares for scaled commercial deployment of its RoboFS platform. "We're excited to welcome Jeffrey and Chris to our team," said Louis Borders, Founder and CEO of HDS Global. "Jeffrey adds strategic insight and fast-scaling expertise, while Chris brings the engineering discipline and vision to take RoboFS to market at scale." RoboFS is HDS's patented, end-to-end, robotic fulfillment system designed to meet the complex needs of global manufacturers and distributors across e-commerce, automobiles, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods. The system combines high throughput automation with AI-driven decisioning to deliver touchless, cost-efficient fulfillment. HDS counts Toyota and Ingram Micro among its early partners. Jeffrey Rayport joins as Chief of Strategy, guiding HDS's commercial strategy and scaling initiatives. Rayport is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and a widely respected expert in growth-stage technology ventures. He previously served as an Operating Partner at Castanea Partners, a private equity firm specializing in retail and consumer brands, and a Senior Partner at Monitor Deloitte. Rayport holds an A.B. from Harvard College, an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, and an A.M. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. "RoboFS/HDS Global is addressing one of retail and fulfillment's longest-standing challenges - building an end-to-end, single stack solution that's elegant, flexible, and cost-effective while serving a wide range of use cases," said Rayport. "I'm thrilled to join a team that's poised to create outsized value for ecommerce players across a vast array of industries and brands." Chris Hofmeister joins as SVP Robotics Engineering, where he will lead product development and go-to-market strategy for RoboFS. Previously, he served as Senior Director at Walmart Advanced Systems & Robotics (formerly Alert Innovation, where Hofmeister served as Vice President of IP & New Technology Development prior to its acquisition by Walmart), and holds over 100 U.S. patents in robotics and other aspects of capital equipment. Hofmeister earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State, an M.S. in Engineering from Northeastern University, and a J.D. from Massachusetts School of Law. "I'm energized to lead the HDS/RoboFS technical team to realize Louis' vision for a highly configurable, end-to-end automation solution for e-commerce and other fulfillment applications," said Hofmeister. To support its development efforts and customer onboarding, HDS has opened a new automation lab in Lowell, Massachusetts. The facility showcases RoboFS's proprietary tray storage and automated pick & pack technologies, offering customers a hands-on environment to test, refine, and innovate in partnership with the HDS team. For more information visit: www.hdsglobal.com or explore the technology that powers HDS at www.robofs.com. SOURCE HDS Global

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TechCrunch
Apr 19th, 2021
HDS, from the Borders and Webvan founder, raises $3M as it gears up to launch its robot-run grocery and general merchandise play

The online grocery market is poised to get a little more crowded in the next several months, with the launch of a startup led by a veteran founder who has taken big hits from Amazon in the past, but now hopes to come back swinging with the help of an army of robots.