About the role
About Tutor
We believe robots are the biggest lever we have to making the physical world a better, more affordable place. But robots are a rounding error in our society: nearly nine out of ten American factories and warehouses don’t even have a single robot, and robots have yet to make their way into our homes or places of business.
Tutor Intelligence is changing that.
Tutor is a robotics research and deployment company, building generally capable robot hardware and artificial intelligence to enable robots to go where no robots have gone before. Our robots range from a semi-humanoid with frontier dexterity approaching the human form to workhorses that do back-breaking work, moving boxes, pallets, and bulk goods for businesses from family-owned manufacturers to some of the largest brands in the world. Tutor robots are manufactured at scale and operate as a network, combining the whole fleet’s learned experience to train ever more capable robot artificial intelligence.
Founded at MIT and headquartered in Watertown, MA, our team is full stack: we design and manufacture robot hardware, train our own models, work directly with the smallest and largest end-customers, and maintain our fleet across the United States. We’re a team of researchers, engineers, technicians, operators, and sellers who love building things and solving hard problems.
Our mission is grand: robots everywhere, for the common good, raising the standard of living across North America, and then the world.
Tutor Intelligence builds and deploys autonomous palletizing and case-pick robots at customer facilities across the US. Our Watertown, MA manufacturing facility is scaling robot production, and we're looking for a Production Supervisor to lead our robot assembly and test line.
The Role
You'll lead a team of assembly and test technicians building robot subassemblies. You'll own daily output, quality, and safety, and you'll help build the processes our scale-up depends on. This is a working leadership role: you'll be on the floor and jump in with the team when needed. You'll report to the Head of Manufacturing.
What You'll Do
- Lead, schedule and develop a team of production technicians to hit daily and weekly build targets
- Own line performance: throughput, first-pass yield, on-time delivery and labor efficiency
- Run daily start-up meetings, track KPIs, and escalate risks early
- Drive root cause and corrective action on build and test failures with Production Engineering
- Create and maintain work instructions, standard work and visual management
- Bring engineering changes (ECOs) onto the line on schedule without disrupting output
- Enforce safety, ESD and 5S standards, plus traceability in our MES (ION)
- Hire, cross-train and coach technicians, and build future leads
- Lead a shift independently and hand off cleanly to the other shift supervisor as we move to two shifts
- Train and certify new and contract technicians quickly using standard work, skills matrices and sign-offs
- Make sure every ECO and redline is posted at the station, briefed to the team, and verified across all robots in WIP
- Own shift attendance and expectations, holding the team accountable fairly and consistently
- Take field and test defects back to the line, correct the cause, and confirm the fix on every affected robot
What You Bring
- 3+ years supervising technicians in electromechanical assembly (robotics, automation or capital equipment preferred)
- Hands-on with mechanical assembly, cable harnesses, and basic electrical troubleshooting and test; willing to jump in on the line alongside the team
- A track record of improving a line, not just running one, and building processes where none exist yet
- A quality-first mindset: you protect first-pass yield and will stop the line when something is wrong
- Working knowledge of Lean methods and structured problem solving (5 Whys, fishbone, 8D)
- Comfort with an MES/ERP and managing by data
- A people developer who gives direct feedback and grows their team
- Clear communicator who works well with Engineering and Supply Chain and stays calm under pressure
- Experience leading a large contract or temporary workforce through high turnover
- Able to spot workmanship defects such as bad crimps, swapped wires and poor strain relief, and willing to stop a robot from moving forward until it is right
- Comfortable working a second shift
Nice to Have
- Experience at a startup or on a new production line ramp
- Lean Six Sigma certification
- Experience with industrial robot arms or mobile robots
- IPC/WHMA-A-620 or IPC-A-610 certification
- A degree or certification in a technical field
Why Tutor?
Whether you’re designing robots, closing deals, running deployments, or creating the processes that help us scale, your work doesn’t sit on a shelf. It shows up on real production floors, making physical work safer and more affordable.
Our team is driven by curiosity and a genuine love of building. Everyone here takes real ownership, learns fast, and holds a high bar while having each other’s backs. If you love hard problems and creating things that didn’t exist before, you’ll fit right in.
This is a non-exempt (hourly) position, eligible for overtime at 1.5x. Final pay within the range is based on experience and skills.