Job Title: Welding Engineer, Robotics
Department: Operations
Employment Type: Full-Time
FLSA Status: Exempt
Location: Houston, TX
Travel: 10%
Who We Are
Persona is building humanoid robots for the most demanding environments in heavy industry — shipyards, steel mills, fabrication facilities, and offshore platforms — performing welding, grinding, maintenance, inspection, and material-handling work that is dangerous, physically demanding, and increasingly difficult to staff.
We are backed by leading strategic and financial investors and engaged with global industrial leaders across Korea, Japan, the United States, and Singapore. Korea is the center of gravity for our early commercial strategy, anchored by relationships with the world’s leading shipbuilders and steelmakers. Our work spans both the robot platform itself and the systems, partners, and playbooks required to deploy it at scale.
Why Join Persona?
We offer competitive compensation, a performance-based bonus, 100% employer covered medical benefits for most healthcare plans, early-stage equity, competitive PTO, and company-wide paid winter break between December 24th and January 2nd.
You’ll shape technology that’s redefining the possibilities of robotics and human interaction.
Work alongside passionate teammates who value creativity, and continuous learning.
About the Role
We are looking for a Welding Engineer to join our Applications team who has a strong understanding of what it takes to perform high-quality welds through manual and robotic welding processes. But you want to deploy that knowledge to a new platform, the humanoid robot. In short, we need someone to own the welding aspects of our application development.
What You Will Be Doing
Develop and refine motion paths for the welding humanoid robot.
Optimize weld parameters (voltage, amperage, shielding gas) to minimize thermal distortion and maximize penetration.
Collaborate with governing bodies to develop standards and certification processes for the humanoid robot.
Identify required sensors and tooling for performing welding tasks.
Translate welding domain knowledge into requirements for perception, manipulation, and controls teams.
What We Are Looking For:
M.S. or B.S. in Welding Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering, or Manufacturing Engineering.
5+ years of experience in a welding operations role in heavy equipment manufacturing.
Hands-on experience with MIG, GMAW (Gas Metal Arc Welding), and FCAW (Flux-Core Arc Welding) welding processes across a range of materials and welding positions.
Ability to thrive operating in a fast-paced engineering environment with a lot of autonomy.
Strong ability to create documentation, welding processes, and reports to aid in certification and qualification.
Comfort with ambiguity and first-of-a-kind applications. This role requires building processes from scratch, not maintaining established ones.
Bonus Skills:
Strong working knowledge of industry welding codes, standards, and the required documentation for certification and qualification.
Experience designing and implementing robotic welding algorithms such as touch sensing, through-the-arc seam tracking, and laser seam tracking.
Experience with verification testing of weld path accuracy and repeatability.
Operational experience in robotic welding or in demanding industrial environments.
Project management experience.
Persona is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.