Robotics and physical AI companies
Seed through scaled product orgs building AMRs, cobots, humanoids, surgical systems, drones, or industrial automation. First robotics hire through Head of Robotics.
Employers
If the seat is scarce — Staff robotics software, perception lead, Head of Autonomy, applied scientist who has shipped on hardware — you need a team that will challenge the spec and then work the actual market. Not another agency that treats robotics as a keyword filter.
Who this is for
Seed through scaled product orgs building AMRs, cobots, humanoids, surgical systems, drones, or industrial automation. First robotics hire through Head of Robotics.
Manufacturers, logistics operators, medtech, and defense-adjacent programs that need hybrid talent their current agencies cannot describe, let alone reach.
Your team is excellent at platform hiring. Robotics is a different network. We run as an extension for a defined set of reqs — not a replacement for your function.
The req has been open for months, the last slate was mid-level, or the hire is quiet because it changes the org chart. Those are the calls we want.
Full-time placements for people who will own a subsystem — Staff and Principal robotics engineers, perception leads, applied scientists, directors of autonomy, robotics PMs.
When a milestone is stuck on one specialist — controls, sim, CV on hardware — we staff the gap without dropping the bar. Same screening. Shorter clock.
Confidential VP / Head of Robotics, Head of AI, founding-team seats. Mapped market, calibrated slate, a team that will push back on an un-hireable spec.
A defined set of robotics reqs, run next to your TA team. Useful when volume is real and internal bandwidth is not.
How we fill a role
Safety certs, on-robot time, plant travel, visa posture, what failed last time. Vague briefs produce vague slates.
Not “people with ROS on LinkedIn.” Adjacent companies, labs, and quiet operators. We work every major robotics hub, not just the obvious names.
Why they fit this stack. Where they will stretch. Comp reality. You approve every introduction. If the slate is thin, you hear that early.
What you should expect from a specialist
Large retained shops own C-suite robotics. Long-running industrial firms own humanoid and factory practices. Category boutiques sell speed metrics and database sizes. Most of that market talks about Kalman filters and then quotes a headcount.
Onyx Automation is built differently. Our recruiters work one stack — robotics and physical AI — backed by 25 years of technical and operator recruiting at Onyx Staffing. Direct hire, contract, and leadership roles run through the same specialist team, so you are not re-explaining your robot to a new desk every time you open a req.
If the spec is fantasy, you hear that before you hear a pitch.