Chuck Pitzer
Director of Hardware Engineering @Skild Ai Fetch Robotics
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WORK HISTORY
Director of Hardware Engineering @Skild Ai Fetch Robotics
San Francisco, CA, US
Direct development of new electro-mechanical hardware platforms. Direct sustaining and hardening efforts on existing products with a mid-sized team developing next generation autonomous mobile platforms. Focused on NPI, product ramp, and sustaining the existing fleet of robots through RCAs, RMAs, plus ECO upgrades of RAAS and CapEx units. Close working relationship with teams for writing manufacturing processes and SOPs for complex engineering and operations tasks.Oversee transition of products to Contract Manufacturers.Interface across multiple disciplines (e.g. industrial design, software engineering, production, supply chain, quality assurance, vendors).Resident safety expert for designing conforming AMR solutions per the R15.08 safety standard. Ensure that appropriate performance levels are applied (PLr) and Category with respect to the product’s Risk Assessment performed per ISO 12100. Responsible for entire discretionary engineering budget throughout the robotics automation Business Unit – both for new product development and sustaining activities by tracking predicted budget versus actuals in real time. Responsible for negotiating yearly budgets with Product Managers and allocating appropriate budget numbers.Oversee products that meet emissions requirements (per EN EN and all TUV Rheinland (EN 60204-1) requirements (for hi-pot tests, insulation tests, ground bonding) by deferring to team experts. Ensure timely delivery to schedule commitments with necessary regulatory and compliance requirements.
EDUCATION
UCLA
MS, Materials Science and Engineering
University of Florida
BS, Mechanical Engineering
University of Florida
Bachelor's degree, Mechanical Engineering
University of Florida
Bachelor of Science - BS, Mechanical Engineering
SKILLS
ABOUT CHUCK PITZER
Proven leader with 28 years of experience in industrial mobile robotics, consumer robotics, heavy equipment, aerospace, and defense fields. Currently, serving as Director of a Hardware Engineering for a mid-sized team developing next generation autonomous mobile platforms (AMRs) for Zebra Technologies. Focused on NPI, product ramp, and sustaining the existing fleet of robots through RCAs, RMAs, plus ECO upgrades of RAAS and CapEx units.Experienced working in Silicon Valley startups, along with Japanese, German, and American Companies.Experienced in interfacing across multiple disciplines (e.g. embedded software, nav stack, applications, manufacturing, configuration management supply chain, quality assurance).Experienced in continuous recruitment, mentorship, development and retention of world-class team of top engineers who are recognized subject matter experts and have experience in electro-mechanical systems. Manage the team with respect, empathy, and trust that our mission is well-defined.Voting member of the R15.08 Industrial Mobile Robots – Safety Requirements parts 2 and 3 committee. Resident safety expert for designing conforming AMR solutions per the R15.08 safety standard. Ensure that appropriate ISO 13849-1 performance levels are applied (PLr) and Category with respect to the product’s Risk Assessment performed per ISO 12100. Responsible for entire discretionary engineering budget throughout the robotics automation Business Unit. Responsible for negotiating yearly budgets with Product Managers and allocating appropriate budget numbers.Emphasis on Product Design with 23 years of expert experience on ProEngineer (aka Creo), SolidWorks, Inventor, and OnShape with the full suite of PTC simulation tools. The ability to have a system level understanding of electro-mechanical products and related software dependencies to identify potential engineering or manufacturing issues early in the design process. Work to ensure all products under development are delivered on time, at scale, reliably. Focused development of materials knowledge. Expertise in injection molding, sheetmetal, DFA, DFM, CMF (color/material/finish), top-down design, surfacing, configuration management. Considerable amount of hands-on experience with machine tools, CNC, welding fabrication, sheetmetal and riveting techniques, microcontrollers, PLC controllers, motor drives, brushless motors, and assembly techniques. Both professionally and as passion projects, completed numerous complicated and challenging systems with winning results.
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