Joseph Yang

About Joseph Yang

Founding engineer and Head of Engineering at Shift Robotics, focused on turning ambitious robotics into real products people use every day.Over 5+ years, the Moonwalkers were taken from a Carnegie Mellon research prototype to a global consumer product. The work spans real-time embedded systems, scalable software, and the realities of bringing hardware out of the lab and into the wild.Core focus areas: • Safety-critical, low-latency robotics systems • Building and leading engineering teams through growth • Translating deep tech into intuitive, wearable consumer productsInterested in the all sets of problems at the intersection of intelligent hardware, human-centered design, and company-building. Always open to conversations with founders and builders working on meaningful, long-term bets.

Experience

1. Head of Engineering

   Shift Robotics

   Jan 2024 — Present · Austin, TX, US

   Building the Future of Wearable and Human Augmentation Robotics • Engineering Leadership & Team Scaling: Architected the technical roadmap and engineering culture for \"Moonwalkers.\" Scaled the organization from the founding team to a multi-functional department, consistently hitting aggressive technical milestones for global product releases. • System Architecture (Edge-to-Cloud): Developed a high-performance, low-latency motion control stack for Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) bipedal locomotion. Built a robust ecosystem including Secure Bootloaders, OTA updates, and USB-C Power Delivery across ARM and Xtensa MCUs, while overseeing the integration of Mobile Apps and IoT infrastructure. • Mass Production & NPI Mastery: Directed the end-to-end product lifecycle from Engineering Prototype to Mass Production (EVT/DVT/PVT). Designed, developed and managed Boxbuild operations, designed Functional Testing (FCT/BIST) suites for factory yield, and led global Sourcing & Vendor Relations. • Global Compliance: Successfully navigated the critical path for global regulatory certifications, including FCC, CE, and UL, ensuring consumer safety and market readiness. • Hardware DevOps & Infra: Architected and owned industrial-grade internal infrastructure, including self-managed CI/CD (GitLab), fleet-wide MDM, and cross-timezone IT systems to support a distributed, high-velocity engineering team.

Education

• Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley

  Master of Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  2018 — 2020

• National Taiwan University

  Bachelor of Science - BS, Electrical Engineering

  2014 — 2018

• Carnegie Mellon University

  Master of Science, Engineering and Technology Innovation Management

  2018 — 2020