Field Support Technician [Columbia Basin/Tri-Cities]
Verdant Robotics develops AI-powered farming implements and data solutions for agriculture. Our Sharpshooter enables transformative applications across all crops and field types through the power of Verdant's proprietary Bullseye Technology with millimeter accuracy for weeding, thinning, and fertilization.
As a Field Support Technician, you will be responsible for keeping our fleet of Sharpshooters operational. This role includes writing and maintaining test and operational debug documentation, quickly triaging software and hardware issues, and following up with other engineers to ensure that problems get fixed. Most importantly, you should be driven to make an impact with your work by rapidly reaching the market with a new robotic system doing useful work for paying customers.
Our core technology empowers farmers to grow more profitable food. We use computer vision and artificial intelligence to understand every part of every plant at a massive scale -- and with automated robotics, we close the loop and act on that information in real-time. Together with our partners, we are building environmentally-friendly, sustainable, and highly productive farms.
What You Will Do:
In-Field and Remote Support:
- Provide in-field and remote support to ensure optimal machine up-time for Sharpshooters, delivering maximum value to customers.
- Assist in remotely troubleshooting electro-mechanical, software, and hardware issues using diagnostic tools and collaborating with engineering.
Repair and Maintenance Management:
- Coordinate all repair and maintenance activities for the fleet of robotic precision weeders, ensuring timely resolution of issues.
- Manage spare parts inventory and facilitate the movement of parts for repairs to maintain operational continuity.
Issue Identification and Resolution:
- Triage hardware and software issues, escalate to appropriate teams, and track open tickets to ensure timely fixes.
- Analyze field failures and review live data to proactively identify emerging issues and coordinate resolutions with the engineering team.
- Collaborate closely with the engineering, product, and customer support teams to ensure timely and effective resolution of technical issues and ensure that feedback loops are maintained for product enhancement.
Hardware and Software Improvement:
- Conduct root cause analysis of hardware and software failures, collaborating with the engineering team to recommend product reliability improvements.
- File, track, and resolve hardware and software bugs for ongoing product optimization.
Documentation and Knowledge Management:
- Write and maintain comprehensive technical documentation, including support manuals, knowledge base articles, system diagrams, and checklists for third-party technicians.
- Develop and update diagnostic trees, ensuring the documentation is current and reflects system changes.
Customer Support:
- Advise customers on optimal machine performance strategies and up-time maximization, addressing gaps in product reliability and operational efficiency.
- Provide regular reports on daily and weekly issues encountered and offer recommendations to customers for enhancing machine performance.
Data Analysis and Reporting:
- Analyze and report on machine data to proactively identify trends and systemic issues, feeding insights back into the product development process.
- Compile and present data-driven reports to the engineering and operations teams to drive continuous improvement.
Minimum Qualifications:
- High School Diploma. More advanced relevant degree is a plus.
- 1-3 years relevant experience in technical support, fleet operations/management, machine/system maintenance, and/or agricultural operations
- Familiarity with electrical and mechanical systems (motors, gearboxes) and repair processes and tools.
- Exceptional responsiveness and communication skills; ability to excel at time-sensitive tasks
- Experience documenting production, maintenance, and/or repair procedures and training users on how to complete these activities with remote support
- Self-starter able to take the initiative and work independently
- Strong interpersonal skills--be unafraid to pull in other engineers to understand problems, raise problems with the team, and follow up on bug fixes.
- Ability to clearly communicate technical problems and solutions
Verdant reserves the ability to adjust the compensation range based on the final candidate's experience, skillset, and geography. In addition to on-target earnings, we offer equity grants, as every employee should have a stake in the company's growth. If you're above this compensation target, we encourage you to reach out and discuss the entire package and opportunity before deciding not to pursue this position.
Email Resume to ...@verdantrobotics.com
Verdant Robotics provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.