About LionsBot

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Singapore, LionsBot International is a multiple award-winning smart robotics company providing deep-technology solutions to the global commercial cleaning industry. With a proprietary cloud operating system (LionsOS), a growing portfolio of autonomous floor-cleaning robots designed and manufactured in-house, and operations spanning 30+ countries across Europe, the US, and Asia, LionsBot is redefining how the world cleans.

Recognised by Forbes Asia’s “100 to Watch,” the Financial Times’ High-Growth Companies Asia-Pacific, and honoured with Interclean Amsterdam, Red Dot, and iF Design awards, LionsBot is on a mission to give cleaners superpowers—one robot at a time.

We are expanding our hardware R&D capability to Shenzhen to tap the world's most powerful hardware manufacturing ecosystem and build a China engineering team that delivers products faster, at lower cost, and with the manufacturing-proximity advantage that only Shenzhen can offer.

About This Role

This is a founding leadership role. The China R&D team does not exist yet — you will build it. You will hire the first engineers, set the engineering culture and standards, establish the supplier relationships, and own product programme delivery from Shenzhen. 

This is not a management role for someone who wants to run an established team. This is a builder role for a technically deep, people-first hardware leader who has grown up in Shenzhen's engineering ecosystem, knows how to move fast from concept to production, and can build a world-class engineering team in one of the world's most competitive engineering talent markets.

What You Will Do

• Build the China R&D team from scratch — hire 8–15 engineers across mechanical, electrical, and embedded hardware; set the hiring bar; build the engineering culture.

• Own product programme delivery from Shenzhen — EVT, DVT, PVT, and SOP for China team scope, faster and at lower cost than Singapore-only development through ecosystem leverage.

• Set and enforce hardware design standards across all three disciplines — mechanical DfM, PCB design rules, embedded bring-up protocols, DFMEA — from the team's first programme.

• Build and manage the China supplier network — PCB fabrication, PCBA, injection moulding, sheet metal, motor controllers, battery packs, sensors — across all hardware categories.

• Own the Singapore–China collaboration — clear programme RACI, joint design reviews, shared documentation standards, and a working culture where the China team is a peer to Singapore.

• Manage China regulatory and compliance requirements — IEC, CE, RoHS, REACH, China export controls — for all China team-owned hardware programmes.

• Define the 3-year China R&D capability roadmap — team structure, discipline depth, supplier network, technology bets — and scale the function to full programme ownership.

What You Will Need

• 10+ years in hardware engineering, with at least 3 years leading an engineering team in China — including personally setting up a team from scratch and owning product delivery outcomes.

• Full-stack hardware technical depth across mechanical, electrical, and embedded disciplines — can make consequential technical decisions across all three domains.

• Production launch ownership in China — has taken at least 2 hardware products from concept to mass production in a China factory, personally accountable for the SOP date.

• Deep Shenzhen manufacturing ecosystem relationships — personal supplier relationships that translate into measurable time and cost advantages over remote teams.

• Bilingual (Mandarin / English) with genuine bicultural competence — can operate the China team in Mandarin and collaborate with Singapore in English, and can bridge the two engineering cultures.

• China HR and people leadership experience — has hired, developed, and managed out engineers in China; understands China labour law implications for performance management.

• Good to have: autonomous mobile robot, service robot, or cleaning equipment hardware experience; Product Compliance experience; experience integrating a China team with a non-China parent company.