Job Title: Precision Assembler

Department: Manufacturing – Hand & End Effector Cell

Employment Type: Full Time

FLSA: Non-Exempt (hourly; overtime paid at 1.5x)

Location: Houston, TX – Onsite

Who We Are

Persona AI is developing and commercializing rugged, multi-purpose humanoid robots that perform real work. Persona AI founding team has a decades-long history in humanoid robotics, bionics, and product development delivering robust hardware that has touched the stars, worked miles below the surface of the ocean, and even roamed Disney Parks. Our mission is focused squarely on shipping beautiful, reliable products at massive scale, while building a customer-focused team to achieve these aims.

Why Join Persona AI

We offer competitive compensation, a performance-based bonus, 99% employer covered medical benefits, early-stage equity, competitive PTO, and a company-wide paid winter break between December 24th and January 2nd.

You'll shape technology that's redefining the possibilities of robotics and human interaction.

Work alongside passionate teammates who value creativity, and continuous learning.

About the Role

You will build the hands that hold the torch. Persona AI's humanoids weld, grind, and inspect in shipyards and heavy fabrication shops, and every one of those jobs comes down to a hand gripping a tool in a hot, dirty place and not letting go.

The hand is the hardest thing on the robot, the most parts, the tightest tolerances, and the smallest fasteners on the machine. It is also the part that decides whether the robot can do the work at all. Ours get built one at a time, by hand, in Houston.

This is fine-motor bench assembly under magnification: finger and thumb mechanisms built from miniature bearings, pivot pins, and linkages; drive tendons routed and pre-tensioned; fasteners torqued in newton-centimeters rather than foot-pounds. A dropped part is a lost part, and a quarter-turn too far is a stripped thread in a component with a long lead time.

Sensors, encoders, and motors arrive as sealed modules that you install mechanically and never open. You will work under ESD discipline, which we train and certify you on.

If you have spent years doing precise work with your hands — watches, instruments, medical devices, firearms, dental prosthetics, jewelry — this is that same craft, pointed at something new. We are not here to replace the trades. We are building machines that take on the worst jobs in heavy industry, directed by the crews who know that work best.

What You'll Be Doing

Assemble finger, thumb, and wrist mechanisms from engineering drawings — miniature bearings, pivot pins, linkages, retaining rings, and springs.

Route and pre-tension drive tendons and cables to specification.

Assemble miniature gearheads and small actuator units, keeping serialized matched sets together.

Torque miniature fasteners (roughly M1.6 to M3) with calibrated low-range torque drivers, working in newton-centimeters.

Apply adhesives, thread locker, and lubricant in controlled quantities; install seals, boots, and covers.

Verify each hand against acceptance criteria — range of motion, joint backlash, tendon pre-tension, and smoothness — using pin gauges, micrometers, and dial indicators.

Mate pre-terminated sensor connectors and dress flex cable during palm and wrist closeout, under ESD control.

Record build data accurately — serial numbers, matched sets, torque values, and tendon tensions — in our shop floor build records.

Flag parts, drawings, or steps that don't work as written. We would rather fix the instruction than build a hundred hands wrong.

What We're Looking For

High school diploma or GED.

Demonstrated fine-motor precision work with your hands, from any industry — watch or instrument repair, medical or dental device assembly, jewelry, gunsmithing, luthiery, or military precision maintenance.

Steady hands, patience, and the ability to hold focus on detailed work. Comfort working under magnification, or confidence you will adapt to it.

Ability to read mechanical drawings and assembly work instructions.