Shoot it, cut it, post it, every day — and get the artist on camera more than he'd choose to on his own.
The role
BREAKFAST is one artist and a studio of sixteen people building machines that move. Almost none of it gets filmed. Your job is to change that: shoot it, cut it, post it, every day — and get the artist on camera more than he'd choose to on his own.
This is not a strategy seat and it is not a brand account. The subject is a person. The goal is that in three years people know the name BREAKFAST the way they know the artists you admire, and that the work on the floor — thousands of motors being built, tested, broken and shipped — is the reason.
What you'll own
Filming and editing short-form daily: the studio floor, installs, tests, the artist thinking out loud
The channels — Instagram, TikTok, YouTube — the calendar, the captions, the replies
Getting the artist on camera: pitching the format, setting up the shot, asking the question, cutting it so it works
The archive: a shelf of footage nobody else will ever shoot, organized so it can be used
The numbers, and what you change because of them
What you bring
You shoot and you edit, yourself, fast. A reel we can watch today, cut for vertical
You have grown a person's audience before — a founder, an artist, a chef, a maker — and can say by how much
You are comfortable directing someone who would rather be building than talking
You know how discovery works on TikTok and Instagram without chasing it
You are self-directed: you arrive with ideas, not a request for a brief
You live in or near Brooklyn. This job is in the building
Probably not the right fit if
You want to write the strategy and hand the camera to someone else
Your work has been brand accounts only, never a human being
You need a content calendar approved before you can shoot
"Influencer energy." You are behind the camera; the artist is in front of it
Nice to have
Photography that holds up in print
Time in a workshop, studio or museum — you already know how makers behave on camera
Podcast or interview editing
The basics
Full-time, in person at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
Compensation based on experience — we'll share the range on the first call
Health, dental, and vision insurance
Open vacation policy
Occasional travel to installs
If you've been the one person filming and cutting everything for someone whose name people now know, this is that job, with better subject matter.
Been the one holding the camera?
We Don't Hire Often
When we do, it's because we've reached a moment that will shape where this goes next. Our studio is small and elite. Every seat matters. If you feel like you are meant to be here, reach out. Trust that signal.
Freelance Production Technician
Hands-on technical role supporting fabrication and installation of kinetic artworks.
The Studio
BREAKFAST is a kinetic artist whose work merges engineering, motion, and creativity. His sculptures are commissioned and collected by leading global brands and institutions, including Harvard University, Rockefeller Center, Tiffany & Co., and Royal Caribbean — all designed and built by the team at his studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
One of our recent works, The Pearl, is the world's largest electro-mechanical kinetic sculpture, installed aboard Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas. Our creations have been showcased at prestigious venues such as the 2024 Venice Biennale and London's Moco Museum, continually pushing the boundaries of engineering and design.
The team is a collaborative group of engineers, designers, and artists dedicated to solving unique challenges. Join us to apply your expertise to projects that redefine what's possible, blending technical precision with creative freedom.
The Role
We're looking for part-time team members that will help us assemble, test, and ship our large scale commissioned art pieces as well as our smaller editions. We're looking for people with assembly experience and an exceptional eye for detail and organization. You will receive basic training for the different tasks.
Job type: Part-time
Compensation: $21 – $24 per hour (depending on experience)
8 hour shift
Location: In-person (Brooklyn Navy Yard)
Responsibilities
Small parts assembly using hand tools
Programming electronic circuit boards
Packing and shipping
Quality control and testing of production parts
Hands-on assembly of larger parts
Use of manual shop tools, drill press, etc.
Experience and Skills
Education: High school or equivalent
Assembly Experience: 1 year
Hand tools: 1 year (preferred)
Mechanical knowledge: 1 year (preferred)
Power tools: 1 year (preferred)
High attention to detail
Highly organizational mindset
Experience in manufacturing assembly, maintenance or repair
Highly confident with basic hand assembly tools
Experience troubleshooting and diagnostics of products and systems
Comfort and confidence working with a very small team
Knowledge of machine shop use and safety
Experience with basic electronics and soldering is a bonus
Experience in design and art is a plus
Detail-oriented and hands-on?
Senior Technical Program Manager
The artist's person on the ground with the design and engineering team — the one who turns this week's priorities into real dates, and keeps them real.
The role
BREAKFAST is the artist name of Andrew Zolty. The studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard is 16 people who design and build his moving sculptures — hundreds of small motors driven by real-world forces like wind, water and light, built in-house from the board up and shipped to lobbies, museums and collectors around the world, where they run for years without anyone looking after them. We're looking for the person who keeps that machine moving.
Once or twice a week you sit with Zolty, hear what matters right now (it changes), and turn it into a plan: what's in, what moves, what the real dates are. Then you go make it happen with a small team of senior mechanical, electrical, firmware, software and industrial-design people who are very good and very busy. You don't do the engineering, but you understand it well enough that nobody has to simplify for you — you can read a schematic well enough to follow a conversation, you've sat in on firmware debugging, you know what DFM means to a mechanical engineer and what "it's a strapping-pin issue" means to an electrical one.
This is probably someone eight to twelve years into a career as a TPM, producer or program manager on physical products — robotics, consumer hardware, instruments, vehicles — who has run cross-discipline builds and is good at it, and who is starting to wonder whether they want to do the same thing at a bigger company forever. We're more interested in whether you're sharp, organised and direct than in your title. If you've been a star at this for eight years, apply. If you've done it for twelve and want to run a team as much as a schedule, also apply — tell us which one you are.
What you'll own
The schedule for every piece in the building, from first sketch through install, in Asana. Nothing lives in your head.
Estimates. When an engineer says three weeks, you understand the work well enough to ask why, and to know when it's really two or really six.
The weekly rhythm — priorities, check-ins, blockers — so the team always knows what's next and Zolty always knows where things stand, without having to ask.
Saying the hard thing early. A date that's going to slip is reported the day you know, with options, not the day it's due.
Clients and fabricators when the project needs it, through delivery and install.
What you bring
You've personally run the schedule and the Asana (or equivalent) for multi-discipline hardware builds that shipped on dates
Fluency across at least two of: mechanical, electrical, firmware, software, industrial design. Breadth over depth
Writing that is short, specific and honest — your application should sound like you, not like a job description
Evidence you manage up as well as down: you tell the person you report to things they don't want to hear
On-site daily, with ~15% travel for installs
Nice to have
An engineering background you stepped out of
Small teams where you were the only PM
Any pull toward art, design, music, making things for their own sake
The basics
On-site at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, every day
$150,000–$200,000 base depending on where you land in the range above, plus an annual profit-share pool that every full-time person at the studio participates in — when the year goes well, everyone's year goes well
~15% travel for site visits and installations
Reports to: the Artist day to day; the Managing Director owns comp and performance reviews
Health, dental, and vision insurance; 401k
Open vacation policy
Ready to keep the machine moving?
Senior Mechanical Engineer
Design the machines behind the art, from first sketch to a mechanism that runs quietly for a decade.
The role
Every BREAKFAST piece is a one-of-a-kind machine — thousands of motors, custom mechanisms, injection-molded and extruded parts, all converging into a sculpture that moves beautifully, runs near-silently, and keeps running for a generation. The work hangs in places like the Venice Biennale, Rockefeller Center, and aboard the world's largest cruise ship. You'll design the mechanical heart of new pieces — motion systems, actuation, structures — working alongside EEs, software engineers, and industrial designers to turn BREAKFAST's vision into something that can actually be built. You own each piece from first concept through prototyping, tooling, production, and install: how parts perform, how they go together, and how ready the production team is to assemble, test, and QC them.
It's a senior role because it comes with real ownership. You'll have peer reviews, sharp collaborators, and a fully equipped shop, but no one looking over your shoulder. Most parts — prototypes included — are made by vendors, and your designs and drawings are what make that work. A new piece goes from first idea to installed artwork on a timeline most product companies would find very short, and production runs are in the hundreds or low thousands, not hundreds of thousands. We iterate quickly and design rigorously at the same time: a small batch still has to hit spec, be clearly manufacturable, and run for a decade.
It helps a lot if you love this stuff the way we do: motors, mechanisms, and the moment thousands of moving parts come alive as one piece. That excitement carries a project through the hard parts, and it's the one thing we can't teach.
What you'll own
Mechanical design end to end — concept sketches through production-ready models and drawings
Motor and drivetrain selection, sizing, and integration
Quick prototypes — grabbing motors and parts from past projects around the studio and putting something rough together so the team can evaluate an idea
DFM — designing for the injection-mold, extrusion, and machining vendors who produce our parts
Drawings and tolerancing that vendors can quote and build from without back-and-forth
Handoff to production — making sure the team that assembles, tests, and QCs the piece has what they need
On-site installation for large pieces in their final locations
What you bring
7+ years of electromechanical product or system design
Deep mechanism and motion-system design experience — linkages, gears, cams, actuators, bearings
Fluency in metals and plastics — you know what can be injection-molded, extruded, machined, and sheet-formed, and you design for it
Comfortable in a shop — you can set up a test, run a drill press, and troubleshoot a prototype
Small-team background — you've worked where everyone owns their domain end to end
An eye for aesthetics — the mechanism serves the art, and you care about how it looks and sounds
Probably not the right fit if
You're happiest working from a detailed spec handed to you — here you'll often be the one writing the spec
Your career has been deep on one subsystem inside a large company — we need range across the full mechanism
You'd rather stay at your desk than walk out to the shop and build something rough to test an idea
Nice to have
Experience with large-scale public installations or architectural-scale builds
Familiarity with the pace and scale of small-batch production (hundreds to low thousands, not mass-market)
Noise and vibration mitigation — making mechanisms run quietly matters here
Enough electronics and firmware knowledge to talk to the EE and firmware teams without a translator
A love of art, design, or architecture
The basics
Freelance to start, with potential to convert to full-time
On-site at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
$130,000–$165,000 annualized base (freelance rate structured accordingly), with bonus potential on conversion
Occasional travel for installations and factory visits
Health, dental, and vision insurance available on conversion to full-time
Love building mechanisms that move, look, and sound right?
Senior Software Engineer — Motion Systems
From the control loop on a microcontroller to a fleet of installations reachable only over VPN — hold the whole vertical.
The role
BREAKFAST's artworks are physical: thousands of motors, each with its own controller, moving in sync, fed by live data, installed in places we can't easily get to, expected to run for a decade. The software goes from a control loop on a microcontroller to a Python service on a Linux box to a fleet of hundreds of installations reachable only over VPN. Today that whole vertical is held by a very small team. We are hiring the person who can hold it next.
That means the firmware that makes a motor move well — step generation, encoder supervision, homing, thermal and current management — and the host: services, packaging, provisioning, remote updates, camera and sensor pipelines, the tools technicians use in the field. You will not do all of it on day one. You will be able to do all of it within a year, and you'll be the one who decides how it should be done after that.
What you'll own
The architecture of the stack, end to end: brick firmware, bus bridges, host services, fleet tooling
Motion: the control loops and the motion algorithms that make a mechanical thing feel alive
The host: Debian-based controllers, Python 3 services, ZMQ/gRPC, packaging and deployment across a fleet
Reliability: tests where there are none, bootloaders that update safely in place, secrets that aren't in the repo, the field failure that doesn't recur
Tools for people who aren't engineers: the technician on site, the artist at the desk
Installs: you'll stand in a lobby at 2 a.m. with a laptop, sometimes
What you bring
10+ years, and a history of owning a system alone — the person who was called when it broke
Serious C on microcontrollers or serious Linux systems and Python — and a demonstrated ability to learn the other one fast. If you've owned a motor control loop, say so. If you haven't but you want to, say that
Distributed-systems instincts: buses, protocols, timing, what happens when a packet is late
Time around creative work — an installation studio, an artist's practice, a place where the thing you built was looked at. You know the difference between working and finished
The habit of writing down what you decided and why
A recommendation at the end of your proposal, not a question
Probably not the right fit if
You're happiest going deep on one layer and handing the rest across the wall
You want a platform team between your code and production
You've never been near the hardware. This job smells like solder
You need to be told what to build. Here, someone brings a few chords; you bring your instrument
Nice to have
Trinamic-class stepper drivers, encoders and homing. RS-485 or CAN. STM32 HAL
Vision pipelines (ZED, Jetson, CUDA). KiCad literacy. MIDI — one of the pieces is an instrument
The basics
Full-time, on-site at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
Base salary + profit-share program
Health, dental, and vision insurance, 401k, FSA
Generous holiday policies
Occasional travel to installs
If you've built something that moved and it mattered to you how it looked while it did, reach out. Trust that signal.
Built something that moved, and cared how it looked doing it?
Senior Electrical & Firmware Engineer
Own the boards, the power, the bus, the drivers, and the firmware that lives closest to the motor.
The role
Every BREAKFAST artwork is hundreds or thousands of small boards, each with a microcontroller, a stepper driver and an encoder, talking over a bus to a computer that talks to the world. Those boards are ours — schematic, layout, firmware, test fixture — and they run unattended for years in lobbies, museums and ships where nobody can reach them.
You will own the electrical side of the studio: the boards, the power, the bus, the drivers, the firmware that lives closest to the motor, and the production process that turns a design into a thousand working units. You'll work with the mechanical engineer on what the motion needs and with the software team on what the host expects, and you'll be the person who says what a design decision does to cost, heat, noise and lifespan before it's built.
What you'll own
Board design in KiCad, from schematic through layout, bring-up and revision — controller boards, driver stages, bus and power distribution
Motor drive: stepper and BLDC driver selection and tuning, current and thermal management, quiet and low-cogging motion
The bus: RS-485 and Ethernet bridges, signal integrity over long runs, EMI/EMC that passes where the art is installed
Firmware close to the hardware: STM32-class C, drivers, bootloaders, the control loop between encoder and motor
Production: test fixtures, programming and calibration procedures, vendor packages for contract manufacturing, yield
Field failures: the root cause, the fix, and the change so it never happens again
What you bring
10+ years designing electronics that shipped, with at least one product or system you owned end to end
Real motor-control experience — you've tuned a driver, read a datasheet for the register map, and chased a stall with a scope
Embedded C on Cortex-M or similar; comfortable in someone else's firmware
Power, EMI and thermal literacy; you design for the room the piece lives in, not the bench
Experience taking boards from prototype to production with a contract manufacturer
A pull toward things that move and are looked at. You care what it sounds like
Probably not the right fit if
You want a firmware team to hand your boards to, or a hardware team to hand you firmware
Your boards have always had a field-service technician between them and the customer
You'd rather specify than solder
Nice to have
Trinamic or similar smart-driver experience. CAN. Bootloaders that update in the field over the bus
Anything you've built for yourself that moves
The basics
Full-time, on-site at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
$140,000–$200,000 base depending on experience, plus an annual profit-share pool that every full-time person at the studio participates in
Health, dental, and vision insurance, 401k
Open vacation policy
Occasional travel to installs
If you've spent a career making motors do exactly what you told them and wished the result were more beautiful, reach out.
Made motors do exactly what you told them?
Don't see the right role? Tell us why you belong here.
Someone from BREAKFAST's team will review it and reach out if there's a fit. We read every application, but don't always respond to each one individually — trust that signal.