Mechanical / Mechatronics Engineer (Early Career), Hardware

The role

You will design, prototype, and build custom mechanical and mechatronic components for laboratory automation. This includes developing fixtures, integrating sensors and actuators, and taking designs from CAD through to deployment.

What you will do

• Design, prototype, and build custom mechanical and mechatronic components for laboratory automation.
• Develop fixtures, mounts, enclosures, robotic interfaces, and other custom hardware.
• Integrate sensors, actuators, motors, and control electronics.
• Take designs from CAD through fabrication, assembly, testing and deployment.
• Help integrate new hardware and scientific instruments into automated workflows.
• Troubleshoot mechanical, electrical and integration issues.
• Contribute to improving existing hardware for reliability and maintainability.
• Help source components and work with suppliers on custom parts.

Required qualifications

• A degree (BSc or MSc) in mechanical engineering, mechatronics, robotics or a related field.
• Hands-on experience designing and building physical things from internships, a thesis, student teams or personal projects.
• Comfortable with CAD (SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Onshape or similar).
• Experience with 3D printing, basic machining or mechanical assembly.
• Comfortable working safely in a workshop with hand and power tools (e.g. drills, saws, grinders).
• Some exposure to sensors, motors or basic electronics (Arduino-level is great).

Nice to have

• Exposure to laboratory automation, scientific instrumentation, or robotic systems.
• Experience with data acquisition or sensor integration.
• Familiarity with PCB design, embedded electronics, microcontrollers, or control systems.
• Experience with fluidics, pneumatics, or vacuum systems.
• Experience operating workshop machinery such as a lathe, milling machine, CNC or laser cutter.
• Programming experience in Python, C/C++, or similar languages.
• A solid grounding in mechanical design principles, materials and tolerances.
• Membership of a student competition team, or open-source hardware or maker projects.

About the company

Adaptyv is building an automated lab that lets AI agents run biology experiments. They are a fast growing biotech company building infrastructure that gives AI agents access to the physical world.