Mechanical Engineer, Robotics

The role

You will own the design, analysis, and validation of structural and kinematic systems for the Asimov humanoid robot platform. This involves taking components from concept through production-ready hardware including joints, actuators, and enclosures.

What you will do

• Design and develop mechanical assemblies including joints, actuators, sensor mounts, and structural members
• Develop detailed 3D part, drawings and assembly models in Solidworks or equivalent CAD tools
• Run hands-on test rigs for load testing, fatigue cycling, thermal soak, and kinematic validation
• Execute DFM reviews alongside contract manufacturers
• Create and maintain production drawings with GD&T and inspection callouts
• Set up and instrument test stands, wire sensors, and collect data
• Select materials and joining methods across plastics, metals, and composites
• Coordinate with firmware and electrical teams to integrate actuators, sensors, and PCBs
• Contribute to open-source hardware releases, build guides, BOM documentation, and assembly instructions

Required qualifications

• 3 or more years of hands-on mechanical design experience on high-complexity electromechanical products
• Strong proficiency in Solidworks, across both detailed parts, multibody assemblies, surfaces and drawings
• Proven track record with sheet metal fabrication and traditional/additive manufacturing
• Experience with GD&T and producing 2D engineering drawings for manufacturing and QA
• Ability to run FEA simulations; static, dynamic & thermal
• Comfortable working within aggressive cost and weight constraints
• Demonstrated hands-on experience with material selection, actuator selection, fasteners and mechanisms
• Proficient in rapid prototyping methods (FDM, SLA, CNC, laser cutting)
• Strong communication skills

Nice to have

• Experience with bipedal or humanoid robot hardware, legged locomotion platforms, or high DOF manipulators
• Participated in robotics competitions
• Familiarity with parallel mechanisms and non-standard joint configurations such as RSU ankle designs or parallel actuation
• Knowledge of plastics engineering including material selection, shrinkage factors, and mechanical property optimization
• Scripting or automation experience in Python to streamline CAD workflows and data analysis
• Experience with deploying control systems to hardware
• Familiarity with sim-to-real workflows
• Prior involvement in robotics or wearable systems where mechanical tolerances and ergonomics are critical

About the company

Menlo Research is an Applied R&D lab building Asimov, an open-source humanoid robot platform, and the full software stack that powers it.