Mechanical Design Engineer, Tactile Sensing

The role

This person will lead the physical design, material selection, and integration of next-generation tactile sensing systems. They will bridge mechanical architecture and soft material interfaces to build sensory skins for robotic hands and grippers.

What you will do

• Design and develop mechanical components, assemblies, and skins for tactile sensors.
• Own the tactile sensor stack from transducer packaging to integration.
• Develop and tune elastomer and compliant materials.
• Build, test, and break prototypes using 3D printing and manual fabrication.
• Perform FEA, contact mechanics, tolerance, and thermal analyses.
• Design characterization fixtures and accelerated test plans.
• Contribute to DFM/DFA efforts for scaling to high-volume production.
• Source components and work with machine shops and manufacturers.
• Develop specifications and accelerated test plans to validate product lifetime.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with electrical, firmware, controls, and ML teams.

Required qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building complex electromechanical systems, sensors, or tactile/haptic devices.
• Direct experience with at least one tactile sensing modality: capacitive, resistive, optical/vision-based, magnetic, piezoelectric, MEMS, or barometric.
• Strong materials intuition, particularly with elastomers including casting, molding, surface treatments, and characterization.
• Familiarity with rapid prototyping techniques such as 3D printing, machining, soft lithography, etc.
• High proficiency in SolidWorks, Catia, or similar CAD tools.
• Hands-on problem-solving approach.

Nice to have

• PhD or research experience in tactile / haptic sensing, soft robotics, or contact-rich manipulation.
• Experience designing sensor characterization rigs and analyzing the resulting data.
• Working knowledge of sensor electronics and analog front-ends.
• Prior work on humanoid hands, dexterous grippers, or prosthetics.

About the company

Mind Robotics is building Physical AI for real-world industrial deployment, starting with the factory floor.