🤖 Mechanical Design Engineer – Humanoid Robotics

Palo Alto, CA (On-Site)/Full-time

About the role

At Proception, we are engineering the next generation of highly dexterous humanoid manipulators. Our mission is to bring machines closer to human capability by merging innovative mechanical design, sensor integration, and intelligent control. We're looking for a full-time Mechanical Design Engineer to lead structural and actuation design for our humanoid upper body and hand systems. You'll work at the frontier of mechanical performance, electromechanical integration, and rapid prototyping to enable breakthrough physical intelligence.

Requirements

• 011+ years of experience designing mission-critical mechanical systems for robotics, aerospace, or automation
• 02Mastery of CAD (SolidWorks, Fusion), FEA, and precision design
• 03Experience prototyping with your own hands—machining, printing, assembling, debugging
• 04You've built geartrains—strain wave, planetary, cycloidal—or you've designed your own
• 05Fluent in tolerance stack-ups, material properties, thermal constraints, and load paths
• 06Designed for real-world wear, slop, EMI, torque ripple, and backlash
• 07Experience with humanoids, exoskeletons, prosthetics, soft robots, or tendon drives
• 08Startup reflexes: you bias toward execution, learn fast, and document like it matters
• 09(+) Experience with humanoids, exoskeletons, prosthetics, soft robots, or tendon drives
• 10(+) Experience with testing and validation of mechanical systems

Details & responsibilities

• 01Architect and design high-DOF robotic arms and hands for dynamic manipulation
• 02Build geartrains, compliant mechanisms, and tendon systems that outperform current state-of-the-art
• 03Drive simulation, analysis, prototyping, and testing in a no-silos, build-it-yourself workflow
• 04Iterate hardware based on test data, field failure, or system noise—fast
• 05Collaborate tightly with controls, perception, and firmware teams to deliver integrated, elegant robots
• 06Write clear, transferable documentation for scaling what works—and killing what doesn't
• 07Design and test mechanical systems for humanoids, exoskeletons, prosthetics, soft robots, or tendon drives
• 08Validate mechanical systems through testing and analysis
• 09Iterate on mechanical designs based on test data and feedback

Compensation & benefits

• 01Competitive salary and meaningful equity
• 02Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage
• 03Work with world-class researchers and engineers in AI and robotics
• 04High-ownership role with opportunity to lead mechanical design efforts
• 05Help define and build next-generation embodied intelligence systems

Interested in this role? Applying takes a few minutes — you'll need an account to submit.