Mechanical / Mechatronics Engineer – Robotics & Actuation

Mechanical / Mechatronics Engineer – Robotics & Actuation

Campbell, CA | On-site | $140K–$160K + Equity

I'm working with a six-person, VC-backed robotics team building wearable technology that helps people move and do more.

Most robotics companies are teaching robots to do what people do. This team is going the other way, using robotics to expand what people themselves can do. I haven't come across anyone else building quite what they're building.

They're now looking for an exceptional Mechanical or Mechatronics Engineer to own actuation and mechanism development from first principles through working hardware and ultimately production.

What you'll work on

You'll design and build compact actuation and mechanical systems for wearable robotics, solving problems around:

• Multi-degree-of-freedom actuation
• Compact actuator and transmission architectures
• Motor and drivetrain selection
• Mechanism design and motion control
• Tight packaging, mass, thermal and noise constraints
• Rapid prototyping, testing and iteration
• Taking hardware from concept through production

These are difficult engineering problems operating close to the limits of what's currently feasible with today's hardware.

This isn't an optimisation role on an established product. You'll be expected to start with the physics, make architectural decisions, build prototypes, test them, learn quickly and ultimately own hardware that works.

What they're looking for

They're flexible on years of experience. What matters far more is evidence of exceptional engineering ability and genuine 0-to-1 building.

You could be relatively early in your career or considerably more experienced. They're particularly interested in people who can demonstrate:

• Genuine 0-to-1 ownership of a mechanical or mechatronic system
• Hands-on experience with actuators, mechanisms or motion systems
• Strong mechanical first-principles reasoning
• CAD and rapid prototyping capability
• Hardware you've personally built, tested and shipped or deployed
• A bias toward building and learning rather than over-analysing

Experience with robotic hands, wearable robotics, tendon or cable-driven mechanisms, humanoids, aerospace, drones, medical robotics or similarly demanding hardware would be particularly relevant.

Exceptional engineering work outside your day job counts too. Formula Student/FSAE, robotics teams, ambitious personal projects, competition wins or other evidence that you build difficult things because you want to is interesting here.

Why join

You'll have genuine ownership of an unsolved technical problem, work directly with the founder and help shape both the product and the engineering approach from an extremely early stage.

The mission matters too. The long-term ambition is to build technology that expands human physical capability and ultimately makes movement and physical skills more accessible to more people.

The team is based in Campbell, California, with in-person collaboration as the norm and a culture built around trusted autonomy.

Base is $140K–$160K plus early-stage equity. The team is upfront that they aren't competing with big-tech cash. This is for someone who wants real ownership of a new problem and a meaningful stake from very early on.

Visa transfers are considered.

If you've built something technically difficult involving actuation or mechanisms, I'd particularly like to hear about what you personally owned and built.