Senior Industrial Designer | Robotics

Cell Labs GmbH; Berlin; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Ownership from day one

In-house labs & workshop access

Learning budget & conference support

Portfolio & growth opportunities

Job summary

Cell Labs in Berlin is hiring a senior designer to shape humanoid robotics hardware from look to finish, with a strong emphasis on manufacturability and safety. You will work with founders and lead engineers in an in-house environment to deliver robust physical systems.

We value at least five years creating physical products, with experience in small-series production, safety standards, and tools like Rhino/Onshape/SolidWorks or Fusion. Fluent English required; German is a plus.

Qualifications

• Background: degree in industrial or product design, or an engineering degree with design focus.
• Experience: around five years designing physical products, in-house or studio.
• Robust on hardware: ability to design for manufacturability and safety around people.
• Small-series production: experience with hundreds-not-millions scale.
• Safety/regulation: familiarity with mechanical safety requirements.
• Tools: surface modeling in Rhino, Onshape, SolidWorks or Fusion; 3D printing.

Responsibilities

• Shape the hardware identity: define look and feel, proportions and silhouette for humanoids.
• Design for passive safety: ensure geometry supports safe interactions before software.
• Integrate complex systems: package sensors, cameras, cooling, connectors and routing.
• Physical HMI: design status signals and tactile cues.
• Build ecosystem: extend design to charging docks, transport cases and packaging.
• From model to CAD: create physical models, validate, then hand over CAD to engineering.
• Materials & processes: select finishes, review samples, work with suppliers.

Job description

We build humanoid systems: full stack, from hardware and electronics to software and manufacturing, all in-house in Berlin.

At Cell Labs, we push the boundary of what robotics can achieve. Our goal is clear: to build systems that empower humans, not replace them. Our technology is already deployed with industry leading customers and partners. Now, our own product is close to launch.

The quiet phase is over. We are looking for people who want to be here early, take ownership, and help us build what others only talk about.

Location: Berlin (on-site) Start: Asap Employment Type: Full-time

Tasks

• Shape the hardware identity: Define how our humanoids look and feel: proportions, surfaces, overall silhouette. You take the design direction we already have and carry it through to physical systems that actually ship.
• Design for passive safety first: Safety sits in the geometry from the first sketch. You work through clearances, pinch points, contact surfaces and fall behavior so the robot is safe around people before software gets involved.
• Integrate complex systems: Package the internals (sensors, cameras, cooling, connectors, cable routing) so the technical parts look intended.
• Physical human machine interaction: Design status signals, touchpoints and small physical cues that tell the people working next to the robot what it is doing and what comes next.
• Build the ecosystem around the robot: Extend the design language to charging docks, transport cases, maintenance gear and packaging.
• From model to CAD: You build physical models fast, see what holds up, and change them until they do. Then you do the surfacing and hand over CAD that engineering can build from directly.
• Materials and processes: Select finishes, review physical samples, and work suppliers on feasibility, cost and lead times. You are willing to try materials that are not standard and to bring in specialized external labs.

Requirements

• Background: A degree in industrial or product design, or an engineering degree where the design side is clearly the stronger half.
• Experience: Around five years or more designing physical products, in house or at a studio. Robotics, medical devices, lab and industrial equipment, mobility, or another field where the hardware has to hold up in front of people.
• Small series: You have worked on products built in the hundreds rather than the millions, and know how much that changes what a shape can be.
• Safety and regulation: You have designed under mechanical safety requirements before, so guarding, clearances and contact safety are familiar territory rather than a new topic.
• Tools: Surface modeling in Rhino, Onshape, SolidWorks or Fusion, plus 3D printing and enough workshop practice to build your own models.
• Working with engineers: You read mechanical drawings, keep up in technical discussions, and can explain why a design decision matters.
• Languages: Fluent English. German is nice to have, not a requirement.

Benefits

• Ownership from day one: The physical design and hardware identity of our humanoids is yours. Short decisions, no approval chains, and you work directly with the founders and lead engineers.
• Everything under one roof: Labs, workshop and test rigs are in the same Kreuzberg building. The engineer you need is a walk away, not a ticket.
• Room to get better: Paid learning time and a personal budget for it, projects where something is allowed to not work the first time, and support for portfolio work and conference talks as the company becomes known.
• Benefits: A benefits package you put together yourself, covering mobility, home setup, health or food. Plus one extra paid day off a year for volunteering or a project you care about.

We build robots for everyone, so we want a team that reflects that. We hire on what you can do, and we welcome applications from people who are underrepresented in hardware design. If you don't tick every box but think this is your job, apply anyway.