Senior Industrial Designer | Robotics

Dolmen; Berlin; On-site; EUR 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid learning time

Learning budget

Portfolio support

Conference talks

Volunteer day

Job summary

Dolmen in Berlin is seeking an experienced hardware industrial designer to shape the physical identity of our humanoid robots. You will translate design direction into robust, ship-ready hardware, collaborating directly with founders and lead engineers.

This role emphasizes passive safety, from geometry and clearances to user interactions, with hands-on prototyping, CAD handover, and involvement from model to production. A strong portfolio and comfort with rapid iteration are essential.

Qualifications

• Degree requirement in industrial/product design or design-focused engineering.
• Approximately 5+ years designing physical products, in-house or studio.
• Experience with safety and regulatory considerations in hardware.
• Experience with small-series manufacturing and design for mass production.
• Strong collaboration with engineers; able to read mechanical drawings.

Responsibilities

• Shape the hardware identity of humanoids, translating design direction into physical, ship-ready systems.
• Design for passive safety, addressing clearances, pinch points, and safe interactions.
• Integrate complex systems, packaging sensors, cameras, cooling, and cabling.
• Design physical human-machine interactions with status signals and tactile cues.
• Extend design language to docking, transport cases, maintenance gear, and packaging.
• From model to CAD, develop fast prototypes and deliver CAD for manufacturing.
• Source finishes, review samples, and liaise with suppliers for feasibility and lead times.

Skills

Industrial design

Product design

Hardware design

Ownership mindset

English fluency

Education

Degree in industrial or product design or design-focused engineering

Tools

Rhino

Onshape

SolidWorks

Fusion 360

3D printing

Job description

The Opportunity

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.
• 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.