Actuator Engineer (Hands Team)

Rhoda; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Rhoda AI in Mountain View is seeking a hands-on engineer to design compact motor-gearbox actuators for the hand, delivering dexterity in a human-hand package. You will shape the actuation core of our robotic hand from concept through production, targeting real-world performance.

You will partner with structures and electrical teams to optimize packaging, thermal paths, drive integration and sensing, and you will bench-test actuator performance, efficiency and durability to validate designs.

Qualifications

• Track record of designing and shipping gearboxes, especially planetary gearboxes.
• Experience miniaturizing geartrains for tightly packaged, weight- and volume-constrained applications.
• Strong command of motor sizing and selection, including power draw, torque density, and efficiency analysis.

Responsibilities

• Design compact motor-gearbox actuator units for the hand's fingers and wrist, from concept through production
• Architect miniaturized geartrains — especially planetary — that hit torque, backlash, and packaging targets at finger scale
• Size and select motors against torque, speed, power-draw, thermal, and efficiency requirementsBuild and run bench and dyno tests to characterize actuator performance, efficiency, and durability
• Partner with the structures engineer on packaging and thermal paths, and with the electrical engineer on drive and sensing integration

Skills

Gearbox design

Planetary gearboxes

Motor sizing

Torque analysis

Efficiency analysis

Job description

At Rhoda AI, we’re building the next generation of generalist intelligent robots. We own the full robotics stack from high-performance hardware and robot systems to the infrastructure and state-of-the-art foundation world models that control our robots. Our robots are designed to be generalists capable of operating in complex, real-world environments and handling long-tail edge cases, made possible by our cutting edge research and end-to-end system design. We've raised over $450M and are investing aggressively in model research, infrastructure, hardware development, and manufacturing scale-up to make generalist robotics a reality.

You will design the actuation at the heart of the hand: compact, efficient motor-and-gearbox units that must deliver human-hand dexterity in a human-hand package. Your actuators define what the entire system can do.

What You'll Do

• Design compact motor-gearbox actuator units for the hand's fingers and wrist, from concept through production
• Architect miniaturized geartrains — especially planetary — that hit torque, backlash, and packaging targets at finger scale
• Size and select motors against torque, speed, power-draw, thermal, and efficiency requirementsBuild and run bench and dyno tests to characterize actuator performance, efficiency, and durability
• Partner with the structures engineer on packaging and thermal paths, and with the electrical engineer on drive and sensing integration

What You Bring

• Track record of designing and shipping gearboxes, especially planetary gearboxes
• Experience miniaturizing geartrains for tightly packaged, weight- and volume-constrained applications
• Strong command of motor sizing and selection, including power draw, torque density, and efficiency analysis

Nice to Have

• Gear design experience — tooth profiles, materials, and manufacturing methods
• Experience with tendon- or linkage-driven finger actuation
• Familiarity with backdrivability and transparency requirements for teleoperation