Lead Mechatronics Engineer – Surgical Robotics Gripper

Octavian Robotics, Inc.; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k)

Paid time off

Parental leave

Relocation package available

Job summary

Octavian Robotics, Inc. is building the next generation of surgical instrument handling robots in Los Angeles.

We seek a Cognizant Engineer to own the VLA-powered gripping and manipulation system from concept to deployment in hospital Sterile Processing Departments. You will design end-effectors, integrate perception with force and tactile sensing on a 6DOF cobot arm, and operationalize learned manipulation policies on real hardware, working directly with the founders.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or Robotics (M.S. a plus).
• Real experience taking a robotic system from concept to delivery on an R&D team.
• Manipulation and gripping experience: end-effector or gripper design, grasping, pick-and-place, or assembly automation.
• 6DOF and cobot arm integration, including low-level programming and motion control.
• Comfortable at the hardware and ML boundary: integrate learned policies, run inference on a robot, collect demonstration data, and debug policy failures on hardware.

Responsibilities

• Own the VLA gripping and manipulation system cradle to grave: concept, design, build, bring-up, deployment, and field reliability.
• Design the gripper and mechatronics: end-effector design, actuation, GD&T drawings, mass, cost and manufacturability tradeoffs, rapid prototyping, and production-ready designs.
• Integrate perception and sensing into the manipulation loop: cameras and vision, force, torque and tactile feedback, and the 6DOF arm.
• Operationalize VLA and learned manipulation policies: data pipeline, policy inference into real-time control, evaluate grasp success, and close sim-to-real iteration.
• Optimize with modeling and test: analytical and physical simulation, then validate on hardware.
• Interface with suppliers to build supply chain and vendor qualification; deliver world-class fit and finish for launch.
• Support deployment: help assemble and install systems at hospital sites; travel 1–5%.

Skills

6DOF integration

Python

ROS/ROS 2

VLA/policy integration

Mechanical design

Education

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or Robotics

M.S. a plus

Tools

CAD

3D printing

Laser cutting

CNC

PCB layout

Job description

Octavian Robotics, Inc. is building the next generation of surgical instrument handling robots in Los Angeles.

We seek a Cognizant Engineer to own the VLA-powered gripping and manipulation system from concept to deployment in hospital Sterile Processing Departments. You will design end-effectors, integrate perception with force and tactile sensing on a 6DOF cobot arm, and operationalize learned manipulation policies on real hardware, working directly with the founders.