Mechanical Design Engineer, Plastics

Mind Robotics; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Mind Robotics seeks an experienced mechanical design engineer to own the plastic component design on the factory floor. You will drive Class-A surfaces, from early concept to production tooling, and ensure part quality, fit, and appearance across assemblies.

You will select polymers, define GD&T, support tooling through PPAP, and validate prototypes with 3D printing, casting, and CNC methods in a fast-paced robotics environment in Palo Alto.

Qualifications

• 5+ years designing injection-molded plastic parts for high-volume products.
• Deep knowledge of polymer materials science and processing effects.
• Fluent in GD&T (ASME Y14.5) and tolerance analysis.
• Experience defending cosmetic appearance standards with vendors.
• Strong surfacing skills and ability to read mold flow results.

Responsibilities

• Own the mechanical design of A-surface plastic components from concept to tooling.
• Develop Class-A surfaces and translate surfacing to manufacturable parts.
• Select polymers and processes for cosmetic stack balancing appearance and durability.
• Define GD&T, tolerance stack-ups, and datum schemes across assemblies.
• Drive DFM/DFM for injection molding and secondary operations.
• Own cosmetic specs including textures, gloss, color matching, and in-mold decoration.
• Collaborate with tool shops, molders, and CMs through PPAP and first-shot parts.
• Build and test prototypes using 3D printing, casting, CNC, and validate with tests.

Skills

Mechanical design

Injection molding

Polymer materials science

GD&T

SolidWorks/CATIA/NX/Creo

Tools

SolidWorks

CATIA

NX

Creo

Job description

About Mind:

Mind Robotics is building Physical AI for real-world industrial deployment, starting with the factory floor. We believe the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands‑on with the physical world every day - and we're looking for people who are passionate about robotics, value ownership, and are excited to tackle difficult problems.

Responsibilities

• Own the mechanical design of A-surface plastic components for the robot — covers, skins, shrouds, bezels, and cosmetic enclosures — from industrial design intent through production tooling.




• Develop Class-A surfaces and translate ID surfacing into manufacturable parts, holding gap-and-flush, parting line, draft, and aesthetic intent across the full assembly.




• Select polymers and processes across the cosmetic stack: ABS, PC, PC/ABS, PA and glass-filled grades, TPU/TPE, and specialty resins — balancing appearance, impact and creep behavior, chemical and UV resistance, flammability, and cost.




• Define and own GD&T, tolerance stack-ups, and datum schemes across multi-part plastic assemblies and their interfaces to structures, actuators, and electronics.




• Drive DFM and DFA for injection molding, insert molding, overmolding, and secondary operations — gate and ejector strategy, wall thickness, ribbing and boss design, warp and sink mitigation, and shutoff design.




• Own cosmetic specification: textures, gloss levels, color matching, painting, plating, laser etching, and in-mold decoration, plus the defect standards and limit samples that go with them.




• Work directly with tool shops, molders, and CMs through tool kickoff, T0/T1 sampling, tuning, and PPAP — reviewing mold flow, tool design, and first-shot parts, and driving corrective action.




• Build and test prototypes using 3D printing, urethane casting, CNC, and soft tooling, then validate with drop, structural, and environmental testing.

Qualifications

• Exceptional mechanical intuition. You understand how polymers flow, shrink, warp, and fail — and you can predict it before the tool is cut.




• 5+ years designing injection-molded plastic parts for high-volume consumer, automotive, or robotics products, with parts you took from CAD through production tooling.




• Deep, hands-on knowledge of polymer materials science: resin families, fillers and additives, anisotropy, moisture sensitivity, and how process conditions change part behavior.




• Fluent in GD&T (ASME Y14.5 or ISO GPS) and tolerance analysis, including worst-case and statistical stack-ups on compliant plastic parts.




• Proven experience owning cosmetic A-surface parts and defending appearance standards with vendors.




• Strong surfacing skills in SolidWorks, CATIA, NX, Creo, or similar; comfort reading mold flow results and tool drawings.




• Comfortable with ambiguity, moves fast, and curious about how the whole system works.