Mechanical Design Engineer, Wearables

Roboticsconnected; Iowa; On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Mind Robotics is seeking an experienced Mechanical Engineer to own the wearable data collection platform's mechanical architecture across head-worn and body-worn devices. You will define budgets, tolerances, and thermal limits while directing design choices for optics, electronics, and compute integration.

You will prototype, test, and validate mechanical designs, including injection molding, polymers, and skin-contact ergonomics, working with suppliers and vendors to scale production.

Qualifications

• Exceptional mechanical intuition and understanding of forces, materials, and mechanisms.
• Experience owning the mechanical architecture of a shipped wearable or similar device end to end.
• Expertise packaging cameras, sensors, compute and batteries into compact enclosures with tight tolerances.
• Deep hands-on knowledge of injection molding and polymer selection, tooling decisions.
• Fluency in soft goods and textiles, skin-contact ergonomics, and related integration.
• Proficiency with CAD tools (SolidWorks, Catia, NX or similar) including surfacing.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, fast-moving, and system-wide curiosity.

Responsibilities

• Own the mechanical architecture of Mind's wearable data collection platform across head-worn and body-worn devices.
• Set mechanical requirements for optics, electrical, and compute teams: budgets, alignment, stiffness, thermal limits, and mass.
• Decide which mechanical problems each device generation tackles or omits; defend tradeoffs.
• Own build and tooling strategy: what is printed, machined, molded, or bought; tooling commitments; vendor relationships.
• Set mechanical standards for design review, tolerance analysis, materials, and DFM for vendors.
• Stay hands-on: build, test, and run tolerance, structural, drop, and thermal analyses on prototypes.
• Grow the mechanical bench through design reviews, mentorship, and hiring.

Skills

Mechanical intuition

Wearable architecture

Device packaging

Injection molding

Soft goods

CAD tools

Ergonomics

Adaptability

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. Join us if you want to move beyond digital intelligence and put intelligence into motion.

Responsibilities

• Own the mechanical architecture of Mind's wearable data collection platform across both head-worn and body-worn devices, including what carries forward between generations and what gets rebuilt.
• Set the mechanical requirements the optics, electrical, and compute teams design against: volume and keep-out budgets, alignment and stiffness targets, thermal limits, and mass allocation. Own the tradeoffs when those budgets conflict, and decide which ones give.
• Decide which mechanical problems each device generation takes on and which it deliberately does not, and hold that line when the program pushes back.
• Own build and tooling strategy for the platform: what is printed, machined, molded, or bought; when tooling gets committed; and which molders, soft goods vendors, and CMs Mind builds a long‑term relationship with.
• Set the mechanical standards other hardware teams work to: design review, tolerance analysis practice, materials and skin‑contact qualification, and DFM expectations for vendors.
• Stay hands‑on. Build, test, and break prototypes on real users, and personally run the tolerance, structural, drop, and thermal analyses that decide the architecture.
• Grow the mechanical bench through design review, mentorship on the wearable stack, and hiring.

Qualifications

• Exceptional mechanical intuition. You understand how forces, materials, and mechanisms behave instinctively.
• You have owned the mechanical architecture of a shipped wearable, head‑worn, or handheld consumer device end to end, and can describe both the tradeoffs you chose and the ones you refused.
• Depth packaging cameras, sensors, compute, and batteries into space‑constrained enclosures with tight tolerance and alignment requirements, with a track record of setting those budgets rather than working inside someone else's.
• Deep hands‑on knowledge of injection molding and polymer selection, from part design through tooling and T1 to production, including judgment on when to commit tooling.
• Working fluency in soft goods and textiles: straps, padding, fabric‑to‑rigid interfaces, and skin‑contact ergonomics. You know when this needs a specialist and can direct one.
• High proficiency in SolidWorks, Catia, NX, or similar CAD tools, including surfacing.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, moves fast, and curious about how the whole system works.