Mechanical Engineer - Factory Automation

CircuitHub; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 60,241 - 133,869; Full time

Job summary

CircuitHub in Cambridge is hiring Mechanical Engineers to design, build, and commission automated robotic systems for our Grid manufacturing platform. You’ll drive fast-paced mechanical design, prototyping, and iteration from concept through deployment, working with a motivated team in a dynamic environment.

The role emphasizes hands-on creation of robotic subsystems, end effectors, and assemblies, with a focus on manufacturability and reliability.

Qualifications

• Fast-paced mechanical design experience with 3D CAD and machined sub‑systems.
• Able to design, prototype, iterate and build systems end‑to‑end in a dynamic team.
• Robotics or automation exposure, hobbyist or professional, valued.

Responsibilities

• Design gantries and end effectors in Fusion 360.
• Analyze end effector behavior from video and revise geometry.
• Architect new mechanical systems for automation processes.
• Install, commission and debug robots.
• Manage supplier relationships to facilitate builds.
• Troubleshoot wiring cabinets when a motor drive fails.
• Collaborate with build team to ensure safe, quick builds.
• Specify sensors for error detection during operation.

Skills

3D CAD

Beckhoff TwinCAT

CNC programming

Robotics experience

Optics

Tools

Fusion 360

Job description

About CircuitHub

CircuitHub is reshaping electronics manufacturing with The Grid—a factory-scale robotics platform designed to make small-batch, high-mix electronics assembly radically more efficient. Think semiconductor-fab levels of precision applied to the chaotic world of prototyping and low-volume production. The result? A 10x throughput improvement in one of the world’s most foundational industries.

We’ve raised $20M from top-tier investors including Y Combinator and Google Ventures—and we’re already profitable. Our customers include industry leaders like Tesla, Meta, and Zipline.

The Grid isn’t a prototype—it’s live, scaling fast, and already delivering real revenue. We’re now building the engineering core that will scale it further.

What We’re Looking For

We’re hiring driven Mechanical Engineers to join our automation team. This role is focused on the design, development, and commissioning of automated robotic systems that support our advanced manufacturing process.

Experience with fast paced mechanical design is essential, you must be confident with 3D CAD and have experience of designing and commissioning machined components as part of wider sub-systems.

This role is perfect for an individual who loves to see their own designs through from concept, to build through to deployment. You will be designing, prototyping, iterating and building systems constantly, working in a dynamic environment amongst highly motivated peers. You must have built things before, ideally robotics, whether as a hobbyist, student, employee or founder.

Bonus skills

• Exposure to PLC systems, particularly Beckhoff TwinCAT
• Programming and running CNC machinery
• Design of chemical handling machinery
• Experience working with optics

What You’ll do

Every day is different, on a given day you could be doing anything from forklifting steel fabrications off a lorry and machining batches of parts to architecting machinery for new automation processes and liaising with suppliers. Here are some examples of tasks you might get involved with:

• Design gantries and end effectors in Fusion 360
• Analyze end effector behavior from video recordings and revise its geometry to improve reliability
• Conceive of novel mechanical systems to handle electronics parts
• Install, commission and debug robots
• Manage supplier relationships to facilitate machine builds
• Troubleshoot a wiring cabinet when a motor drive will not enable
• Work with build team members to ensure builds run smoothly, safely and quickly
• Specifying a suite of sensors to ensure error detection during machine operation

What CircuitHub can offer

Salary, £45,000 - £100,000 dependent on experience

A candidate at the lower end of this range might have:

• Built some systems before with some exposure to robotics/automation
• Experience of working as part of a mechanical design team, seeing parts and subsystems through to manufacture
• A keen interest in transferring their career more towards practical robotics
• Knowledge of design for manufacturing by machining

A candidate on the upper end of this range might have:

• Managed the build and deployment of large scale automated systems before
• Experience of PLC programming and debugging, particularly TwinCat
• Experience of design for a wide range of manufacturing methods from machining to sheet metal to injection moulding.
• Experience of technical mentoring of more junior engineers

Think you can do more than this? Great! The salary range is not a hard limit, if you are an expert on all of the above we still want to talk to you.

Not quite so experienced, but passionate and want to learn? Also great! Talk to us, we might be able to find a place for you.

Location

This is an onsite role out of our site in central Cambridge working alongside a driven team of automation engineers who are designing, building and supporting the expansion of our Grid PCB assembly system.