Mechatronics Engineer, VLA Gripping & Assembly (Lead)

Sorting Robotics; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Sorting Robotics is seeking a Cognizant Engineer in Los Angeles to lead the design and implementation of a VLA-powered gripping and assembly system. The role involves hands-on ownership from concept to deployment, focusing on integration of vision, force sensing, and 6DOF arm technology.

Candidates must have over 5 years of experience in robotic systems, strong Python skills, and the ability to work at the intersection of hardware and machine learning. Being comfortable with cannabis is a plus as we cater to the legal cannabis market.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in taking robotic systems from concept to delivery.
• Experience with real gripper and end-effector manipulation.
• Comfortable integrating ML policies into hardware.

Responsibilities

• Own the VLA gripping and assembly system from concept to deployment.
• Design gripper and mechatronics, ensuring production-ready designs.
• Integrate sensing mechanisms in the manipulation loop.

Skills

Robotic systems design

Python programming

Prototyping tools (CAD, 3D printing, CNC)

Machine learning integration

ROS/ROS 2 familiarity

Job description

Sorting Robotics builds and deploys robotic systems for real manufacturing floors. We are hiring the Cognizant Engineer (CogE) to own our next flagship: a VLA-powered (Vision-Language-Action) gripping and assembly system. You will lead this product from the rig on the bench to machines running in customers facilities, and own its technical success end to end.

This is a hands-on technical leadership seat. You will design the end-effector and mechatronics, integrate vision and force/tactile sensing into a 6DOF arm, and operationalize learned manipulation policies (VLA models) so the system reliably grips, places, and assembles in the real world. You work directly with the founder.

What You Will Own

• The VLA gripping and assembly system cradle to grave: concept, design, build, bring-up, deployment, and field reliability.
• Gripper and mechatronics design: end-effector, actuation, GD&T, rapid prototyping (3D print, laser, CNC, PCB), production-ready designs.
• Perception and sensing in the manipulation loop: vision, force/torque, tactile, and the 6DOF arm.
• Operationalizing VLA / learned policies: demonstration data pipeline, policy inference into real-time control, grasp/assembly evaluation, sim-to-real iteration.

You Should Have

• 5+ years taking robotic systems from concept to delivery.
• Identify as an AI native engineer.
• Real gripper / end-effector / manipulation experience and 6DOF arm integration.
• Comfort at the hardware + ML boundary: you do not have to train VLAs from scratch, but you can integrate learned policies, run inference on a robot, curate demo data, and debug why a grasp fails (ROS/ROS 2, OpenVLA / pi-0 style policies, imitation learning, sim-to-real a strong plus).
• Strong Python and physical prototyping tools (CAD, 3D printing, CNC, PCB).

On-site in Van Nuys / Los Angeles. Contract-to-hire or direct full-time. Comfortable with cannabis a plus (we build for the legal cannabis market).