Prototype Engineer

Physical Intelligence; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Physical Intelligence is seeking a hardware-focused engineer to join the hardware team in San Francisco. You will collaborate across research, deployments and operations to translate experimental requirements into buildable hardware systems.

You will rapidly design and fabricate mechanical, electrical, and sensor prototypes, build end-to-end prototype systems, and document designs and test results to support knowledge transfer.

Responsibilities

• Rapidly design and fabricate mechanical, electrical, and sensor prototypes to support research experiments and engineering development.
• Partner directly with researchers to understand experimental requirements and translate them into buildable hardware systems.
• Build end-to-end prototype systems: from concept sketches through CAD, fabrication, wiring, sensor integration, and validation.
• Design and iterate on fixtures, jigs, test rigs, and custom tooling to enable research workflows.
• Evaluate and select sensors, actuators, and off-the-shelf components for integration into prototype systems.
• Develop quick-turn PCBs, wiring harnesses, and cable assemblies for prototype electronics.
• Perform hands-on assembly, troubleshooting, and debugging of electromechanical and robotic systems.
• Collaborate with electrical and robot software engineers to integrate hardware with control systems, firmware, and runtime software.
• Identify and address failure modes specific to hardware operating in unstructured, real-world environments (contact forces, wear, thermal effects, cable management, etc.).
• Document designs, test results, and build procedures to support knowledge transfer and design iteration.

Job description

Physical Intelligence is bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world. We are a team of engineers, scientists, roboticists, and company builders developing foundation models and learning algorithms to power the robots of today and the physically-actuated devices of the future.

The team

This role is part of the hardware team and involves collaborating cross functionally across research, deployments and operations.

In this role you will:

• Rapidly design and fabricate mechanical, electrical, and sensor prototypes to support research experiments and engineering development.

• Partner directly with researchers to understand experimental requirements and translate them into buildable hardware systems.

• Build end-to-end prototype systems: from concept sketches through CAD, fabrication, wiring, sensor integration, and validation.

• Design and iterate on fixtures, jigs, test rigs, and custom tooling to enable research workflows.

• Evaluate and select sensors, actuators, and off-the-shelf components for integration into prototype systems.

• Develop quick-turn PCBs, wiring harnesses, and cable assemblies for prototype electronics.

• Perform hands-on assembly, troubleshooting, and debugging of electromechanical and robotic systems.

• Collaborate with electrical and robot software engineers to integrate hardware with control systems, firmware, and runtime software.

• Identify and address failure modes specific to hardware operating in unstructured, real-world environments (contact forces, wear, thermal effects, cable management, etc.).

• Document designs, test results, and build procedures to support knowledge transfer and design iteration.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.