Robotics Mechanical Engineer

Onyx Staffing; New York (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Onyx Staffing is seeking a Mechanical Engineer to design humanoid robotic arms, chassis, and actuated joints for real-world production. You will take manipulator subsystems from concept through prototyping, testing, and deployment on the factory floor, working closely with controls and electrical teams.

The role emphasizes live hardware development, torque density, backdrivability, and tolerance analysis, with a path from breadboard to manufacturable, field-ready assemblies.

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or related field.
• 5+ years designing and shipping electromechanical hardware.
• Direct, hands-on experience designing robotic manipulators or high-performance mechanisms.
• Deep expertise in actuator and mechanism design: motors, gearing, bearings, and power transmission.
• Strong design-for-manufacturing mindset and past hardware that shipped.

Responsibilities

• Own the mechanical design of robotic arms end-to-end—from concept through production.
• Design actuated joints and drivetrains optimizing torque density, backdrivability, weight and durability.
• Integrate motors, gearing, bearings, sensors into compact assemblies for manufacturability.
• Perform tolerance stack-ups, GD&T, structural/FEA analyses and fastener selection.
• Prototype rapidly with 3D printing and CNC machining; iterate to functional hardware.
• Define and run test plans, characterize performance, and feed results back to design.
• Collaborate with controls, firmware, and electrical teams to ensure clean, controllable hardware.
• Lead design reviews and establish mechanical design standards.

Skills

Mechanical design

GD&T

Tolerance analysis

Project leadership

Education

BS/MS/PhD in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

SolidWorks/Creo/NX/Onshape

PDM/PLM workflows

Job description

Our client builds and deploys humanoid robots that work on real factory floors. The arms are where a huge amount of the hard work lives — they’re what make the robots genuinely useful, and getting them right is one of the hardest, highest-leverage problems the team faces. They ship real hardware that has to survive a real production environment, shift after shift, not a demo on a workbench.

They are looking for a Mechanical Engineer to aid in the design of their robotic arms, chassis, and UMI, which includes the joints, actuators, transmissions, structures, and end effectors that let their humanoids do real work. The role involves taking manipulator subsystems from first-principles concept through prototyping, test, design-for-manufacturing, and deployment on the floor. This is a hands-on IC role for a mechanical engineer who likes to live close to the metal — someone who has shipped real manipulator hardware, sweats torque density, backdrivability, and tolerance stack-ups, and wants the thing they designed to hold up under real use. The engineer will work closely with controls, firmware, and electrical teams: their mechanical design is what gives those teams something clean and controllable to close a loop around.

What You’ll Do

• Own the mechanical design of robotic arms end-to-end — joints, actuators, transmissions, structures, and end effectors — from concept through production.
• Design high-performance actuated joints and drivetrains, optimizing for torque density, backdrivability, weight, stiffness, durability, and cost.
• Integrate motors, gearing (harmonic/cycloidal, quasi-direct-drive, cable-driven), bearings, sensors, and structure into compact, manufacturable assemblies that fit a human-scale arm.
• Run the fundamentals: tolerance stack-ups and GD&T, structural/FEA analysis, fastener and bearing selection, and trade-offs against weight, cost, and reliability.
• Rapidly prototype with 3D printing and CNC machining; iterate fast from breadboard to functional hardware, then to a design that builds repeatedly.
• Define and run test plans, performance characterization, life/durability testing, and root-cause failure analysis, and feed results straight back into the design.
• Partner closely with controls, firmware, and electrical so the arm’s mechanical design supports clean, controllable, well-sensed behavior on real hardware.
• Drive design-for-manufacturing and design-for-assembly (DFM/DFA), and work with suppliers and contract manufacturers to scale from prototype to the factory floor.
• Lead design reviews, set mechanical design standards, and raise the bar for the team.

Required Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a closely related field.
• 5+ years designing and shipping electromechanical hardware (advanced degrees can offset years of experience).
• Direct, hands-on experience designing robotic manipulators, actuated joints, or comparable high-performance mechanisms: humanoids, cobots, legged robots, robotic arms, exoskeletons, aerospace/space mechanisms, or precision motion systems.
• Deep expertise in actuator and mechanism design: motors, gearing and transmissions, bearings, and power transmission.
• A genuine design-and-manufacturing mindset: designs for how parts get made, sourced, and assembled, and has shipped hardware that survived the real world.
• Fluency in mechanical fundamentals: dynamics, statics, machine design, materials selection, GD&T, and tolerance analysis.
• Expert command of a major 3D CAD package (SolidWorks, Creo, NX, or Onshape) and PDM/PLM workflows.
• A track record of taking designs from concept to validated, manufacturable hardware that actually shipped.

Nice to Have (Strong Pluses)

• Experience with dexterous hands, grippers, and end effectors.
• Whole-arm or whole-body humanoid/legged design experience.
• FEA / structural simulation, topology optimization, and lightweighting.
• Thermal design for densely packed actuator assemblies.
• Experience integrating force/torque sensors, encoders, and IMUs into mechanical systems.
• Enough fluency with controls and dynamics to design a clean, controllable mechanical “plant” — and to speak the same language as the controls team.
• Experience scaling a hardware product from prototype to volume manufacturing.
• Patents, publications, or a background in competition robotics (FRC, RoboCup, DARPA challenges, etc.).