Robotics Mechatronics Engineer

Avatar Robotics; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Avatar Robotics in San Francisco, CA is seeking a Robotics Mechatronics Engineer to design, fabricate, and assemble warehouse robots and integrate them with our software stack. You will tune manipulation control and ensure reliable real-world operation.

You'll own hardware integration on the floor, work closely with software, and travel to customer sites as needed. The role requires hands-on experience shipping hardware and a passion for robotics.

Qualifications

• 4+ years building physical robots, with at least one shipped unit.
• Strong CAD skills and hands-on electromechanical experience.
• Proficiency in ROS/ROS 2 and hardware-software integration.
• Solid controls fundamentals and ability to tune on real hardware.

Responsibilities

• Design and fabricate custom robot parts and integrate components into complete robots.
• Assemble arms, bases, grippers, sensors, and test propulsion and control systems.
• Bring hardware into the software stack via vendor SDKs, firmware, and ROS 2.
• Develop and tune manipulation control for trajectory and grasping tasks.
• Calibrate arms/sensors and optimize controllers for speed and payload.
• Iterate mechanical design and control behavior from floor results.
• Build wiring harnesses and power distribution; document builds.
• Test robots before shipping and communicate build processes.

Skills

Robot hardware

CAD design

ROS 2

Control theory

Python

C++

Electromechanical

Tools

SolidWorks

Onshape

Fusion 360

ROS

CAN

EtherCAT

Job description

We're hiring a Robotics Mechatronics Engineer to help develop our robot fleet. You'll design, fabricate, and assemble warehouse robots, then integrate them with our software stack and tune the manipulation control that makes them work. This is a mechanically led role spanning physical design and assembly, hardware integration, and controls software. We're looking for people who have shipped real robot hardware before.

What we do

Avatar Robotics is building flexible robot fleets to revolutionize industrial work across the country. We're on a mission to make every tedious and dangerous warehouse/factory job virtual, safe, and semi-autonomous.

With proven AI approaches and long distance teleoperation, you'll join a team that deploys a physical work solution that's scalable now, not later. We envision a world where millions of machines will make our goods and consumables more affordable and accessible than ever, while critical workers operate these robot fleets from the comfort of their homes.

At Avatar Robotics, you'll create the workforce of the future—in one of the largest markets ($1T+ manual labor market in the US alone).

We're a small but powerful team at the early innings of deploying thousands of units into facilities worldwide.

What you'll do

• Design and fabricate custom parts: brackets, mounts, end-of-arm tooling, and cable management.
• Assemble and integrate purchased arms, bases, grippers, and sensors into complete robots.
• Bring new hardware into our software stack through vendor SDKs, firmware, and ROS 2.
• Develop and tune manipulation control: trajectory following, grasping, and force and compliance behavior.
• Calibrate arms and sensors, and tune controllers for repeatability, speed, and payload.
• Iterate on both the mechanical design and the control behavior based on results from the floor.
• Build wiring harnesses and power distribution.
• Test robots before they ship, and document how they were built.

What you bring

• 4+ years building physical robots, including at least one you shipped.
• Strong CAD (SolidWorks, Onshape, Fusion, or equivalent).
• Hands-on electromechanical skills: harnesses, soldering, motors, sensors, and scopes.
• Solid controls fundamentals: kinematics, PID and trajectory control, and calibration on real hardware.
• Experience integrating arms and sensors with a software stack through ROS/ROS 2 and vendor SDKs.
• Firmware and low-level interface experience (CAN, EtherCAT, serial).
• Practical Python and comfort working in Linux; able to read and modify C++.
• Bonus: mobile manipulators, warehouse automation, cobots, force control, or end-of-arm tooling.

Additional Notes

• You'll own hardware integration and manipulation control. Our software team owns autonomy, teleoperation, and the real-time stack.
• Our team develops on physical robots in person, so expect to be on the floor with hardware most days.
• Need to be located or willing to relocate to San Francisco, CA
• Travel to customer warehouse sites for deployment and testing
• Physical work required: lifting robot components, warehouse environments, hand and power tools
• Please include photos, CAD, or video of a robot you built. This matters more than your resume.

Come join us in building a new global economy, where anyone can do manual work remotely and with robo-scale. Together, we can make goods and resources more affordable and available than they've ever been, for everyone on Earth.