Senior Actuation & Drivetrain Mechatronics Engineer

9mothers.com; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meaningful equity

Relocation assistance

Austin-based culture

Direct roadmap influence

Onsite lab and prototyping resources

Job summary

9 Mothers in Austin, TX seeks a Senior Mechatronics Engineer focused on actuation and drivetrain. You will own motors, gearboxes, and actuators from selection through tuning, with deep experience in servo drives, gear systems, and robust testing for field use.

Expect collaboration across mechanical, electrical, firmware, and robotics teams to deliver production-ready actuation and control solutions for edge devices and vehicle-mounted systems.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in mechatronics or motion-system engineering with a track record of shipping servo-driven products.
• Hands-on selection, commissioning and tuning of servo systems (BLDC/PMSM).
• Fluency with gearboxes: planetary, strain-wave, cycloidal, worm drives; tolerance and lifetime considerations.
• Characterization: test rigs, torque, back-EMF, efficiency, endurance tests.
• CAD in SolidWorks or similar with tolerance analysis.
• Prototyping and debugging drives using C/C++ or Python; reading motor-control firmware.
• Vendor qualification, second sourcing and cost-down for production.

Responsibilities

• Own actuators and all related components from selection to tuning and production release.
• Design drivetrain paths from rotor to load, including gear stages and seals.
• Characterize hardware with tests to feed control loop tuning.
• Tune current, velocity, and position loops with appropriate filters and observers.
• Engineer for abuse and environmental robustness (shock, vibration, EMI, temperature).
• Bridge mechanical, electrical, firmware, and robotics teams on moving systems; triage failures.

Skills

Servo depth

Drivetrain design

Control loops

Programming (C/C++/Python)

Supplier management

Hands-on hardware

Compliance

Tools

CAN

EtherCAT

ROS 2/DDS

Job description

9 Mothers in Austin, TX seeks a Senior Mechatronics Engineer focused on actuation and drivetrain. You will own motors, gearboxes, and actuators from selection through tuning, with deep experience in servo drives, gear systems, and robust testing for field use.

Expect collaboration across mechanical, electrical, firmware, and robotics teams to deliver production-ready actuation and control solutions for edge devices and vehicle-mounted systems.