Senior Mechanical Engineer, Robotic Platforms (Outdoor)

Gritt; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Gritt is building autonomous, rugged robotics for heavy equipment on construction sites. You will own mechanical integration of robots onto skid-steer and tracked platforms, making critical trade-offs in structure, seals, and thermal management for outdoor use.

This hands-on senior role requires CAD mastery, field debugging, and collaboration with machine shops and vendors to deliver repeatable, field-ready systems across harsh environments from desert heat to sub-zero cold.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of mechanical engineering experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or heavy equipment.
• Direct experience integrating robotic arms, actuators, or heavy payloads onto mobile platforms.
• Proven track record designing to IP67 or stricter for real outdoor deployments.
• Strong hands-on cabling and harness design, including connectors and diagrams.
• Expert CAD proficiency and GD&T, tolerance stacks, production-quality drawings.
• Structural analysis skills with weldment sizing and knowledge of when to use FEA.
• Comfort working in fast-scaling environments and traveling to field sites.

Responsibilities

• Lead mechanical integration programs that mate robotic arms and payloads to skid-steer and tracked platforms, focusing on mounts, load paths, power/data routing, and service access.
• Design and specify heavy-duty mechanical systems built to survive continuous outdoor duty cycles on active construction sites.
• Architect platforms for reconfigurability to handle multiple end-effectors and tasks without rebuilding from scratch.
• Own the environmental strategy, including IP-rated enclosures, gasketing, thermal management, and ingress protection.
• Route and validate wire harnesses and cable assemblies with attention to strain relief and serviceability.
• Integrate sensor and lighting packages with attention to field-of-view and maintenance access.
• Drive design-for-service from the first CAD review and supervise ECOs with vendors.
• Go to field sites to diagnose failures, instrument systems, and feed learnings back into revisions.

Skills

Robotics integration

Heavy equipment platforms

CAD proficiency

IP67 design

Electrical harnessing

FEA / structural analysis

Tools

OnShape

SolidWorks

Job description

Gritt is building autonomous, rugged robotics for heavy equipment on construction sites. You will own mechanical integration of robots onto skid-steer and tracked platforms, making critical trade-offs in structure, seals, and thermal management for outdoor use.

This hands-on senior role requires CAD mastery, field debugging, and collaboration with machine shops and vendors to deliver repeatable, field-ready systems across harsh environments from desert heat to sub-zero cold.