Senior Systems Engineer - Chassis

Apptronik; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Apptronik in Austin, TX seeks a senior systems engineer to drive integration, development, and lifecycle of the humanoid robot chassis. The chassis is the structural and electromechanical backbone, tying together mechanical structure, actuation, power, and controls.

You will develop system requirements, collaborate cross functionally, and ensure performance, reliability, safety, and manufacturability from concept through deployment.

Qualifications

• Experience designing and integrating complex structural, mechanical, and electrical systems for real time robotics.
• Strong understanding of structural mechanics, materials selection, GD&T, and production readiness.
• Experience integrating actuators and drivetrains into a chassis for production hardware.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain system level requirements and specifications for the robot chassis.
• Lead system architecture and interface definitions between chassis and other subsystems.
• Perform trade studies on structural performance, weight, cost, and reliability.
• Drive system integration across mechanical, power, wiring, and controls subsystems.
• Create verification and validation plans including structural load, fatigue, and thermal tests.
• Establish performance benchmarks for stiffness, mass, thermal limits, and life.
• Coordinate prototype builds and design reviews (DFM/DFA).
• Support supplier selection/qualification for structural components and fasteners.

Skills

Robotics design

Structural mechanics (FEA)

Materials selection

GD&T

DFM/ DFA for production

Actuator/gearbox integration

Wiring harness design

Thermal management

System integration

Cross-functional communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Master's degree in Mechanical/Electrical Engineering or equivalent

Job description

Apptronik is a human-centered robotics company developing AI-powered robots to support humanity in every facet of life. Our flagship humanoid robot, Apollo, is built to collaborate thoughtfully with people, starting with critical industries such as manufacturing and logistics, with future applications in healthcare, the home, and beyond.

We operate at the cutting edge of Applied AI, applying our expertise across the full robotics stack to solve some of society's most important problems. You will join a team dedicated to bringing Apollo to market at scale, tackling the complex challenges like safety, commercialization, and mass production to change the world for the better.

Senior Systems Engineer – Chassis

Location: Austin, TX – Onsite

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Senior Systems Engineer to drive the integration, development, and lifecycle of our next-generation humanoid robot chassis. The chassis is the structural and electromechanical backbone of the robot, and it ties together mechanical structure, actuation, power, and controls. This role sits at the intersection of structural and mechanical design, power distribution, thermal management, and systems integration. You will be responsible for developing system requirements, collaborating cross functionally, and ensuring that our chassis meets performance, reliability, safety, and manufacturability targets. This is a high impact role contributing from concept through deployment. If you thrive in a fast paced environment with a successful track record in engineering design verification and product validation of electro-mechanical products, we'd love to speak with you. This position requires strong experience in robotics systems design, integrating complex structural and mechanical systems, and the ability to turn technical concepts into pragmatic execution.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Develop and maintain system level requirements and specifications for the robot chassis and structural subsystems.
• Contribute to and implement system architecture for the humanoid chassis.
• Collaborate on interface definitions between chassis and structural hardware and higher level actuation, power, compute, and control systems.
• Perform trade studies across structural performance, weight, cost, manufacturability, and reliability.
• Drive system integration efforts across mechanical structure, power distribution, wiring and harness, and thermal subsystems.
• Develop verification and validation (V&V) plans and test protocols, including structural load testing, fatigue and life testing, thermal characterization, and vibration and shock testing.
• Establish and track performance benchmarks such as structural stiffness and strength margins, mass properties, thermal limits, ingress protection, and service life or cycle counts.
• Partner with mechanical, electrical, controls, AI, manufacturing, and supply chain teams.
• Support systems requirement definition and integration across structure, power management, electrical architecture, sensing, compute mounting, and cable routing.
• Design for structural integrity, fault tolerance, serviceability, and reliability in a production environment.
• Coordinate prototype builds, structural design reviews, and DFM and DFA reviews.
• Support supplier selection and qualification for structural components, fasteners, castings and machined parts, and precision hardware.
• Support supplier selection and qualification for structural components, fasteners, castings and machined parts, and precision hardware.
• Support compliance, safety standards, and field deployment readiness.
• Design and support real time monitoring, structural health data logging, and remote diagnostic capabilities.
• Drive and support root cause failure analysis, including structural failures, fastener and joint failures, and wear, and corrective action to enhance uptime and performance.

SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS

• Strong experience designing and integrating complex structural, mechanical, and electrical systems for real time, dynamic robotics applications.
• Strong understanding of structural mechanics (FEA, stress and fatigue analysis), materials selection (metals, composites, additive manufacturing), GD&T, and DFM and DFA for production hardware.
• Experience with actuator, gearbox, and drivetrain integration into a structural chassis, including mounting, load transfer, and alignment and tolerancing.
• Excellent cross functional communication skills.
• Experience with wiring harness design and routing, cable management, and EMI and thermal considerations within a dense electromechanical chassis.
• Experience bringing robotic and mechatronic hardware from prototype to production, including tolerance stack up and manufacturing process selection.
• Experience leveraging industrial design and safety standards for robotic requirement generation, design, system integration, and test
• Solid grasp of robotics architecture patterns, kinematics, dynamics, and mass and inertia budgeting for legged and wheeled mobile platforms.
• Background in systems engineering and reliability engineering, including logging, telemetry, structural health monitoring, and automated test frameworks.
• Knowledge of environmental sealing and ingress protection, vibration and shock qualification, and thermal management for embedded electronics within a structural enclosure.
• Familiarity with requirements management and traceability tools and model-based systems engineering practices.
• Collaborative, communicative, and motivated by working within a tight knit team of expert engineers.
• Adaptable and comfortable with ambiguity in an R&D focused environment.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENECE

Bachelor's degree in engineering. Master's and / or PhD degree in engineering preferred.

• Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent.
• 6+ years of experience in complex robotics systems or autonomous systems.
• Demonstrated experience contributing to the system-level architecture and integration of robotic or mechatronic products.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times.
• Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen.
• Hearing and speech to communicate.
• This is a direct hire. Please, no outside Agency solicitations.

Apptronik provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.