Softgoods Engineer

Proception Inc.; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Meaningful equity

Comprehensive health coverage

Job summary

Proception Inc. is seeking a full-time Softgoods Engineer to own the skin and compliant interfaces of their dexterous humanoid systems.

You will design soft pads, fingertips, and multi-layer skins; prototype with casting, fabric, and lamination; and collaborate across mechanical and sensing teams to enable durable, field-ready components. You will drive manufacturability, manage material selection and mold design, and contribute to the lifecycle from benchtop to production.

Qualifications

• 01+ years in softgoods, elastomer components, or soft robotics for hardware or robotics
• Hands-on silicone casting and molding including mold design and bonding with rigid substrates
• Knowledge of elastomer properties: Shore, hyperelasticity, tear strength, aging
• Direct prototyping experience: casting, sewing, laser cutting, 3D printing molds
• Fluent CAD for mold and soft-part geometry including drafts and undercuts
• Designed soft parts for wear: cyclic loading, grip degradation, cleaning, field replacement
• Startup reflexes: execution focus, fast learning, good documentation
• Experience with tactile sensor integration in soft structures
• Experience with Mooney-Rivlin/Ogden or hyperelastic material FEAs
• Experience with textiles, films, foams, or multi-layer laminates
• Experience scaling soft parts to production: compression molding, LSR injection

Responsibilities

• Architect and build soft anatomy: fingertip pads, palmar surfaces, joints skins
• Design multi-layer soft structures with graded durometer pads and sensorized skins
• Own full soft-part lifecycle: material selection, mold design, casting, post-processing, field replacement
• Develop durability and friction test protocols; iterate from wear data
• Integrate tactile sensing with sensing and electrical teams
• Drive manufacturability: repeatable processes, vendor qualification, production molding
• Collaborate with mechanical, controls, and perception teams on integrated robots
• Help define and build next-gen embodied intelligence systems

Skills

Softgoods experience

Silicone casting & molding

Elastomer properties

Hands-on prototyping

CAD (Fusion, SolidWorks)

Soft-part wear design

Startup mindset

Tactile sensor integration

Hyperelastic material FEA

Textiles/films/foams

Soft-part production from prototyping

Tools

Fusion 360

SolidWorks

Job description

At Proception, we are engineering the next generation of highly dexterous humanoid manipulators. Our mission is to bring machines closer to human capability by merging innovative mechanical design, sensor integration, and intelligent control. We're looking for a full-time Softgoods Engineer to own the soft interface between our robots and the world—the skins, pads, and compliant structures that make dexterous manipulation possible. Grip, compliance, durability, and tactile sensing all live or die at the surface. You'll work at the frontier of soft materials engineering, where elastomer mechanics, textile construction, and sensor integration meet real-world contact.

Requirements

• 01 1+ years of experience engineering softgoods, elastomer components, or soft robotic systems for consumer hardware, wearables, prosthetics, medical devices, or robotics
• 02 Hands-on mastery of silicone casting and molding—mold design, degassing, cure profiles, inserts, overmolding, and bonding soft materials to rigid substrates
• 03 Deep working knowledge of elastomer material properties: Shore hardness selection, hyperelasticity, tear strength, compression set, abrasion resistance, and aging
• 04 Experience prototyping with your own hands—casting, sewing, skiving, laser cutting, 3D printing molds, debugging failed pours at midnight
• 05 Fluent in CAD (Fusion, SolidWorks) for mold and soft-part geometry, including draft, parting lines, and undercut strategy
• 06 Designed soft parts for real-world wear: cyclic loading, friction and grip degradation, contamination, cleaning, and field replacement
• 07 Startup reflexes: you bias toward execution, learn fast, and document like it matters
• 08 (+) Experience with tactile sensor integration—capacitive, magnetic, resistive, or optical sensing embedded in soft structures
• 09 (+) Experience with FEA of hyperelastic materials (Mooney-Rivlin, Ogden) or characterization testing to fit material models
• 10 (+) Experience with textiles, films, foams, or multi-layer laminated constructions
• 11 (+) Experience taking soft parts from prototype to production—compression molding, LSR injection, or cast urethane at volume

Details & responsibilities

• 01 Architect and build the soft anatomy of our humanoid hands: fingertip pads, palmar surfaces, joint skins, and protective covers that deliver human-like grip and compliance
• 02 Design multi-layer soft structures—graded-durometer pads, foam cores, fabric reinforcement, and sensorized skins that survive millions of contact cycles
• 03 Own the full soft-part lifecycle: material selection, mold design, casting, post-processing, attachment, and field replacement strategy
• 04 Develop and run durability, friction, and compression test protocols; iterate based on wear data and field failures—fast
• 05 Integrate tactile sensing elements into soft structures in collaboration with our sensing and electrical teams
• 06 Drive soft parts toward manufacturability: repeatable processes, vendor qualification, and a path from benchtop casting to production molding
• 07 Collaborate tightly with mechanical, controls, and perception teams to deliver integrated, elegant robots
• 01 Competitive salary and meaningful equity
• 02 Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage
• 03 Work with world-class researchers and engineers in AI and robotics
• 04 High-ownership role: you will define the softgoods discipline at Proception from the ground up
• 05 Help define and build next-generation embodied intelligence systems