Manufacturing Electrical Engineer, Joints & Body

About the role

We’re building humanoid robots that work in home—doing the chores, handling the tasks, and giving people their time back. To do this right, we have to solve robotics, AI, and manufacturing simultaneously, at scale, in a form factor safe enough to live with your family. If you’re inspired by this mission, you’ll thrive here.

NEO is our flagship—a home robot designed to move, learn, and operate in the real world alongside real people. We’re not demoing it; we’re shipping it. The Joints & Body team is responsible for the mechanical systems that give NEO its structure, mobility, strength, and physical robustness. We design and develop the robot’s body architecture, joints, structural components, and integrated electromechanical systems that enable NEO to move safely and reliably in the real world. This team works at the intersection of mechanical design, actuation, structures, materials, sensing, electronics, controls, manufacturing, and reliability.

Responsibilities

• Own critical parts of NEO’s body and joint architecture, taking mechanical systems from concept through design, prototyping, validation, and production.
• Develop compact, lightweight, robust, and manufacturable hardware that delivers the performance required for a humanoid robot operating daily around people.
• Design and release production-ready body, joint, and structural systems that meet performance, reliability, weight, cost, and manufacturability requirements.
• Develop compact electromechanical joint architectures integrating actuation, bearings, transmissions, sensing, electronics, cabling, and structural interfaces.
• Improve robot mass, stiffness, strength, range of motion, packaging efficiency, durability, and serviceability through iterative mechanical design.
• Build and test prototypes rapidly, using physical testing and robot data to identify failure modes and drive design improvements.
• Develop engineering requirements, tolerance analyses, test methods, and validation plans that demonstrate hardware performance and reliability.
• Support hardware through prototype builds, design validation, NPI, and production ramp while resolving issues quickly and maintaining design intent.
• Partner closely with controls, electrical, manufacturing, reliability, and supply chain teams to develop fully integrated robotic systems.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Robotics, or a related field.
• 5+ years of mechanical engineering experience developing complex mechanical or electromechanical products.
• Strong experience designing mechanisms, structural components, precision assemblies, or robotic systems.
• Advanced proficiency with 3D CAD and experience owning complex mechanical assemblies from concept through released drawings.
• Strong understanding of mechanical design fundamentals including statics, dynamics, materials, fatigue, friction, fasteners, bearings, and tolerance analysis.
• Experience with GD&T, tolerance stack analysis, drawing release, and production documentation.
• Experience designing components for machining, casting, molding, sheet metal, additive manufacturing, or other production processes.
• Experience building and testing prototypes and using test results to drive design decisions.
• Experience integrating mechanical systems with motors, sensors, electronics, wiring, and other electromechanical components.
• Experience collaborating with manufacturing, quality, supply chain, electrical, controls, and systems engineering organizations.

Preferred Skills

• Experience designing robotic actuators, joints, transmissions, or humanoid robotic systems.
• Experience with electric motors, gearboxes, belt or cable transmissions, bearings, encoders, torque sensing, brakes, or other motion-control hardware.
• Experience designing lightweight structures with aggressive strength, stiffness, packaging, and mass constraints.
• Experience with FEA, fatigue analysis, structural optimization, thermal analysis, or other engineering simulation methods.
• Experience developing hardware exposed to repeated dynamic loading, impacts, shock, vibration, or high duty cycles.
• Experience designing mechanisms with high range of motion and complex packaging constraints.
• Experience with materials and processes such as aluminum, steel, polymers, composites, castings, forgings, injection molding, and precision machining.
• Experience developing mechanical test fixtures, life-cycle tests, characterization rigs, or reliability validation systems.
• Experience operating in fast-paced hardware environments with rapid design iteration and frequent prototype builds.
• Experience supporting products through NPI, design validation, reliability testing, and production ramp-up.

About the team

Team members at 1X who thrive here are builders. They move fast, own their work completely, and treat time like it’s the one thing you can’t get back. They say what they mean, finish what they start, and hold themselves to a standard before anyone has to ask. Successful engineers on the Body & Joints team are deeply connected to the hardware. They understand that great robots are built through thousands of thoughtful mechanical decisions, fast iteration, rigorous testing, and an obsession with making the whole system better. They balance performance with simplicity, weight, reliability, manufacturability, cost, and serviceability. Most importantly, they take ownership of their systems all the way from an idea on a screen to a robot operating in the real world.

Pay

Compensation range: $148,000 - $181,000 + equity.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Generous paid time off, company holidays, and parental leave.
• 401(k) plan with company match (100% on the first 3% of contributions, 50% on the next 2%).
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Health Savings Accounts (HSA) options.
• Commuter benefits (transit and parking).
• Short-term and long-term disability, and life insurance.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for mental health, financial, and personal support.
• Onsite snacks and catered lunches.