Senior Mechanical Engineer, Robotics

About the role

Rugged Robotics is seeking a Senior Mechanical Engineer to join the Hardware team. This role involves owning mechanical subsystems from concept through production release and sustaining. Key responsibilities include leading subsystem projects, mentoring engineers, and driving reliability and safety compliance efforts.

Responsibilities

• Own the full product lifecycle of actuators, structures, and enclosures: detailed design, testing, debugging, and refinement, then scaling through validation, manufacturing ramp, and deployment.
• Study system behavior across mechanical, electrical, and software boundaries, chasing more performance from our sensor suites through calibration, advanced algorithms, and early failure warning signs.
• Drive reliability and safety compliance efforts to enable international expansion by planning and executing tests, root-causing failures, implementing fixes, and assembling the documentation that carries the product through certification.
• Make informed & objective engineering decisions by determining actuator load cases, specifying components (BLDC motors, speed reducers, sensors, bearings), and backing choices with analysis, simulations, and quick experiments.
• Use SOLIDWORKS to craft parts, construct assemblies, and create well-dimensioned drawings using GD&T per ASME Y14.5, spanning injection molding, CNC machining, metal casting, and sheet metal.
• Provide technical direction and mentorship to the hardware team on complex engineering challenges and lead subsystem projects with minimal guidance according to company objectives.
• Engage and collaborate with international vendors to refine designs and deliver hardware to meet project timelines.

Requirements

• Experienced (6+ years) designing products involving robotics or other complex electro-mechanical systems, and well-versed in the landscape of actuators, sensors, BLDC motors, bearings, speed reducers, and other machine elements used in robotic applications.
• Seasoned in the full product development cycle from concept through production. Know firsthand what it takes to carry a new product through certification, reliability growth, and scale, and you can lead others through it.
• An analytical thinker who backs design choices with objective data, running quick tests and collecting measurements both to validate current designs and to spec components before designing.
• Comfortable selecting electro-mechanical components supported by static & dynamic analysis, determining the ideal materials & manufacturing methods, and creating part designs optimized for manufacturing & assembly.
• Familiar with the engineering analysis techniques used to develop world-class products, including tolerance analysis, FEA, motor equations, fluid flow, and thermal analysis.
• Hands-on with building and debugging electro-mechanical systems and interested in supporting your designs all the way to trouble-shooting field failures with our customers.
• Ready to lead initiatives within the team, practiced in mentoring, and motivated to make the engineers around you more effective.
• Highly collaborative across function boundaries, including Software, Electrical, Manufacturing, and Field Engineers, and comfortable working autonomously in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Great to Have: Experience carrying a product through formal certification (e.g., UL, CE, or similar safety and compliance regimes).
• Comfortable with creating Python scripting for testing, data analysis, and debugging.
• Familiarity with thermal management of dense, highly integrated electro-mechanical assemblies.
• Exposure to fluid systems and chemical/material compatibility.
• A background in manufacturing and standing up a production line.

Skills

• Experience with SOLIDWORKS for part and assembly design.
• Knowledge of mechanical design principles and practices.
• Ability to perform static and dynamic analysis of mechanical systems.
• Experience with thermal management and fluid systems.
• Proficiency in Python for testing, data analysis, and debugging.

Benefits

• Full time, competitive salary with equity
• Flexible paid vacation from day one
• Paid Parental Leave
• Medical, Dental, Vision, and Life insurance
• 401k Plan available

Pay

Competitive salary with equity

Schedule

Full-time