Rhoda AI
Senior Mechanical Engineer- Neck
Mountain View · Senior
Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 8 days ago
SolidWorksCATIAFusion 360GD&TRoboticsMechanical DesignHardware DesignResearchCommunicationCollaborationActuators
About the role
- We've raised over $450M and are investing aggressively in model research, infrastructure, hardware development, and manufacturing scale-up to make generalist robotics a reality.
- This is a high-ownership role where actuator engineering, dynamics, and packaging craft come together in one of the most expressive parts of the robot.
Responsibilities
- Own the mechanical architecture of the neck - kinematics, joint arrangement, structural design, and packaging of the full mechanism within a slender, ID-constrained envelope
- Lead actuation selection and packaging for the neck's degrees of freedom - evaluating motor, gearbox, and transmission options against torque, bandwidth, backdrivability, acoustic, and packaging requirements
- Define the head mass and center-of-gravity budget in partnership with the head team, and own the system-level trade between head mass, neck actuator sizing, and dynamic performance
- Develop and validate the head stabilization strategy in collaboration with controls engineers - structural stiffness, backlash and compliance management, vibration isolation, and the dynamic performance needed for stable imagery from head-mounted cameras
- Design for quiet, smooth, lifelike motion - managing gear noise, cogging, and structural resonances in a subsystem that operates close to people's faces
- Define and own the mechanical interface to the head - structural mount, alignment and registration, electrical pass-through, and serviceability - and the interface to the torso below, driving both to closure with their respective teams
- Own cable routing through the neck: power and data runs to the head across moving joints, service loops, strain relief, and bend-cycle durability through the full range of motion
- Create and maintain CAD models, drawings, tolerance stacks, and BOMs to support design reviews, prototyping, and manufacturing handoffs
- Plan and execute prototype builds and test campaigns - dynamic performance, acoustics, durability, and stabilization - and lead root cause analysis when issues arise
- We own the full robotics stack from high-performance hardware and robot systems to the infrastructure and state-of-the-art foundation world models that control our robots.
Requirements
- 5+ years of experience in mechanical design of actuated mechanisms - robotics, gimbals, precision motion systems, or similar
- Hands-on experience with cable routing and harness design across articulating joints
- Expert-level proficiency with CAD software (Catia, SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Onshape, or similar) for complex part and assembly design
Nice to have
- Experience designing gimbals, camera stabilization platforms, or pan-tilt mechanisms with image-stability requirements
- Experience with humanoid robots, animatronics, or other systems where expressive, lifelike motion matters alongside function
- Experience partnering with controls engineers on servo performance, system identification, or stabilization tuning
- Working knowledge of GD&T (ASME Y14.5) applied to precision motion assemblies
- Experience taking a subsystem from concept through DVT/PVT into production
- BS in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related field (MS preferred)
Benefits
- Work closely with the cladding team on the moving-surface problem - gaps, pinch points, flexible or telescoping cladding elements, and attachment schemes that survive continuous articulation
Company info
- At Rhoda AI, we're building the next generation of generalist intelligent robots.
- We're looking for a Senior Mechanical Engineer to own the neck of our humanoid robot platform.
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