Mechanical Design Engineer, Wearables

Mindrobotics
Palo Alto, CA
On-site

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have end-to-end experience in wearable device mechanical design and a deep understanding of injection molding and polymer selection.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with end-to-end mechanical design experience for consumer wearables and strong molding expertise
    — “Depth packaging cameras, sensors, compute, and batteries into space-constrained enclosures”
  • Individuals who have led mechanical tradeoff decisions and set design budgets for shipped products
    — “You have owned the mechanical architecture of a shipped wearable, head-worn, or handheld consumer device end to end”
  • Engineers comfortable with ambiguity and capable of hands-on testing and analysis
    — “Comfortable with ambiguity, moves fast, and curious about how the whole system works”

Things to consider

  • The role demands high ownership and decision-making authority in mechanical tradeoffs
    — “Own the mechanical architecture ... what gets rebuilt”
  • Candidates must be capable of managing vendor relationships and tooling commitments
    — “Own build and tooling strategy for the platform: what is printed, machined, molded, or bought”
  • The role requires hands-on involvement in building and testing prototypes with real users
    — “Build, test, and break prototypes on real users”

How to stand out

  • Highlight your ability to set mechanical budgets and lead cross-functional design decisions
    — “Set the mechanical requirements the optics, electrical, and compute teams design against”
  • Demonstrate your expertise in injection molding and polymer selection with specific examples
    — “Deep hands-on knowledge of injection molding and polymer selection”
  • Showcase your experience in tolerance analysis and structural testing with real-world outcomes
    — “personally run the tolerance, structural, drop, and thermal analyses”
  • Emphasize leadership in mechanical standards and mentorship within hardware teams
    — “Set the mechanical standards other hardware teams work to”
  • Demonstrate your ability to manage vendor expectations and DFM requirements
    — “Set the mechanical standards ... DFM expectations for vendors”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • owns mechanical architecture
  • sets mechanical requirements
  • builds prototypes
Typical background
mechanical engineeringpackaging design

Skills & requirements

Required

Mechanical EngineeringPackaging DesignInjection MoldingCAD ProficiencyMechanical Intuition

Preferred

Wearable TechnologySoft Goods Knowledge

Stack & domain

RoboticsAI

About the role

Original posting from Mindrobotics via Ashby

ABOUT MIND:

Mind Robotics is building Physical AI for real-world industrial deployment, starting with the factory floor. We believe the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with the physical world every day - and we're looking for people who are passionate about robotics, value ownership, and are excited to tackle difficult problems. Join us if you want to move beyond digital intelligence and put intelligence into motion.

Responsibilities

  • Own the mechanical architecture of Mind's wearable data collection platform across both head-worn and body-worn devices, including what carries forward between generations and what gets rebuilt.
  • Set the mechanical requirements the optics, electrical, and compute teams design against: volume and keep-out budgets, alignment and stiffness targets, thermal limits, and mass allocation. Own the tradeoffs when those budgets conflict, and decide which ones give.
  • Decide which mechanical problems each device generation takes on and which it deliberately does not, and hold that line when the program pushes back.
  • Own build and tooling strategy for the platform: what is printed, machined, molded, or bought; when tooling gets committed; and which molders, soft goods vendors, and CMs Mind builds a long-term relationship with.
  • Set the mechanical standards other hardware teams work to: design review, tolerance analysis practice, materials and skin-contact qualification, and DFM expectations for vendors.
  • Stay hands-on. Build, test, and break prototypes on real users, and personally run the tolerance, structural, drop, and thermal analyses that decide the architecture.
  • Grow the mechanical bench through design review, mentorship on the wearable stack, and hiring.

Qualifications

  • Exceptional mechanical intuition. You understand how forces, materials, and mechanisms behave instinctively.
  • You have owned the mechanical architecture of a shipped wearable, head-worn, or handheld consumer device end to end, and can describe both the tradeoffs you chose and the ones you refused.
  • Depth packaging cameras, sensors, compute, and batteries into space-constrained enclosures with tight tolerance and alignment requirements, with a track record of setting those budgets rather than working inside someone else's.
  • Deep hands-on knowledge of injection molding and polymer selection, from part design through tooling and T1 to production, including judgment on when to commit tooling.
  • Working fluency in soft goods and textiles: straps, padding, fabric-to-rigid interfaces, and skin-contact ergonomics. You know when this needs a specialist and can direct one.
  • High proficiency in SolidWorks, Catia, NX, or similar CAD tools, including surfacing.
  • Comfortable with ambiguity, moves fast, and curious about how the whole system works.

Source: Mindrobotics careers (Ashby)

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