Mechanical Engineer

Gritt Robotics Inc•Belmont, CA

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Gritt is building physical AI for outdoor construction. We’re developing a generalized foundation model for construction tasks — pick-and-place, transport, and assembly across materials like PV modules, rebar, cinder block, and beyond — and the robots that put that model to work on real infrastructure-scale job sites. We start with utility-scale solar because the scale and repetition are ideal for learning, but the technology is general: representations learned on one site transfer to the next task, the next material, the next trade. We’re backed by top-tier investors, founded by robotics and AI experts from CMU, Stanford, and MIT, and moving fast to put machines in the field. Zooming out, our ambition is bigger than any single trade: we’re working toward a superintelligence construction platform for the physical world — the kind of general capability civilization will need to build much-needed infrastructure at the pace this moment demands.

Requirements

3+ years of hands-on mechanical engineering experience, with a focus on robotics, autonomous systems, or heavy equipment, and an eagerness to move quickly from prototype to deployment.
Demonstrated initiative, creative problem-solving skills, and a self-starter mindset in an environment with ambiguous technical problems.
Direct experience integrating robotic arms, actuators, or heavy payloads onto mobile platforms — skid-steers, tracked vehicles, AGVs, off-road equipment, or equivalent heavy machinery.
Experience designing to IP67 (or stricter) and familiarity with shipping systems that have survived real outdoor deployments across rain, snow, sub-zero cold, and high-heat/high-dust environments.
Strong hands-on cabling and harness design experience — you’ve specified connectors, drawn harness diagrams, and debugged the problems that come back from the field.
Expert CAD proficiency (SolidWorks, NX, or Creo) and comfort with GD&T, tolerance stacks, and production-quality drawings.
Structural analysis chops on heavy systems — you can size a weldment, pick a bearing, and know when to run FEA vs. when hand calcs are enough.
Comfort moving fast in a scale-up: you’ve lived through the transition from one-off prototypes to low-volume production and know where the landmines are.
Willingness to travel to field sites (~15–25%), including active construction environments.

Nice To Haves

Experience specifically with construction equipment, agricultural equipment, mining robotics, or defense ground vehicles.
Experience designing platforms intended to support multiple end-effectors, payloads, or task configurations.
Background integrating perception stacks — camera mounting, LiDAR calibration fixtures, sensor cleaning systems.
Familiarity with hydraulics, pneumatics, or high-current DC power distribution on mobile platforms.
Experience owning supplier relationships for castings, weldments, or large machined parts.
Prior work on systems operating in desert Southwest or northern-climate conditions specifically.

Responsibilities

Contribute to and execute mechanical integration programs that mate robotic arms and payloads to skid-steer and tracked vehicle platforms—structural mounting, load paths, power/data routing, and service access.
Design and specify heavy-duty mechanical systems — mounts, brackets, enclosures, actuators, end-effectors — built to survive continuous outdoor duty cycles on active construction sites.
Architect platforms for reconfigurability so we can adapt across construction tasks (PV, rebar, block work, and future applications) without rebuilding from scratch each time.
Own the environmental strategy: IP67-rated enclosures, gasketing, connector selection, thermal management across roughly -20°F to 120°F+, and ingress protection against dust, mud, rain, and snow.
Design, route, and validate wire harnesses and cable assemblies — strain relief, chafe protection, connector selection, service loops, and harness documentation a contract manufacturer can actually build.
Integrate sensor and lighting packages (cameras, LiDAR, IMUs, work lights, indicators) with attention to field-of-view, vibration isolation, cleanability, and serviceability.
Drive DFM, DFA, and DFS (design-for-service) from the first CAD review, not as an afterthought.
Run structural analysis (hand calcs and FEA) on critical load-bearing components; own the validation plan — vibration, shock, thermal, ingress, EMI — and see it through test.
Work directly with machine shops, sheet metal vendors, and harness houses. Release drawings, manage ECOs, and hold vendors to spec.
Go to the field. Diagnose failures, instrument systems, and carry learnings back into the next revision.