Robotics Mechatronics Engineer

Avatar Robotics • San Francisco, CA

7d • Onsite

About The Position

Avatar Robotics is hiring a Robotics Mechatronics Engineer to develop its robot fleet. This mechanically led role covers physical robot design and assembly, hardware integration, and manipulation-control tuning. The engineer will design and fabricate robot components, assemble complete robots from purchased hardware, integrate hardware with the software stack, and test and document robots before shipment. The team develops on physical robots in person, so the role involves working on the floor with hardware most days. The position is based in or requires relocation to San Francisco, California, and includes travel to customer warehouse sites for deployment and testing. Physical work is required, including lifting robot components and working in warehouse environments with hand and power tools.

Avatar Robotics builds flexible robot fleets for industrial work, with a mission to make tedious and dangerous warehouse and factory jobs virtual, safe, and semi-autonomous. Its approach combines AI and long-distance teleoperation. The company describes itself as a small team preparing to deploy thousands of units into facilities worldwide.

Requirements

• At least 4 years of experience building physical robots, including having shipped at least one robot.
• Strong CAD skills using SolidWorks, Onshape, Fusion, or equivalent.
• Hands-on electromechanical skills, including harnesses, soldering, motors, sensors, and oscilloscopes.
• Solid controls fundamentals, including kinematics, PID and trajectory control, and calibration on real hardware.
• Experience integrating arms and sensors with a software stack through ROS/ROS 2 and vendor SDKs.
• Firmware and low-level interface experience, including CAN, EtherCAT, or serial.
• Practical Python skills and comfort working in Linux.
• Ability to read and modify C++.
• Located in or willing to relocate to San Francisco, California.
• Able to perform physical work, including lifting robot components and working in warehouse environments with hand and power tools.
• Applicants should include photos, CAD, or video of a robot they built.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with mobile manipulators, warehouse automation, cobots, force control, or end-of-arm tooling.

Responsibilities

• Design and fabricate custom parts, including brackets, mounts, end-of-arm tooling, and cable management.
• Assemble and integrate purchased arms, bases, grippers, and sensors into complete robots.
• Integrate new hardware into the software stack using vendor SDKs, firmware, and ROS 2.
• Develop and tune manipulation control, including trajectory following, grasping, and force and compliance behavior.
• Calibrate arms and sensors, and tune controllers for repeatability, speed, and payload.
• Iterate on mechanical design and control behavior based on results from the floor.
• Build wiring harnesses and power distribution.
• Test robots before shipment and document how they were built.
• Travel to customer warehouse sites for deployment and testing.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed