Senior Mechanical Engineer

Shift Robotics•Austin, TX

9d•$90,000 - $150,000•Onsite

About The Position

Shift is developing personal mobility products intended to make walking faster, more efficient, and more accessible. Its flagship product, Moonwalkers, is described as robotic shoes that augment natural walking with intelligent locomotion assistance. The Senior Mechanical Engineer will own mechanical design for the next generation of Moonwalkers, from initial concepts and prototypes through tooling and mass production. The product is a wearable robot integrating motors, gearing, batteries, sensors, and electronics into footwear that must be lightweight, compact, comfortable, and durable under real-world impact, water exposure, and wear. The engineer will work on a small, collaborative team with electrical, firmware, and gait-control engineers, moving between CAD, the shop, and the test bench. The role is on-site in Austin, Texas.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent experience.
At least 3 years of experience designing hardware products that reached real users or production.
Production-grade CAD skills in SolidWorks, Siemens NX, Fusion 360, Creo, or CATIA, including large assemblies and surfacing.
Ability to create engineering drawings with GD&T (ASME Y14.5) and conduct tolerance analysis.
Hands-on fabrication experience with 3D printing, CNC, and machining, with comfort using shop tools and test fixtures.
Solid understanding of design for manufacturing and assembly, materials selection, and processes such as injection molding and machining.
Working knowledge of mechanics of materials and engineering hand calculations for sizing parts and validating designs.
Ownership and self-drive, ability to work with minimal supervision, clear written communication, and comfort taking on multiple roles in a small team.
Ability to work on-site in Austin, Texas.

Nice To Haves

Experience taking injection-molded parts from design through tooling and mass production, including vendor and supplier management.
FEA experience with ANSYS, Abaqus, or SolidWorks Simulation for structural, fatigue, vibration, and drop or impact analysis.
Mechanism or dynamics simulation experience using MATLAB, Simulink, or Simscape.
Experience with weight and topology optimization for compact, high-load structures.
Experience integrating motors, gearboxes, sensors, batteries, and microcontrollers into electromechanical systems; ROS familiarity is a plus.
Experience with wearables, footwear, sporting goods, micromobility, or other high-volume consumer hardware.
Reliability engineering experience, including DFMEA, accelerated life testing, ingress protection (IP), and drop testing.
Experience owning a product's mechanical design end to end at a startup or small team.

Responsibilities

Design mechanical systems for wearable robotic footwear, including housings, drivetrains, gearing, wheel and suspension assemblies, battery enclosures, and binding and fit components.
Package motors, sensors, PCBAs, batteries, and wiring into a compact, lightweight structure, collaborating with electrical and firmware engineers on thermal management, sealing, connectors, and cable routing.
Build prototypes using 3D printing, CNC, and machining; assemble, test, and iterate hardware hands-on in the Austin lab.
Run tolerance stack-ups and FEA for structural, fatigue, vibration, and drop or impact cases.
Write and execute test plans for durability, water ingress, and user-load cases, and use results to drive design changes.
Design injection-molded, die-cast, and machined parts with DFM/DFA considerations.
Release production drawings with GD&T (ASME Y14.5), and manage BOMs and engineering change orders.
Work with vendors and contract manufacturers on tooling, first-article inspection, yield, and quality issues through EVT, DVT, and PVT.
Design with safety margins, conduct failure analysis such as DFMEA and root-cause analysis, and drive fixes based on field returns and test failures.
Keep CAD, drawings, specifications, and test reports accurate and current.