About this role
Responsibilities
- Translate manipulation and data-collection goals into mechanical requirements, interface definitions, and validation plans.
- Design complex parts and assemblies in CAD, including actuated mechanisms, end effectors, mounts, enclosures, and fixtures.
- Justify actuator, material, bearing, fastener, and process choices using load, stiffness, tolerance, wear, and packaging requirements.
- Build and test prototypes; use measurements and failure analysis to guide rapid, methodical iteration.
- Anticipate integration risks with sensors, wiring, electronics, and control software and drive their resolution.
- Deliver drawings, bills of materials, assembly instructions, and acceptance tests for repeatable fabrication and handoff.
- Follow build and operating feedback after delivery, resolve reliability issues, and improve design-review and documentation practices.
Requirements
- Evidence of independently owning complex mechanical design work through fabrication, integrated testing, and sustained use.
- Strong 3D CAD, engineering drawings, tolerance analysis, and practical application of GD&T.
- Sound mechanics and the ability to justify design choices with calculations, analysis, and experiment.
- Hands-on skill in prototyping and assembly, and practical understanding of machining and manufacturing processes.
- Ability to explain a failed design, the evidence that isolated the cause, and the iteration that resolved it.
- Ability to coordinate across disciplines, communicate risks early, and produce documentation others can build from.
Nice to have
- Robot end effectors, precision or compliant mechanisms, or other actuated hardware.
- Taking prototypes into repeatable production and using field feedback to improve reliability.
- Mechatronics, sensor integration, FEA, or basic controls and programming.
What Success Looks Like
- Define and validate an agreed subsystem with clear mechanical and software interfaces.
- Deliver a reliable integrated build and resolve the largest uncertainties through targeted experiments.
- Make fabrication, assembly, maintenance, and subsequent iterations repeatable for other team members.
At Tutor, engineers and researchers in R&D hold the title Member of Technical Staff (MoTS). Our job postings use familiar titles to help candidates find us; your level is determined through the interview process. Work evolves with the team’s needs, and we value the technical depth and collaborative judgment that let people contribute across changing projects.