Job Overview:

Lead the creation of a new servo actuator family used on manipulators, mobile bases, and teleoperation equipment. Our Client builds robotics hardware, and this seat is accountable for the mechanical and electromechanical architecture of the servo line, with emphasis on precision gear trains and brushless motors. Convert joint-level specs into designs that balance torque, speed, efficiency, mass, stiffness, thermal margins, life, and cost. Start from first-principles calculations and trade studies, move through prototyping and validation, then release for production.

Senior or lead engineering seat reporting to the Founder and CTO. Work spans electrical, firmware, controls, manufacturing, and direct coordination with suppliers. Responsibilities include setting requirements, running reviews, building early units, and establishing fixtures, tests, and production processes. If owning an actuator product line end to end sounds right, this is worth a serious look.

Job Responsibilities:

• Start from joint requirements and create actuator architectures and detailed designs with explicit tradeoffs in torque, speed, envelope, mass, efficiency, backlash, stiffness, backdrivability, thermal limits, service life, and cost
• Engineering calculations, design and peer reviews, supplier engagement, hands-on prototype builds and evaluation, failure investigation, and definition of production specifications and processes
• Actuator requirements are defined from loads, motion profiles, duty cycles, environments, and service life
• Ratings and limits set for continuous and peak torque, speed, overload, output load and thermal boundaries
• Choose motor topology, reduction approach, ratio splits, bearing schemes, and mechanical packaging
• Run comparisons on torque density, reflected inertia, efficiency, friction, backlash, torsional rigidity, and backdrivability
• A scalable actuator product family with smart commonality across sizes
• Ownership of technical specs, design reviews, development milestones, and release readiness
• Precision gearbox design with emphasis on planetary stages and small-module gearing
• Define gear geometry including tooth numbers, module, pressure angle, profile shift, face width, center distance, and single versus multistage layouts
• For planetary trains, confirm assembly clearances, avoid tooth interference, set planet spacing, check load sharing, and define a sound carrier design
• Compute tooth-root bending, contact stress, fatigue life, and gearbox life using recognized methods and standards
• Model gear mesh forces, shaft and carrier deflection, bearing reactions, and housing rigidity
• Create backlash and tolerance budgets across the transmission, accounting for manufacturing scatter, assembly effects, temperature, and wear
• Gear specification: materials, hardness, case depth, heat treat, surface finish, and accuracy per size and loading
• Work with suppliers on cutting, grinding, shaping, skiving, inspection, and controlling distortion from heat treatment
• Lubrication and sealing are selected for efficiency, wear, life, and operating temperature
• NVH, uneven contact, friction, backlash growth, and gear failure modes are investigated and addressed
• Brushless PM motors are developed with manufacturers and specialists, from concept through validation
• Motor geometry definition including stator and rotor, slot and pole choices, air gaps, magnets, laminations, and windings
• Define winding details such as turn count, conductor gauge, parallel paths, connections, slot fill, insulation scheme, and manufacturability
• Perform motor calculations for Kt, back EMF, resistance, inductance, torque-speed behavior, current needs, and voltage limits
• Evaluation of saturation, cogging, torque ripple, copper and iron losses, and efficiency across conditions
• Electromagnetic analysis and prototype measurements used together to refine the motor design
• Resolve rotor retention, magnet attachment, balance, concentricity, bearing supports, and assembly tolerances in detail
• Thermal models and heat paths developed through the stator, housing, and robot structure
• Continuous and intermittent ratings established via temperature rise and duty cycles
• Mechanical integration of housings, output interfaces, shafts, bearings, preload, and retention features
• Select and size bearings for radial, axial, and moment loads, targeted stiffness, speed rating, and life
• Establish datum schemes, fits, GD&T, and full tolerance stacks for rotating assemblies
• Integrate feedback hardware including motor and output encoders, temperature sensors, connectors, and internal wiring
• Address encoder setup issues such as alignment, runout, calibration, magnetic interference, and resolution versus accuracy
• Partner with electrical and controls teams on drive compatibility, commutation, field-oriented control, and position, velocity, and torque loops
• Modeling of control impacts from gearbox friction, compliance, and backlash and motor characteristics on control performance and torque estimation
• Plan and build prototypes along with fixtures and instrumentation to test motors, gearboxes, and assembled actuators
• Capture torque-speed data, efficiency, current draw, thermal response, backlash, lost motion, torsional stiffness, and backdrive torque
• Performance diagnosis that separates motor, transmission, and control effects
• Define tests for endurance, reversing loads, overload cases, shock, and environmental exposure
• Perform root-cause analysis on failures involving gears, bearings, windings, magnets, lubrication, and structural parts
• Correlation of calculations and simulations to test, with iterative design updates
• Validation with clear acceptance criteria and traceable test records
• Supplier development by identifying and qualifying sources for gears, motors, bearings, machined parts, and special processes
• Produce drawings, specifications, BOMs, inspection criteria, and acceptance limits
• Review first articles, detailed gear metrology, motor test results, and supplier process capability
• Develop assembly steps, alignment methods, preload targets, lubrication specifications, and calibration procedures
• Introduce designs to production with fixtures and tooling, work instructions, and end-of-line testing
• Support pilot builds and ramp, resolving yield issues, variability, assembly time, and reliability concerns
• Cost-down initiatives that protect performance and service life

Job Requirements:

• 7+ years building precision electromechanical hardware such as actuators, gearboxes, electric motors, or robotics assemblies
• Took custom gearboxes or geared actuators through manufacturing, beyond prototype-only builds
• Hands-on motor design beyond catalog picking, such as EM geometry, winding design, performance modeling, or custom motor development
• Solid grounding in machine design, mechanics, materials, fatigue, tribology, electromagnetics, and heat transfer
• Experience with precision gears, rotating assemblies, bearings, tolerances, and manufacturing methods
• Proficient with parametric 3D CAD and producing production drawings, with Onshape used here
• Applies engineering analysis tools and hand calculations to predict performance and troubleshoot failures
• Can read gear rating and accuracy standards and convert them into supplier-ready specifications
• Hands-on with prototype assembly, instrumentation, testing, and structured root-cause work
• Direct collaboration with manufacturers to close out technical and quality issues
• Degree in ME, EE, mechatronics, or related field, or equivalent expertise
• Deep strength in gearbox or motor development, strong design experience in the other, ownership of integrated actuator designs, and comfort directing specialists
• Preferred: background with compact robotic joint actuators and low-backlash planetary gearboxes
• Small-module gears, precision heat treat, and gear finishing are preferred
• Preferred exposure to frameless, outer-rotor, or high-torque-density BLDC motors
• Preferred familiarity with EM tools such as Ansys Maxwell, Motor-CAD, or JMAG
• Familiarity with gear tools such as KISSsoft or Romax is preferred
• Torque sensing, dual-encoder architectures, or compliant mechanisms are a plus
• Experience with high-cycle reversing duty and backdrivable actuators is a plus
• Preferred experience developing with motor and precision gear suppliers in Asia
• Experience scaling actuator designs to repeatable volume production is preferred