Staff Mechanical Engineer - Legs Tech Lead

Apptronik is seeking a Staff Mechanical Engineer to serve as the technical lead for Apollo’s lower body. This is a high-visibility leadership role responsible for the hip leg knee ankle and foot assemblies.

You will own the complete lifecycle—architecture design integration and verification—of the lower body stack. This position requires deep expertise in locomotion kinematics dynamic stability and high-load structural design. You will lead the development of systems that must deliver human-like mobility absorb high-energy impacts and maintain durability across millions of cycles in real-world environments.

• Lower Body Ownership: Define the mechanical architecture for the hips legs knees ankles and feet. Lead trade-off studies between power density range of motion (ROM) stability and energy efficiency.
• Locomotion Performance: Architect systems that enable stable walking running lifting and recovery from disturbances (e.g. slips trips and falls). Balance dynamic performance with robustness and safety.
• Mass Distribution & Stability: Optimize mass placement and inertia to improve balance agility and whole-body coordination.

• High-Performance Joints: Drive the design of multi-DOF joints (hip knee ankle) capable of high torque output and high cycle life while maintaining precision and backdrivability where needed.
• Shock & Impact Management: Design structures and mechanisms that absorb and dissipate energy during foot-ground contact and high-impact events (e.g. stepping off ledges falls).
• Structural Integrity: Lead the design of the lower body load path to support full robot mass and dynamic loads using advanced materials and topology optimization.

• Foot & Contact Design: Develop feet and contact interfaces that provide traction compliance and adaptability across varied terrains.
• Actuation Integration: Partner closely with controls and actuation teams to ensure mechanical designs support force control impedance control and dynamic motion planning.

• Subsystem Integration: Lead integration of actuators sensors and structural elements within tight mechanical envelopes.
• Cable & Harness Routing: Architect robust routing strategies through high-flex joints (hips knees ankles) ensuring multi-million cycle reliability and maintainability.
• Environmental Robustness: Ensure designs meet requirements for ingress protection (IP) thermal performance and durability in real-world operating conditions.

• DVT Ownership: Define and execute the Design Verification Test (DVT) plan for the lower body including fatigue testing impact testing and long-duration lifecycle validation.
• Failure Analysis: Lead root cause investigations for field or lab failures related to wear fatigue or performance degradation.
• Technical Mentorship: Conduct deep-dive design reviews establish best practices for dynamic robotic systems and mentor engineers across experience levels.

• Experience: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a 8+ years of experience in mechanical design of complex robotic systems with a focus on legged systems or high-load dynamic mechanisms.
• Drive Through Influence: Proven ability to lead technical initiatives and align cross-functional stakeholders without direct authority. Strong track record of driving system-level decisions.
• Subject Matter Expertise: Demonstrated experience designing multi-axis robotic legs exoskeletons or comparable high-DOF dynamic systems.
• Locomotion & Dynamics: Deep understanding of kinematics dynamics and control considerations for legged locomotion.
• Structural & Fatigue Design: Expertise in designing for high-cycle fatigue impact loading and durability.
• Packaging Mastery: Strong experience integrating actuators sensors and structures in compact high-performance systems.
• CAD Expertise: Expert-level proficiency in CAD tools (SolidWorks NX CATIA).
• Education: BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering Robotics or a related field.

Apptronik is seeking a Staff Mechanical Engineer to serve as the technical lead for Apollo’s lower body. This is a high-visibility leadership role responsible for the hip leg knee ankle and foot assemblies.

You will own the complete lifecycle—architecture design integration and verification—of the lower body stack. This position requires deep expertise in locomotion kinematics dynamic stability and high-load structural design. You will lead the development of systems that must deliver human-like mobility absorb high-energy impacts and maintain durability across millions of cycles in real-world environments.

• Lower Body Ownership: Define the mechanical architecture for the hips legs knees ankles and feet. Lead trade-off studies between power density range of motion (ROM) stability and energy efficiency.
• Locomotion Performance: Architect systems that enable stable walking running lifting and recovery from disturbances (e.g. slips trips and falls). Balance dynamic performance with robustness and safety.
• Mass Distribution & Stability: Optimize mass placement and inertia to improve balance agility and whole-body coordination.

• High-Performance Joints: Drive the design of multi-DOF joints (hip knee ankle) capable of high torque output and high cycle life while maintaining precision and backdrivability where needed.
• Shock & Impact Management: Design structures and mechanisms that absorb and dissipate energy during foot-ground contact and high-impact events (e.g. stepping off ledges falls).
• Structural Integrity: Lead the design of the lower body load path to support full robot mass and dynamic loads using advanced materials and topology optimization.

• Foot & Contact Design: Develop feet and contact interfaces that provide traction compliance and adaptability across varied terrains.
• Actuation Integration: Partner closely with controls and actuation teams to ensure mechanical designs support force control impedance control and dynamic motion planning.

• Subsystem Integration: Lead integration of actuators sensors and structural elements within tight mechanical envelopes.
• Cable & Harness Routing: Architect robust routing strategies through high-flex joints (hips knees ankles) ensuring multi-million cycle reliability and maintainability.
• Environmental Robustness: Ensure designs meet requirements for ingress protection (IP) thermal performance and durability in real-world operating conditions.

• DVT Ownership: Define and execute the Design Verification Test (DVT) plan for the lower body including fatigue testing impact testing and long-duration lifecycle validation.
• Failure Analysis: Lead root cause investigations for field or lab failures related to wear fatigue or performance degradation.
• Technical Mentorship: Conduct deep-dive design reviews establish best practices for dynamic robotic systems and mentor engineers across experience levels.

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer 
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times
• Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen
• Hearing and speech to communicate 

What We Do

Apptronik is building robots for the real world to improve human quality of life and to help solve the ever-increasing labor shortage problem. Our team has been building some of the most advanced robots on the planet for years dating back to the DARPA Robotics Challenge. We apply our expertise across the full robotics stack to some of the most important and impactful problems our society faces and expect our products and technology to change the world for the better. We value passion creativity and collaboration to help us overcome existing technological barriers in the industry to create truly innovative products.

Why Work With Us

At Apptronik we don't see a future where man competes against machine. Instead we envision a harmonious world where man and machine coexist. Our mission statement "It is not Man vs. Machine but Man + Machine" encapsulates our belief that the synergy between humans and robots will pave the way for a brighter more advanced future.

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