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OpenAI's Robotics team is seeking a senior Actuator Electromagnetic Design Engineer to lead the development of custom electromechanical actuators for advanced robotic systems. You will own actuator development from early architecture and concept generation through prototype validation and system integration, partnering closely with mechanical, electrical, controls, firmware, reliability, and manufacturing teams.
Key responsibilities include:
- Lead architecture, design, and integration of custom robotic actuators, including electromagnetic component design, simulation, integration, and sourcing
- Define actuator requirements and conduct system-level trade studies around torque density, bandwidth, efficiency, thermal performance, inertia, reliability, manufacturability, and cost
- Design precision electromechanical assemblies with attention to tolerances, alignment, load paths, thermal expansion, sealing, wear, and serviceability
- Drive actuator integration into robotic systems, partnering with controls, firmware, electrical, and robotics software teams to optimize closed-loop performance
- Develop and evaluate architectures with integrated sensing and encoder strategies
- Build and validate prototypes through hands-on bring-up, debugging, characterization, and iterative refinement
- Develop test methodologies and characterization infrastructure for actuator performance, reliability, durability, and failure analysis
- Analyze test data to identify limitations, failure modes, and opportunities for design improvement
- Collaborate with manufacturing and supplier partners to transition designs from prototype to scalable production-ready assemblies
- Support DFM, DFA, DFT, calibration, and assembly strategies for electromechanical subsystems
- Contribute to actuator sourcing strategy, vendor qualification, prototype builds, and supply-chain development
- Document designs, interfaces, validation results, and engineering decisions to support long-term maintainability and production readiness
- Help establish engineering standards, integration practices, and development workflows for future robotic platforms
Ideal candidates have strong intuition for designing high-performance electromagnetic systems, enjoy operating at both subsystem and system levels, are highly hands-on, and can move fluidly between first-principles analysis, rapid prototyping, and production-oriented engineering. You should be comfortable in fast-moving environments with evolving requirements, have strong ownership mentality, communicate clearly across disciplines, and are motivated by enabling next-generation intelligent robotic systems through differentiated hardware capabilities.
Preferred qualifications include a bachelor's or graduate degree in Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or related field; 5+ years of experience designing electromagnetic systems, robotic actuators, or precision mechatronic hardware; experience developing actuators for robotics, automation, aerospace, automotive, or other high-performance dynamic systems; strong understanding of motors, transmissions, bearings, encoders, structural design, thermal management, and precision mechanical integration; familiarity with actuator sensing architectures; experience designing for prototype and production manufacturing processes; proficiency with CAD and PLM tools such as NX and Teamcenter; and experience developing validation plans, reliability testing, and failure analysis workflows.
