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OpenAI's Robotics team is seeking a Mechanical Design Engineer to lead motor mechanical design and prototype development for advanced robotic systems. You will own the full lifecycle of stator and rotor mechanical development—from early concepts through detailed design, hands-on builds, and prototype validation.
Key responsibilities include:
- Owning stator and rotor mechanical designs, CAD, and engineering drawings with attention to geometry, interfaces, fits, tolerances, retention, assembly access, and mechanical validation
- Developing laminations, stack assembly methods, bobbins, and winding interfaces that control alignment, insulation, conductor placement, and end-turn packaging
- Designing, fabricating, and debugging fixtures for winding, stacking, assembly, alignment, and inspection
- Building and troubleshooting prototypes, using measurements, defects, and rework to iteratively improve designs and processes
- Establishing low-volume prototype production with equipment, build sequences, work instructions, revision control, traceability, and acceptance criteria
- Testing new manufacturing methods and winding approaches, balancing performance, repeatability, and practical implementation
- Collaborating with electromagnetic, electrical, manufacturing, and test engineers to resolve tradeoffs between motor performance, packaging, buildability, and validation
You will work closely with cross-functional teams to integrate cutting-edge hardware and software for robotic systems. The role requires moving fluidly between CAD, the shop floor, measurements, and hands-on builds, with ownership of physical outcomes. You should be comfortable diagnosing failed builds through evidence and focused experiments, establishing useful processes as designs evolve, and communicating assumptions and tradeoffs clearly across disciplines.
The role is based in San Francisco and requires in-person presence 4 days per week.
QUALIFICATIONS:
- Experience designing and building motors, actuators, or other precision electromechanical assemblies
- Experience with lamination stacks, bobbins, winding, insulation interfaces, or small-component assembly
- Proficiency in 3D CAD, manufacturing drawings, tolerance analysis, and fixture design, with hands-on metrology and inspection of critical mechanical interfaces
- Experience with machining, additive manufacturing, bonding, or other prototype manufacturing processes
- Experience turning an initial build into a repeatable low-volume process
- Interest in using AI to reduce repetitive design and prototype work, with careful engineering review
