Mechanical Architect, Robotics

New Product Explorations - San Francisco

Our Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and pushing towards AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world settings. Working across the entire model stack, we integrate cutting-edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high-level AI capabilities with the physical constraints of physical robotic platforms.

About the Role

As Mechanical Architect on the Robotics team, you will play a crucial role in defining and developing the end-to-end mechanical architecture of our robotic systems. You’ll lead system-level mechanical design including, ensuring seamless integration of actuators, gearing, sensors, computational elements, and structural components to bring our advanced models into the real world. This role offers the chance to influence how our AI scales beyond simulation, ensuring that each design, test, and iteration moves us closer to truly adaptive, versatile robotic systems. This position may require up to 15% travel to support testing, deployment, and collaboration with external partners.

You might thrive in this role if you:

1. Have at least 8 years of consumer or industrial electronics experience, including at least 2 years of experience leading mechanical system architecture development, defining modular and scalable designs for robotic platforms.
2. Direct hands-on experience in system-level mechanical design, either with mechanism design (actuators, motors, gearing, and structural layouts) or integrating electronics (custom batteries, silicon, cooling, sensors, charging, and system EE components).
3. Bachelor’s or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Product Design, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
4. Strong understanding of manufacturing processes, materials science, and tolerance analysis.
5. Excellent 3D CAD experience in a leading design tool, including basic strength analysis.
6. Ability to define and enforce system-level trade-offs, balancing mechanical, electrical, thermal, and software constraints.
7. Strong technical communication skills with peer engineers, software engineers and XFN partners.

Additional, preferred qualifications:

1. Experience in developing modular mechanical architectures for complex electromechanical systems.
2. Experience with thermal cooling solutions for hardware and silicon, or integrating sensors.
3. Experienced in Design for Manufacturability (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), statistical tolerance analysis techniques, CTF dimensioning, and geometric tolerancing.
4. Experience designing mechanical systems intended for high volume (1M+).
5. Experience problem-solving on assembly lines and directing CM teams in all design phases.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.

For US Based Candidates: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.