Senior Staff Mechanical Engineer - Atlas, Gripper

Location: Waltham, MA

Time Type: Full time

Job Description

Atlas is our next-generation humanoid robot, designed to perform useful work in dynamic, real-world environments. A central challenge in achieving this is the development of highly robust grippers that combine strength, dexterity, and high fidelity tactile sensing in compact packages. 

We’re looking for a Senior Staff Mechanical Engineer to contribute to the design and development of Atlas’s grippers. You’ll work on novel mechanisms and assemblies—balancing dexterity, force capability, manufacturability, and durability—while collaborating closely with multidisciplinary teams to deliver hardware that directly impacts Atlas’s ability to interact with the world.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the design of key gripper subsystems, from early concepts through to production-ready hardware.

• Develop and analyze mechanisms that balance dexterity, payload, and reliability under demanding use cases.

• Apply engineering fundamentals across materials, tribology, thermals, and tolerance stack-ups to achieve robust, repeatable performance.

• Use CAD (3DX/Catia) and analysis tools to model, simulate, and validate designs.

• Collaborate with electrical, controls, and manufacturing engineers to ensure clean integration and testability.

• Support prototyping, bring-up, and issue resolution throughout the product lifecycle.

You’re a good fit if you:

• Have strong fundamentals in mechanics, dynamics, and materials, with a track record of building precision mechanisms. 

• Are fluent in CAD and comfortable managing complex assemblies with tight packaging and motion constraints. 

• Have experience with precision actuation hardware—such as tendon- or gear-driven systems, elastomeric contacts, or compliant joints. 

• Are confident balancing competing requirements of performance, manufacturability, and reliability. 

Qualifications

Any of the experience listed below would be applicable in this role; it is not expected that candidates would possess all of these qualifications

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering or related field and 8+ years of relevant experience, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering or related field with 6+ years of experience, or PhD with 3+ years of experience

• Experience designing and delivering hardware from concept through validation.

• Demonstrated ability to take ownership of mechanical designs in multidisciplinary projects.

• Advanced CAD user (Catia, NX, Solidworks, etc.), including part and assembly level FEA and topology optimization

• A working knowledge of ASME drafting standards including GD&T, (Y14.5-2018)

• Transitioning early designs to products [NPI, EVT, DVT]

• Soft skills: creative and team first thinking, excellent attention to detail, strong technical communication, technical mentorship

A brief portfolio of images with short descriptions of recent work is required via either web-link or PDF.

The base pay range for this position is between $130,000 to $190,000 annually. Base pay will depend on multiple individualized factors including, but not limited to internal equity, job related knowledge, skills and experience.  This range represents a good faith estimate of compensation at the time of posting. Boston Dynamics offers a generous Benefits package including medical, dental vision, 401(k), paid time off and a annual bonus structure.  Additional details regarding these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer for employment.