Founding Mechanical Engineer

About RoboDock

RoboDock builds robotic systems that automate autonomous vehicle fleet depots, starting with charging and inspections. We're a small, fast-moving founding team (YC W26) working directly with fleet partners to deploy robots that autonomously identify charge ports, plug in vehicles, and perform vehicle inspections with zero human intervention. Our vision is to automate every aspect of depot operations to enable the next generation of autonomous fleets.

The Role

We're looking for a Founding Mechanical Engineer to own the mechanical design and integration of our robotic systems. You'll design everything from end effectors and sensor/electrical packaging to structural mounts and site infrastructure, ensuring our systems integrate seamlessly with vehicles, charging equipment, and real-world depot environments.

You'll take hardware from concept through prototyping, analysis, fabrication, testing, and field deployment - building robust, reliable systems for the real world.

This is a foundational role with broad ownership over how RoboDock's hardware is designed, integrated, and deployed as we scale.

Some Things You’ll Work On

• End-effector and mechanism design: design and iterate on end effectors, tooling, and mechanisms that enable our robots to reliably interact with vehicles and charging infrastructure
• System and sensor integration: mechanically integrate sensors, actuators, electrical components, and other hardware into the robotic system, balancing performance, rigidity, packaging, and serviceability
• Structural and site integration: design robot bases, mounts, and supporting structures, and adapt our systems to different charging infrastructure, vehicles, and depot layouts
• Engineering analysis: use FEA, kinematic/motion analysis, stability assessments, and first-principles calculations to evaluate loads, stiffness, deflection, dynamics, and safety before fabrication
• Rapid prototyping and manufacturing: take designs from CAD to physical hardware through 3D printing, machining, and quick-turn fabrication; select materials and manufacturing processes with performance, cost, and manufacturability in mind
• Reliability and validation: build and run cycle/endurance tests, characterize failure modes, root-cause mechanical issues, and drive designs from prototype to robust, field-ready hardware
• Cross-functional hardware development: work closely with robotics/software and electrical engineers, machine shops, suppliers, and deployment partners to take integrated systems from concept through field deployment

What we're looking for

• Hands-on mechanical engineering experience on physical robotic, automation, or electromechanical systems 
• Strong CAD skills (SolidWorks or equivalent) and comfort taking a design from concept through fabrication, testing, and deployment
• Hands-on prototyping skills: comfortable designing, printing/machining, testing, and redesigning quickly - we move very fast
• Experience with tolerancing, DFM, and fastening/mounting design for parts that see repeated mechanical loading or vibration
• Strong understanding of mechanical structures, load paths, stiffness, deflection, and dynamic loading
• Working knowledge of actuators, servos, and basic electromechanical integration
• Comfortable owning ambiguous mechanical problems end-to-end and making practical design tradeoffs in a fast-moving environment
• Bonuses
  • Experience with robotics, industrial automation, or other deployed electromechanical systems
  • Experience with robotic arms and/or robotics middleware like ROS/ROS2
  • Experience with computer vision or camera-based perception systems

What You'll Bring

We value people who are hardware-forward in their thinking - comfortable working close to the physical system, debugging mechanical failures firsthand, and understanding how real-world constraints shape design decisions. You should be excited about the iterative process of building robots that work reliably in unstructured environments, and willing to wear a lot of hats (from CAD to hands-on assembly to mechatronics integration) as a founding team member.

Why RoboDock

We’re building the physical infrastructure that will enable autonomous fleets to operate at scale. As our Founding Mechanical Engineer, you’ll help turn that vision into hardware deployed in real fleet environments - systems that need to work reliably, day after day, with no human in the loop.

You'll be the founding engineer on a small, technical team where your work directly shapes product capabilities. We move fast, build physical systems, and value pragmatic, realistic solutions over theoretical approaches. You’ll have a ton of ownership in shaping how our systems are designed, built, and deployed as we scale.

Compensation & Logistics

Role Level: This is an early-stage/founding engineer position. Equity compensation will be significant.

Location: Richmond, CA. We are fully in person!

Next Steps:

Interested candidates should send the following to Celine:

• Resume/CV
• Portfolio
• Brief description of your most relevant project

Contact: Celine Wang https://www.linkedin.com/in/celinewang16/