Actuation Engineer

About the role

We are seeking an Actuation Engineer to design, prototype, and bring to production the actuators that power our robotic systems. This hands‑on, cross‑disciplinary position owns actuator architecture from first principles through to manufacturing, collaborating closely with controls, mechanical, and firmware teams.

Key responsibilities

• Architect and design rotary and linear actuators for robotic joints, end‑effectors, and mobility platforms.
• Select motors, gearboxes, bearings, sensors, and transmission elements based on quantitative requirements such as torque, speed, bandwidth, backlash, stiffness, efficiency, mass, and cost.
• Build motor‑and‑gear‑ratio sizing models that consider duty cycles, thermal limits, peak vs. continuous torque, reflected inertia, and dynamic loads.
• Evaluate and justify transmission types (harmonic, planetary, cycloidal, belt/cable, direct‑drive, ball/lead screw, etc.) for each application.
• Partner with controls engineers to ensure actuators meet bandwidth, back‑drivability, transparency, and torque‑control specifications.
• Specify and integrate sensing solutions (encoders, torque sensors, current sensing) and define calibration procedures.
• Design test rigs and conduct characterization studies including efficiency mapping, thermal soak, backlash, stiction, friction modeling, lifetime, and failure‑mode testing.
• Lead design reviews, DFM/DFA, supplier engagement, and hand‑off to manufacturing; debug integration issues that arise under closed‑loop or contact‑rich operation.

Required profile

• Proven track record of designing actuators that have shipped on working robots, not just bench prototypes.
• Deep understanding of trade‑offs among various transmission types, including reliability, efficiency, backlash, stiffness, torque density, back‑drivability, noise, lifetime, and cost.
• Clear intuition for choosing rotary versus linear actuation strategies and the implications for envelope, force/torque profiles, mounting, sealing, and control.
• Rigorous approach to motor and gear‑ratio sizing, able to translate robot‑level requirements into defensible component selections.

Required skills

• Actuator architecture design
• Motor and gearbox selection
• Transmission analysis and trade‑off evaluation
• Sensor integration (encoders, torque sensors, current sensing)
• Test‑rig development and performance characterization
• DFM/DFA and supplier engagement