What are the responsibilities and job description for the Atlas Senior Mechanical Engineer, Actuation position at Boston Dynamics?
Atlas is our next-generation humanoid robot, built to perform useful work in dynamic, real-world environments. Achieving that goal requires carefully engineered, heavily integrated, electro-mechanical actuators that are compact, efficient, and reliable under demanding conditions.
We're looking for a Senior Mechanical Engineer to contribute to the design and development of our tightly integrated actuator hardware—from electromechanical subsystems to complex assemblies with precision and load-bearing requirements. You will be responsible for delivering well-designed and tested components and subsystems that directly impact the robot's motion, manipulation, and overall performance.
Responsibilities
We're looking for a Senior Mechanical Engineer to contribute to the design and development of our tightly integrated actuator hardware—from electromechanical subsystems to complex assemblies with precision and load-bearing requirements. You will be responsible for delivering well-designed and tested components and subsystems that directly impact the robot's motion, manipulation, and overall performance.
Responsibilities
- Contribute to mechanical design efforts for key subsystems, from early concept through production.
- Apply your knowledge to balance performance, manufacturability, and reliability across a range of mechanical requirements—torque, stiffness, mass, thermal behavior, and tolerance stack-ups.
- Use simulation and analysis tools to guide decisions and validate your designs.
- Collaborate closely with electrical and controls teams to ensure clean integration and testability.
- Support prototyping, bring-up, and issue resolution throughout the product lifecycle.
- Have strong mechanical engineering fundamentals, including statics, dynamics, materials, and heat transfer.
- Are fluent in CAD (we use 3DEXPERIENCE) and are confident in managing complex mechanical assemblies.
- Have some experience designing and delivering precision hardware with tight packaging constraints.
- Are learning how to trade off performance and risk in high-stakes, real-world systems.
- Are comfortable working hands-on during development, test, and debug.
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering or related field with 2 years of relevant experience, or an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering or related field.
- Experience designing and delivering hardware from concept through validation.
- Demonstrated ability to take ownership of mechanical designs in multidisciplinary projects.
