About Gradient Robotics
Gradient Robotics is building intelligent robots for data centers and factories. We believe the fastest practical path to capable general-purpose robotics is through industry deployment. We're here to change the world with robotics.
We own and build our full robotics stack — designing the hardware, building the software systems, training ML models, and manufacturing through a global supply chain — for world-class iteration speed, reliability, and scale.
We've built 3 generations of robots with a team of 7, backed by top-tier investors and working toward pilots with the world's largest data center builders. Our team created and built the best-selling open-source humanoid robots in the US at K-Scale Labs and worked on generations of foundation software for Tesla Optimus.
The RoleAs a founding mechanical engineer at Gradient, you'll own the robot end-to-end: analyzing payload capacity and kinematics, designing mechanisms that are nimble and safe, and taking ideas from multi-physics simulation to the last deburred sheet-metal edge. Your work will define the robot — no amount of ML or electronics can replace innovative mechanical design.
What You'll DoMake the hard design decisions we'll live with for weeks, sometimes months
Work with electrical, software, and ML teams to build elegant and reliable robots
Watch systems get better as your designs sharpen what's physically possible
Mechanical Design: Precision mechanisms, structures, actuators, DFMA
Analysis: Multi-physics simulation, FEA, tolerance stacks, vibration/thermal reasoning
Build + Iteration: Prototyping, test rigs, failure analysis, rapid cycles from CAD to hardware
Robotics Hardware: Hands-on work with sensors/actuators, tight packaging, field reliability
Manufacturing Depth: Sheet metal, machining, castings/composites, vendor + supply chain fluency
Shipped hardware that lives close to the edge — tight envelopes, harsh environments, real constraints
Owned messy, ambiguous problems and turned them into robust, manufacturable designs
Enjoyed being the person who gets the whole system to "click" physically
At Gradient, you'll make the hard design decisions we'll live with for weeks, sometimes months. You'll work with electrical, software, and ML to build elegant and reliable robots — and watch them get better as your designs sharpen what's physically possible. If that excites you, we should talk.
Skills Required
- Mechanical design: precision mechanisms, structures, actuators, DFMA
- Analysis: multi-physics simulation, FEA, tolerance stacks, vibration/thermal reasoning
- Build and iteration: prototyping, test rigs, failure analysis, rapid CAD-to-hardware cycles
- Robotics hardware: hands-on work with sensors/actuators, tight packaging, field reliability
- Manufacturing depth: sheet metal, machining, castings/composites, vendor and supply chain fluency
What We Do
Gradient Robotics is building intelligent, autonomous humanoid robots designed for deployment in industrial environments, specifically targeting data centers and factories. The company develops the full robotics stack, including hardware design, software systems, and ML model training, with the goal of advancing general-purpose robotics and domestic capability in advanced automation through real-world industrial application.
