Mechanical Engineer, Dynamometer and Actuator Testing Infrastructure

Job details

Work model

Hybrid

Salary

$225K - $318K

Location

San Francisco

Hiring context

How this role compares at OpenAI

OpenAI has 784 live roles in MeritLog’s catalog across 14 job families, and 302 of them are in engineering. 653 of those listings publish a pay range, a disclosure rate of 83%.

This role's posted range of $225K - $318K sits above 31% of the 640 other OpenAI roles quoted over the same currency and period.

Counted across the job boards MeritLog tracks, at the time this page was served. Pay comparisons use only listings that publish a complete range in the same currency and period.

What the role asks for

Parsed by MeritLog from the employer’s own posting. The full description follows below.

Job description

ABOUT THE TEAM Our Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and pushing towards AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world settings. Working across the entire model stack, we integrate cutting-edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high-level AI capabilities with the constraints of physical systems to improve peoples’ lives. ABOUT THE ROLE We are seeking a Mechanical Engineer to design, build, and own the mechanical side of our robotic actuator dynamometer and test infrastructure. You will create the test stands, couplings, fixtures, load paths, guarding, and serviceable lab hardware that enable rigorous characterization of robotic actuators. This role combines precision mechanical design with hands-on lab work. You will take robotic actuator test infrastructure from requirements and analysis through CAD, fabrication, assembly, commissioning, and iteration, partnering closely with electrical and software engineers to deliver safe, flexible, high-uptime test cells. IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL - Own the mechanical architecture of dynamometer and actuator test cells, including frames, bases, load paths, alignment, guarding, and serviceability. - Design dynamometer structures, robotic actuator fixtures, load-motor mounts, couplings, shafts, bearings, adapters, and torque-reaction hardware. - Translate robotic actuator test requirements into robust mechanical systems for torque, speed, thermal, durability, backdrive, efficiency, and failure testing. - Perform first-principles analysis and simulation for stiffness, strength, fatigue, vibration, thermal growth, critical speed, and safety factors. - Create precise, repeatable alignment strategies that protect test articles, load machines, sensors, and couplings. - Design modular fixturing that supports rapid changeover across actuator and motor variants without compromising measurement quality. - Work closely with electrical engineers on cable routing, enclosures, cooling, sensor packaging, and test-cell safety interfaces. - Work closely with software and controls engineers to define mechanical limits, safe operating envelopes, and automated-test constraints. - Build, assemble, debug, and improve test stands in the lab, using measurement and fabrication tools directly. - Develop guarding, containment, pinch-point mitigation, hard stops, and other mechanical safety systems for high-energy rotating equipment. - Manage fabrication partners and vendors for machined parts, weldments, bearings, couplings, sensors, and test-stand components. - Establish drawings, tolerance stacks, assembly procedures, inspection plans, and preventive-maintenance practices. - Use test observations and failure analysis to continuously improve durability, usability, uptime, and measurement fidelity. YOU MIGHT THRIVE IN THIS ROLE IF YOU - Have strong intuition for load paths, stiffness, alignment, rotating machinery, and the practical behavior of real hardware. - Enjoy designing fixtures and structures that are precise, robust, safe, and easy for others to use. - Are highly hands-on and comfortable assembling, aligning, instrumenting, and debugging test equipment. - Can move fluidly between first-principles analysis, CAD, vendor collaboration, and lab iteration. - Care about details such as tolerances, runout, resonance, thermal growth, guarding, and serviceability. - Are comfortable working in fast-moving environments with evolving test needs and aggressive technical goals. - Take ownership of the full test-stand lifecycle, from concept through reliable daily operation. - Communicate clearly across mechanical, electrical, controls, software, safety, and operations teams. - Are motivated by building infrastructure that reveals how advanced robotic actuators really perform. - Are excited to build mechanical test infrastructure that accelerates robotic actuator development. PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS - Preferred qualifications - Bachelor’s or graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related field. - Experience designing mechanical systems for robotic actuator dynamometers, robotics, automation, rotating machinery, aerospace, automotive, or similar high-performance hardware. - Strong understanding of structures, load paths, shafts, bearings, couplings, fasteners, tolerances, alignment, and vibration. - Experience designing fixtures, test stands, frames, guarding, and precision mechanical interfaces. - Proficiency with CAD and drawing release workflows; NX, SolidWorks, Creo, or equivalent experience is welcome. - Experience with structural, thermal, fatigue, or modal analysis and applying results to practical hardware decisions. - Hands-on experience with assembly, machining, metrology, alignment, and troubleshooting in a lab or prototype environment. - Familiarity with mechanical safety for rotating equipment, containment, interlocks, and safe operating envelopes. About OpenAI OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.  We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf. Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations. To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form https://form.asana.com/?d=57018692298241&k=5MqR40fZd7jlxVUh5J-UeA. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link https://form.asana.com/?k=bQ7w9h3iexRlicUdWRiwvg&d=57018692298241. OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy https://cdn.openai.com/policies/global-employee-and-contractor-privacy-policy.pdf At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

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