---
title: 'Mechanical Design Engineer, Plastics at Mind Robotics'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-design-engineer-plastics-mind-robotics-palo-alto-1ythfx9nb8x4'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-16'
---

# Mechanical Design Engineer, Plastics at Mind Robotics

- **Company:** Mind Robotics
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-29
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-16
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/mindrobotics/ab9a9fe3-ada1-4621-b762-f8cae0be39b0

## Job description

About Mind: Mind Robotics is building Physical AI for real-world industrial deployment, starting with the factory floor. We believe the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with the physical world every day - and we're looking for people who are passionate about robotics, value ownership, and are excited to tackle difficult problems.

## Responsibilities

- Own the mechanical design of A-surface plastic components for the robot — covers, skins, shrouds, bezels, and cosmetic enclosures — from industrial design intent through production tooling.
- Develop Class-A surfaces and translate ID surfacing into manufacturable parts, holding gap-and-flush, parting line, draft, and aesthetic intent across the full assembly.
- Select polymers and processes across the cosmetic stack: ABS, PC, PC/ABS, PA and glass-filled grades, TPU/TPE, and specialty resins — balancing appearance, impact and creep behavior, chemical and UV resistance, flammability, and cost.
- Define and own GD&T, tolerance stack-ups, and datum schemes across multi-part plastic assemblies and their interfaces to structures, actuators, and electronics.
- Drive DFM and DFA for injection molding, insert molding, overmolding, and secondary operations — gate and ejector strategy, wall thickness, ribbing and boss design, warp and sink mitigation, and shutoff design.
- Own cosmetic specification: textures, gloss levels, color matching, painting, plating, laser etching, and in-mold decoration, plus the defect standards and limit samples that go with them.
- Work directly with tool shops, molders, and CMs through tool kickoff, T0/T1 sampling, tuning, and PPAP — reviewing mold flow, tool design, and first-shot parts, and driving corrective action.
- Build and test prototypes using 3D printing, urethane casting, CNC, and soft tooling, then validate with drop, structural, and environmental testing.

## Qualifications

- Exceptional mechanical intuition. You understand how polymers flow, shrink, warp, and fail — and you can predict it before the tool is cut.
- 5+ years designing injection-molded plastic parts for high-volume consumer, automotive, or robotics products, with parts you took from CAD through production tooling.
- Deep, hands-on knowledge of polymer materials science: resin families, fillers and additives, anisotropy, moisture sensitivity, and how process conditions change part behavior.
- Fluent in GD&T (ASME Y14.5 or ISO GPS) and tolerance analysis, including worst-case and statistical stack-ups on compliant plastic parts.
- Proven experience owning cosmetic A-surface parts and defending appearance standards with vendors.
- Strong surfacing skills in SolidWorks, CATIA, NX, Creo, or similar; comfort reading mold flow results and tool drawings.
- Comfortable with ambiguity, moves fast, and curious about how the whole system works.

## About Mind Robotics

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Mind Robotics builds AI-driven robotic systems for industrial deployment, focusing on creating general-purpose physical intelligence for the world's most demanding manufacturing challenges.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2025
- **Founders**: Not publicly disclosed (founding technical team includes Sriramana Sankar, Ruijie He, Vishal J., and Ury Zhilinsky as Founding Technical Members)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Robotics Engineering, Industrial Automation, Artificial Intelligence
- **Target customers**: B2B, Enterprise (industrial manufacturing, factory floors)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Building the generalized physical intelligence required to solve the world’s most demanding industrial challenges." The company believes the path to general-purpose robotics begins where the need is most acute and the environment is most structured: the factory floor.

## Products & Services
- **AI-Enabled Industrial Robots**: Intelligent robotic systems designed for industrial deployment, focusing on creating collaborative platforms for manufacturing environments. The company builds "physical AI" for real-world industrial challenges, emphasizing hardware-in-the-loop development where researchers and engineers work hands-on with hardware.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$615M** across two rounds
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz (co-lead Series A), Accel (co-lead Series A), Kleiner Perkins (led most recent round), Eclipse (seed), Prysm Capital, Menlo Ventures. Partners include Silicon Valley Robotics.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Raised a $115M seed round in late 2025, followed by a massive $500M Series A in March 2026 co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz
  - Closed an additional funding round in May 2026 led by Kleiner Perkins
  - Headcount of ~21 employees with a monthly growth rate of +42.9%
  - LinkedIn following of 9,654 with +38.5% monthly growth
  - Talent sourced from top companies including Tesla, Rivian, Databricks, and Physical Intelligence

## Competitive Advantages
- **Massive capital advantage**: With $615M in total funding raised within its first year, Mind Robotics is one of the best-capitalized early-stage robotics startups, enabling aggressive hiring and R&D investment.
- **Top-tier investor backing**: Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and Kleiner Perkins — some of the most prestigious venture firms in the world.
- **Hardware-in-the-loop philosophy**: The company emphasizes that the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with hardware, creating a unique engineering culture focused on real-world deployment.
- **Lean, high-impact team**: With only ~21 employees and massive funding, each individual has outsized ownership and impact.

## Strategic Focus
- **Industrial deployment first**: Targeting factory floors as the most structured environment for deploying general-purpose robotics, believing this is the fastest path to broadly capable robots.
- **Physical AI development**: Building the intelligence layer for robots that can operate in messy, complex real-world environments.
- **Aggressive scaling**: With $615M in funding, the company is rapidly expanding its team across hardware engineering, software, and data platform roles.

## Why Work Here
- **Massive impact per person**: The company explicitly states it is "building a lean, collaborative team where every individual has a massive impact" — a rare promise for a company with over half a billion in funding.
- **Hardware-in-the-loop culture**: Engineers and researchers work directly with physical hardware daily, solving real-world problems rather than just simulation.
- **Top-tier team**: Colleagues include alumni from Tesla, Rivian, Databricks, and Physical Intelligence, creating a high-caliber peer group.
- **Work policy**: Hybrid workspace (combination of remote and on-site work) with a strong in-office presence in Palo Alto, CA. Most roles appear to be on-site or hybrid.
- **Open roles**: 22 active positions across hardware engineering (actuation, motor design, electrical design, tactile sensing), software engineering (robotics, firmware, controls, ML infrastructure), and data platform roles.
- **Culture highlights**: The company looks for "builders who are passionate about robotics and live for the challenge of making systems work in messy, complex environments." They emphasize a lean, collaborative team where every individual has massive impact.

## Sources
1. [mindrobotics.com](https://www.mindrobotics.com/)
2. [mindrobotics.com/careers](https://www.mindrobotics.com/careers)
3. [LinkedIn - Mind Robotics](https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindrobotics)
4. [Built In - Mind Robotics](https://builtin.com/company/mind-robotics)
5. [Ashby Jobs - Mind Robotics](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/mindrobotics)

## Other roles at Mind Robotics

- [Field Technician, Data Collection](https://feeny.ai/job/field-technician-data-collection-mind-robotics-normal-15vnxcrxc24p) — Normal, IL
- [Communications Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/communications-lead-mind-robotics-palo-alto-t7d5nwyggs2f) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Software Engineer, Edge & Field Systems](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-edge-field-systems-mind-robotics-normal-t75nwdgtchv5) — Normal, IL
- [Software Engineer, Data Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-data-platform-mind-robotics-palo-alto-h9nnhq30rhnc) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Technical Program Manager, Software](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-program-manager-software-mind-robotics-palo-alto-nzbtjpp2a6gy) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Robot Operator, Data Collection](https://feeny.ai/job/robot-operator-data-collection-mind-robotics-palo-alto-8br5b7ksz571) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Mechanical Design Engineer, Wearables](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-design-engineer-wearables-mind-robotics-palo-alto-kveqcemqyqm2) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Tech Lead, Robotics Runtime & Middleware](https://feeny.ai/job/tech-lead-robotics-runtime-middleware-mind-robotics-palo-alto-0nmtyyhy7tad) — Palo Alto, CA
- [IT Operations Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/it-operations-lead-mind-robotics-palo-alto-nnxhw00ffje8) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Test Engineer, Actuation](https://feeny.ai/job/test-engineer-actuation-mind-robotics-palo-alto-fpcjggcme83d) — Palo Alto, CA