---
title: 'Mechanical Engineer at Periodic Labs'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-periodic-labs-menlo-park-4rk1qv8jx0ps'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Mechanical Engineer at Periodic Labs

- **Company:** Periodic Labs
- **Location:** Menlo Park, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-10
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/periodic-labs/fe3b323e-34e8-41fe-9da3-26a8b6b941cd

## Job description

## ABOUT PERIODIC LABS

We're an AI and physical sciences company building state-of-the-art models to accelerate breakthroughs across materials, energy, and beyond. Backed by world-class investors and growing rapidly, we operate at the pace the frontier requires. Our team brings deep expertise, genuine ownership, and an insatiable drive to push the boundaries of what's scientifically possible.

## ABOUT THE ROLE

Join a tight-knit engineering team building the integrated lab systems that scale our materials synthesis and characterization, alongside our frontier models, scientific data, and the scientists who use them.

Periodic Labs is seeking a Mechanical Engineer to help build the environment where materials scientists work alongside AI agents to plan experiments, run analyses, coordinate workflows, and turn results into decisions. You'll work with the team to translate vague, early-stage problems from scientists and engineers into clear requirements and build-ready hardware, owning the mechanical design of lab systems and instrumentation end to end and seeing them through fabrication, assembly, and operational bring-up.

This role will help define what engineering looks like at Periodic: technically deep, ambitious in scope, and tightly coupled to scientific work.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of materials scientists and engineers to synthesize vague, early-stage problems into clear requirements and hardware that solves them.
- Own the design and build of systems and subsystems for lab automation and workflows, from concept through installation.
- Layout and design core lab systems, including gloveboxes, furnaces, presses, deposition equipment, and consumables.
- Design and customize lab machines and instrumentation to fit evolving scientific needs.
- Program and troubleshoot robots integrated into lab workflows.
- Engage directly with scientists and technicians to understand how they actually work, getting past stated requirements to uncover the real needs behind them, and translate that into clear engineering specifications.
- Produce CAD, mechanical drawings and design documentation, including GD&T, to support both in-house builds and subcontracted manufacturing.
- Assemble and build hardware hands-on, and manage subcontracted manufacturing across machining, additive, sheet metal, and welding.
- Apply a strong safety mindset throughout design and build, with attention to engineering and process controls.

YOU WILL THRIVE IN THIS ROLE IF YOU HAVE

- 2+ years of mechanical design experience, with hands-on and vendor-facing manufacturing exposure (machining, additive, sheet metal, welding).
- Proficiency in CAD (Onshape or equivalent) and hand calculations.
- Demonstrated ability to discover and write clear requirements, with strong project ownership from concept to completion.
- Experience assembling and building physical hardware, not just designing it on paper.
- Comfort working closely with scientists and technicians to translate workflow needs into engineering requirements and real hardware that solves problems.

## ESPECIALLY STRONG CANDIDATES MAY ALSO HAVE

- Experience programming and controlling robots or other automated lab systems.
- Experience working in software repos with agentic collaboration.
- Experience dispensing challenging materials.
- Measurement and test experience.
- Design experience for high-temperature service.
- Experience with test planning and bring-up.

## MECHANICS

- Minimum experience: 2+ years
- Minimum education: Bachelor's degree or similar experience
- Location: Menlo Park, CA
- Compensation: $200,000-$300,000 + equity
- Visa sponsorship: Yes, we sponsor visas

## About Periodic Labs

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Periodic Labs is building AI scientists and autonomous laboratories to accelerate scientific discovery in the physical sciences, starting with materials design and semiconductor research.
- **Entity Type**: Private (seed-stage, $300M total funding raised in 2025)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA (primary) and Menlo Park, California, USA (dual locations) [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/periodic-labs), [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/periodic-labs)
- **Founded**: 2025 [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/periodic-labs)
- **Founders**: Ekin Dogus Cubuk (Co-Founder) and other undisclosed founding team members with backgrounds at OpenAI, DeepMind, and Google [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/periodic-labs), [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Physical sciences R&D, artificial intelligence, autonomous laboratory systems
- **Target customers**: B2B – enterprises in semiconductor manufacturing, materials science, energy, and other deep-tech sectors requiring experimental research
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Our goal is to create an AI scientist” that can autonomously hypothesize, run experiments, and learn from results to discover new materials and accelerate technological progress [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/)

## Products & Services
- **AI Scientist**: A suite of AI models trained to generate hypotheses, design experiments, and interpret results across physical science domains.
- **Autonomous Laboratories**: Fully automated, high-throughput experimental platforms that produce large volumes of high-quality data (including negative results) to train AI models. [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/)
- **Custom Agents for Industry**: Tailored AI agents for engineers and researchers, e.g., helping a semiconductor manufacturer analyze heat dissipation data to accelerate iteration. [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private seed-stage company)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding raised – $300M in a single seed round (2025) [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/periodic-labs)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: a16z, Felicis, DST, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture arm), Accel, Emerson Collective, Fellows Fund, Coatue; individual backers include Jeff Bezos, Elad Gil, Eric Schmidt, Jeff Dean. Also collaborating with academic advisors from Stanford, Northwestern, and more. [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/), [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/periodic-labs)
- **Growth Signals**: 40 employees as of mid-2026, with monthly headcount growth of +19.6% and 25 active job postings (+47.1% quarterly growth) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/periodic-labs)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Proprietary data generation**: Autonomous labs produce massive, unique datasets (including valuable negative results) that do not exist in public literature, creating a data moat.
- **Founding team pedigree**: Core team co-created ChatGPT, DeepMind’s GNoME, OpenAI’s Operator (Agent), MatterGen, and scaled autonomous physics labs – rare concentration of AI + science talent. [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/)
- **End-to-end integration**: AI models, simulation, and physical experimentation are all in-house, enabling rapid closed-loop learning.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale autonomous labs**: Expand capacity to generate experimental data across multiple physical science domains.
- **Target high-impact problems**: Superconductor discovery, semiconductor heat dissipation, and other materials challenges that can unlock Moore’s Law, advanced energy grids, and space travel. [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/)
- **Develop the first generation of AI scientists**: Train models that can operate independently of human input across the entire scientific method.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: “From bits to atoms” – a deep-tech startup blending frontier AI with hands-on lab work. Emphasis on rapid iteration and real-world impact.
- **Work policy**: In-office preferred; primary offices in Menlo Park and San Francisco, CA. Most roles are on-site. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/periodic-labs)
- **Notable perks**: Work alongside world-class AI researchers and experimental scientists; access to cutting-edge automated lab equipment; early-stage equity and high-growth trajectory.
- **Engineering culture**: 34% of employees are in technical roles; talent sourced from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta, xAI, and Stanford – strong peer learning environment. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/periodic-labs)

## Sources
1. [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/)
2. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/periodic-labs)
3. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/periodic-labs)
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/periodic-labs)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/periodic-labs](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/periodic-labs)

## Other roles at Periodic Labs

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- [Technical Recruiter](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-recruiter-periodic-labs-menlo-park-04dyj1a17h1w) — Menlo Park, CA
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