--- title: 'Senior Mechanical Engineer - Robotics at Watney' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-mechanical-engineer-robotics-watney-san-francisco-0c26h1kmf17c' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-05' --- # Senior Mechanical Engineer - Robotics at Watney - **Company:** Watney - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2025-10-05 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/watney/f21272c4-ae46-4542-9fdf-31b6b342709f/application **Skills:** Creo, Solidworks, NX, Onshape, GD&T, Mechanical Design, 3D Modeling, Rapid Prototyping > Design and own the end-to-end mechanical hardware for autonomous robotics systems, from concept to production. This foundational role involves rapid prototyping, component integration, and providing technical leadership to the engineering team. ## Job description ## OUR MISSION Expand human ambition in the physical world. Critical infrastructure is constrained by labor shortages, hazardous working conditions, and operational complexity. Watney builds and deploys autonomous robotic systems that increase the speed and capacity of buildout, starting with data centers. ## THE ROLE As one of the foundational members of our Engineering team, you will design components and assemblies for our fast-growing fleet of production robots. We like to ship fast. From Day 1, you’ll play an instrumental role in bringing our products to life, owning critical pieces of our hardware design from concept to production. Working directly with our founding team, this role is based onsite at our San Francisco headquarters. ## WHAT YOU’LL DO - Design custom mechanical components for our advanced robotics and teleoperations systems, including end-effectors, grippers, manipulators, mounts, etc - Develop and implement solutions for rapid prototyping of new hardware designs to ensure performance, reliability and manufacturability - Integrate mechanical components within larger hardware systems, ensuring they meet performance and project goals - Provide technical leadership and advise leadership on technology strategy and decision-making - Collaborate with Hardware Engineers and Ops team to support overall product development, enabling our autonomous robotics solutions ## WHAT YOU'LL BRING - 4+ years of mechanical design experience - In-depth, hands-on experience, owning end-to-end mechanical design of components and assemblies for robotics systems, medical devices, rockets, drones, automotive systems or like - Proficiency designing parts and systems using 3D modeling software such as Creo, Solidworks or NX. Onshape a big plus! - Familiarity with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) - Strong sense of ownership, initiative, problem solving and analysis - Effective communicator and collaborator with the ability to work closely with Hardware Engineers and Ops team in a fast-paced environment We’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive team. At Watney Robotics, we welcome people of all backgrounds and identities, and we make hiring decisions based on skills, experience, and potential. If you’re passionate about robotics but don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply! CURIOUS TO LEARN MORE? Follow us here on X https://x.com/watneyrobotics/ and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/watneyrobotics/about/ ## About Watney ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Develops autonomous robotics systems to operate datacenter and supercomputing infrastructure, partnering with hyperscalers to accelerate compute scaling. - **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States - **Founded**: 2024 - **Founders**: Ryan Gannon (Co-Founder), Sean Cheong (Co-Founder) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Robotics Engineering / Datacenter Infrastructure Automation - **Target customers**: Hyperscale cloud providers and large-scale data center operators (Enterprise B2B) - **Mission or purpose statement**: “Deploy an abundant, intelligent workforce” by enabling the growth of critical infrastructure through autonomous robots. ## Products & Services - **Autonomous Datacenter Robotics Platform**: A fleet of autonomous robots designed for datacenter buildout and breakfix operations. The system handles physical tasks such as server installation, cable management, maintenance, and repair, reducing human labor and accelerating deployment timelines. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available - **Key Metric** (Private): **$21.0M in total funding** (Seed round closed May 30, 2025) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Conviction, Abstract, A* (A-star). Partners with the world’s largest hyperscalers (names not disclosed). - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount grew **183.3% year-over-year** to 11 employees (as of mid-2026) - Monthly headcount growth of **+6.2%** - Active job postings rose **+28.6% month-over-month** and **+350% quarter-over-quarter** - Currently hiring for 9 roles spanning engineering, operations, and strategy ## Competitive Advantages - **Deep domain focus**: Solely dedicated to datacenter and supercomputing infrastructure – a narrow, high-stakes vertical with massive scaling demand. - **Elite founding team**: Includes former GSM for iPhone, former founding engineer at Worldcoin, and a builder of the world’s fastest EV racecar (ETH Zurich). - **Early partnerships with hyperscalers**: Already working with the largest cloud providers, providing critical validation and a clear path to production. - **Full-stack ownership**: Company is moving from prototype to production fleets, offering engineers end-to-end impact from hardware to software. ## Strategic Focus - **Scale from prototype to production fleets**: Transitioning from small-scale deployments to large autonomous fleets. - **Deepen hyperscaler partnerships**: Expand contracts and joint development roadmaps with major cloud providers. - **Grow engineering and operations teams**: Aggressively hiring across robotics, software, facilities management, and deployment strategy to support production scaling. ## Why Work Here - **In-Office culture**: All roles are based in San Francisco (HQ); the company emphasizes in-person collaboration. - **Ground-floor opportunity**: With outsized ownership and visibility, employees shape the “rollout playbook” for a category-defining robotics company. - **Technical challenge**: Work on real systems that combine robotics, AI, hardware, and infrastructure at scale. - **Notable peers**: Colleagues include alumni from Scale AI, Amazon Web Services, Tools for Humanity, Warburg Pincus, and the US Army Corps of Engineers. - **Growth trajectory**: A very young company (founded 2024) with rapid hiring and clear product-market fit, ideal for early-stage career builders. ## Sources 1. [watneyrobotics.com](https://watneyrobotics.com/) 2. [linkedin.com/company/watneyrobotics](https://www.linkedin.com/company/watneyrobotics) 3. [builtin.com/company/watney-robotics-inc](https://builtin.com/company/watney-robotics-inc) 4. [startups.gallery/companies/watney](https://startups.gallery/companies/watney) ## Other roles at Watney - [Engineering Program Manager - Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-program-manager-robotics-watney-san-francisco-pw4pgcw5ttbz) — San Francisco, CA - [Robotics Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-technician-watney-san-francisco-a9smm1vdp9nt) — San Francisco, CA - [Technical Sourcer](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-sourcer-watney-san-francisco-69nx7ehb2msa) — San Francisco, CA - [Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-watney-san-francisco-5atphnf4bd8r) — San Francisco, CA - [Staff Embedded Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-embedded-engineer-watney-san-francisco-fnm21f6f26sw) — San Francisco, CA - [Senior Recruiter](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-recruiter-watney-san-francisco-16w939mnbr4j) — San Francisco, CA - [Staff Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-watney-san-francisco-qny2cyfawjgp) — San Francisco, CA - [Software Engineer - Perception](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-perception-watney-san-francisco-2jet9z7rsebw) — San Francisco, CA - [Staff Software Engineer - ML Infrastructure](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-ml-infrastructure-watney-san-francisco-nmcgm2sxr4wm) — San Francisco, CA - [Senior Controls Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-controls-engineer-watney-san-francisco-p03qb2ej7a7b) — San Francisco, CA