---
title: 'Thermal Engineer, Robotic Actuators at Dexmate'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/thermal-engineer-robotic-actuators-dexmate-fremont-6c218eftfjt4'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-08'
---

# Thermal Engineer, Robotic Actuators at Dexmate

- **Company:** Dexmate
- **Location:** Fremont, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-11-04
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/dexmate/e6cb3330-bb25-4bd5-abaa-89be219b3815

## Job description

## About Dexmate

Dexmate is building the foundation for physical AI — combining a new generation of robots with a universal Physical AI OS, making robots as easy to build and deploy as software. Today, robotics is fragmented, slow, and closed: most builders are forced to reinvent the same stack again and again, and most ideas never make it past the prototype stage. We exist to change that. Our mission is to democratize robotics by lowering the barrier to entry, delivering a plug-and-play platform for developers, researchers, and enterprises, and cultivating an open ecosystem that accelerates the evolution of physical AI. If you want to help shape the next layer of human capability — and believe the future of robotics should be built together, not in isolation — we'd love to build it with you.

## The Role

We are looking for a Thermal Engineer to develop cooling solutions for compact robot actuators, with a focus on liquid cooling. You will own thermal models and cooling-system design, then validate them on working hardware. You will work across motor, drive and mechanical design to sustain performance over realistic robot duty cycles.

## Responsibilities

- Translate motor and inverter losses and robot duty cycles into thermal requirements, boundary conditions and operating limits.
- Develop conjugate heat-transfer and CFD models alongside reduced-order thermal models; correlate them to instrumented hardware.
- Design cold plates, stator jackets and heat paths, and specify coolant flow, pressure drop, pump operating points and system heat-rejection needs.
- Develop coolant routing through moving joints with mechanical engineers, accounting for motion, serviceability, sealing, compatibility and leakage risks.
- Plan and run thermal characterization across ambient conditions and transient duty cycles; diagnose hot spots and validate design changes.
- Provide measured thermal limits and model inputs to drive and firmware engineers for derating behavior; support supplier and manufacturing validation.

## Minimum Qualifications

- Hands-on thermal design and test experience with liquid-cooled electromechanical or power-electronics systems.
- Strong fundamentals in heat transfer, fluid mechanics, pressure-drop analysis and thermal resistance networks.
- Experience with conjugate heat-transfer or CFD tools such as Ansys Fluent, Star-CCM+ or equivalent, plus thermal-network modeling and experimental correlation.
- Ability to design practical cooling hardware and use thermocouples, flow and pressure measurements, or equivalent instrumentation to validate it.

## Preferred Qualifications

- Experience cooling motors, EV batteries, inverters, servo drives or compact robot joints.
- Experience with moving coolant lines, compact sealing interfaces, leak testing or coolant material compatibility.
- Experience with Motor-CAD thermal or equivalent reduced-order models, thermal test automation or manufacturing processes for cooling components.

## About Dexmate

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Dexmate builds general-purpose robots with manipulation capabilities, integrating custom hardware with AI models for robotic operation.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed Stage)
- **Headquarters**: Santa Clara, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Tao Chen (Co-Founder, CEO), Yuzhe Qin (Co-Founder, CTO), Chongyang Wang (Co-Founder)

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Robotics Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Automation
- Target customers: B2B (enterprise, logistics, manufacturing, and research organizations)
- Mission or purpose statement: "Building tomorrow's intelligence and automation."

## Products & Services
- **[Vega]**: A general-purpose mobile robot with high-payload arms, dexterous hands, a foldable torso, and an omnidirectional base. The robot is powered by custom-built hardware integrated with AI models for physical robotic operation.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding raised via a Seed Round (closed ~March 2026) with participation from LG Technology Ventures as a lead investor.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: LG Technology Ventures (lead investor), LG CNS (strategic partner for building Physical AI infrastructure for smart logistics).
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew +328.6% year-over-year (from ~4 to 18 employees). LinkedIn followers grew +67.8% yearly. In April 2026, launched the "Dexmate Build with Vega U Research Grant Program," selecting six research teams to receive a Vega robot. Strong hiring momentum with 11 active job postings as of mid-2026.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Integrated Hardware + AI Stack**: Designs custom high-payload arms, dexterous hands, and omnidirectional bases specifically for AI-driven manipulation, creating a tight hardware-software moat.
- **Physical AI Focus**: Differentiating by building "Physical AI" that moves beyond lab settings into real-world logistics and manufacturing, as evidenced by the partnership with LG CNS.
- **Rapid Scaling**: Demonstrated ability to grow headcount and attract top-tier talent from institutions like Carnegie Mellon University, UC San Diego, and companies like NVIDIA and Bosch.

## Strategic Focus
- **Physical AI Infrastructure**: Partnering with LG CNS to build the infrastructure that enables Physical AI to operate in smart logistics and manufacturing environments.
- **Research & Ecosystem**: Grant programs to seed the research community with Vega robots, driving platform adoption and innovation.
- **Talent Acquisition**: Aggressively hiring across engineering (AI, robotics, embedded systems), design, product management, and business development to scale the team.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven**: Opportunity to work on cutting-edge general-purpose robotics and Physical AI, moving technology from labs to real-world impact.
- **Engineering-Heavy Culture**: 60% of employees are in technical roles (AI, robotics, software, hardware), with a strong emphasis on hands-on building.
- **Fast-Growing Startup**: ~328% headcount growth in one year, indicating high trajectory and opportunity for early employees to have outsized impact.
- **Location**: HQ in Santa Clara, CA (Silicon Valley), with an in-office work policy (on-site workspace).
- **Compensation**: Engineering roles list salary ranges like $100K–$300K, competitive for the robotics/AI space.
- **Notable Culture Signals**: "Build with us" hiring language, active LinkedIn community (4,273 followers), and a focus on "smile, reach out, and instantly connect" suggests a collaborative, builder-oriented environment.

## Sources
1. [dexmate.ai](https://www.dexmate.ai/)
2. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/dexmate](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/dexmate)
3. [builtin.com/company/dexmate](https://builtin.com/company/dexmate)
4. [craft.co/dexmate](https://craft.co/dexmate)
5. [linkedin.com/company/dexmate](https://www.linkedin.com/company/dexmate)

## Other roles at Dexmate

- [Motor Electromagnetic Design Engineer, Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/motor-electromagnetic-design-engineer-robotics-dexmate-fremont-agz51zepyg16) — Fremont, CA
- [Senior Electrical Engineer, Robot Controller Hardware](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-electrical-engineer-robot-controller-hardware-dexmate-fremont-5638zmeqk5q5) — Fremont, CA
- [Mechanical Design Engineer, Robotic Actuators](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-design-engineer-robotic-actuators-dexmate-fremont-gh6tjne887yn) — Fremont, CA
- [Motor Drive & Power Electronics Engineer, Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/motor-drive-power-electronics-engineer-robotics-dexmate-fremont-vfpzntz7n7mz) — Fremont, CA
- [Embedded Motor Controls Engineer, Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-motor-controls-engineer-robotics-dexmate-fremont-amak6sek2jrg) — Fremont, CA
- [Senior Manufacturing Engineer, Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manufacturing-engineer-robotics-dexmate-fremont-n5djqvgfd8xw) — Fremont, CA
- [Robotics Field Engineer, Physical AI](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-field-engineer-physical-ai-dexmate-fremont-05awzkx7ytby) — Fremont, CA
- [Electrical Test & Validation Engineer, Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/electrical-test-validation-engineer-robotics-dexmate-fremont-mmb5v8xrhqda) — Fremont, CA
- [Embedded Systems Engineer, Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-systems-engineer-robotics-dexmate-fremont-ecqss4dfys92) — Fremont, CA
- [Marketing Campaign and Event Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/marketing-campaign-and-event-manager-dexmate-fremont-x6bk8d8m99b4) — Fremont, CA