Senior Mechanical Engineer- Arm

Senior Mechanical Engineer- Arm LocationMountain ViewEmployment TypeFull timeDepartmentHardwareAt Rhoda AI, we’re building the next generation of generalist intelligent robots. We own the full robotics stack from high-performance hardware and robot systems to the infrastructure and state-of-the-art foundation world models that control our robots. Our robots are designed to be generalists capable of operating in complex, real-world environments and handling long-tail edge cases, made possible by our cutting edge research and end-to-end system design. We've raised over $450M and are investing aggressively in model research, infrastructure, hardware development, and manufacturing scale-up to make generalist robotics a reality.We're looking for a Senior Mechanical Engineer to own the upper arm of our humanoid robot platform. The upper arm carries the highest structural loads in the arm chain — it reacts every payload the hand lifts through the shoulder into the torso, houses the largest actuators in the limb, and serves as the trunk through which all power, data, and sensing flow to everything downstream. Working with actuators developed by our dedicated actuation team, you'll own the upper arm end to end: shoulder and elbow joint structures, the interfaces to the torso above and lower arm below, electrical packaging within the limb, and the harness trunk and thermal strategy that support the entire arm. This is a high-ownership role at the structural and electrical convergence point of the platform.What You'll DoOwn the design of the upper arm end to end — shoulder and elbow joint structures, links, and housings — making the trade-offs between stiffness, mass, inertia, cost, and manufacturability under the highest structural loads in the arm chainDefine and own the interface to the torso, including the structural mount, load paths into the frame, alignment and registration features, and the electrical pass-through that feeds the entire arm — driving this interface to closure with the torso teamDefine and own the interface to the lower arm at the elbow, partnering with the lower-arm owner on structural attachment, alignment, connectorization, and serviceabilityIntegrate the largest actuators in the limb, working closely with the actuation team on mounting, envelope, cable exits, and heat rejection requirements for the shoulder and elbowOwn the harness trunk through the upper arm: the main power and data runs feeding the lower arm and hand, routing across the shoulder and elbow joints, service loops, strain relief, connectorization, and bend-cycle durability validated against the platform's full life requirementsOwn the electrical packaging within the upper arm — mounting and enclosing PCBAs and sensor boards in a moving, space-constrained limb, working with the EE team on board outlines, connector placement and access, keep-outs, grounding and shielding provisions, and vibration-tolerant mountingOwn the thermal design of the upper arm — conduction paths from the limb's highest-power actuators and packaged electronics into structure, thermal interface strategy, and validation under sustained duty cycles — in partnership with actuation and electrical teamsParticipate in FMEAs and define the validation and durability test strategy for the subsystem, and lead root cause analysis when hardware issues arise in the armCreate and maintain CAD models, drawings, tolerance stacks, interface control documents, and BOMs through design reviews and manufacturing handoffsPlan and execute prototype builds and test campaigns — structural, thermal, and cable-durability — and iterate quickly and rigorously from test resultsMentor junior engineers and raise the bar on design practices, documentation, and design review rigor across the teamWhat We're Looking ForBS in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related field (MS preferred)5+ years of experience in mechanical design of robots, robotic arms, or complex electromechanical productsDemonstrated...