Senior Mechanical Design Engineer, Covariant
$150-200k
Office located in Emeryville, CA
AI Robotics company
Open for applications
AI Robotics company
101-200 employees
Open for applications
$150-200k
Office located in Emeryville, CA
101-200 employees
Company mission
To build the Covariant Brain, a universal AI to give robots the ability to see, reason and act on the world around them.
Role
Who you are
- At least 7-12 years experience designing mechanical industrial components
- A Bachelor’s level degree or higher in Mechanical/Mechatronics Engineering or equivalent
- Proficiency in Onshape or Solidworks & implementing data management workflows
- DFX, FMEA, vendor selection, fabrication documentation, GD&T
- Selection and integration of pneumatic & electric actuators
- Harness design, wiring & PCB integration
- Strong grasp of analytical methods (FEA) and experience-backed theoretical reasoning
- Highly familiar with quick-turn manufacturing and rapid prototyping
- Strong cross-functional communication, documentation, and presentation skills
Desirable
- Practical usage of sensors & microcontrollers for instrumentation & experimentation
- Proficient with hand tools, a mill, lathe & rapid prototyping equipment
- Cameras, optics & precision calibration
- Working with robotic arms or automation equipment
- Data acquisition tools & analysis
- Background as a CAD administrator
- Background in vacuum & gripping technology
What the job involves
- We are looking for an experienced mechanical engineer to design and scale reliable, innovative new hardware components to meet the needs of our cutting-edge AI applications
- Using CAD to design, prototype, and release components to manufacture
- Excelling in both numerical analysis and creation of test setups to empirically quantify performance, reliability, and failure modes of new & existing system components
- Collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to communicate requirements, design intents, and test procedures for these components
- Design and iterate on components & mechatronic subsystems to deploy at customer sites per product requirements within aggressive timelines
- Lead design and development work from concept through production for mid-scale volumes; perform DFM, DFA, tolerance analysis
- Design and integrate actuated mechanisms and pneumatics for automated robotic material handling applications
- Integrate custom sensors and electronic assemblies into industrial-grade components
- Develop and lead the design of experiments for validation of component functionality & robustness throughout its expected lifecycle
- Consolidate and parameterize component designs for both ease of configuration and scalability in the field
- Lead the development of the internal roadmap for the standardized components & subsystem module space
- Be comfortable both working with vendors and working in a shop environment for quick turn prototyping and iterating on designs
- Evangelize best practices for CAD, data management, documentation, and cross-company communication
Otta's take
Theo Margolius
COO of Otta
Covariant's investors have solid backgrounds in AI research and academia and have a clear vision of how they want to impact the robotics industry. They have successfully deployed of the Covariant Brain in different sectors, including fashion, health, logistics, and pharmaceuticals.
Robotic AI has made huge leaps in recent years, but a global labour crunch means that supply chain and manufacturing firms are demanding more from their robotic workforces, requiring a precision and dexterity not yet reached without human assistance. Covariant exists to provide just this, outfitting robots with a universal AI for robotic manipulation.
With the global robotics industry expected to balloon to $86 billion by 2027, there is no shortage of firms working in this field. Competitors include Kindred and RightHand Robotics. However, Covariant is unique in its focus on autonomous robotics and in the range of its applications, which can be used in formerly difficult areas such as order picking regardless of the type of objects that need to be manipulated. It also has an edge in that its solution can be deployed to existing robots without new hardware or extensive reprogramming, significantly reducing onboarding costs.
Covariant has received significant funding for its product and is expanding internationally and into new verticals. It is looking to further develop the Covariant Brain and to maintain its market lead as companies continue to double down on investments in automation.
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)
Apr 2023
$75m
SERIES C
Jul 2021
$80m
SERIES C
Total funding: $222m
Company benefits
- Vision and dental insurance
- Flexible working hours
- Equal opportunity employer
- Work from home opportunities
- Health insurance
- Unlimited PTO
- Lunch and dinner each day (for on-site employees)
- Monthly health & wellness budget
- Quarterly learning budget
- 401k plan and match
Company values
- Breaking new ground, together
- Learning constantly
- Striving for empathy
Company HQ
Southwest Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Founders
Tianhao Zhang
(Co-founder)Tianhao worked as a Grad Researcher during their UCB PhD, before co-founding Covariant in September 2017.
Pieter Abbeel
(President & Chief Scientist)Having taken a PhD at Stanford, Pieter started working as a Professor at UCB in 2008, before co-founding Gradescope and working as an OpenAI Research Scientist. They co-founded Covariant in 2017, where they have worked since.
Peter Xi Chen
(CEO)PhD in Philosophy and a BA in Computer Science from Stanford. Started his career as a Research Scientist at Open AI before co-founding Covariant.
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