Mechanical Engineer

Mechanical Engineer

Watertown, MA

R&D - Research /

Full-time /

On-site

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Tutor Intelligence builds AI robotics systems and deploys them into the facilities that need them. We believe research and deployment should improve each other: real-world operation reveals the problems worth solving, and better technology makes robots more useful. Join a team where your designs, experiments, and code have a direct impact on physical systems.

Our Culture

We value technical excellence, collaboration, and respect. Engineers take ownership, make tradeoffs explicit, and help colleagues do better work. We move quickly through building, testing, and learning from what happens on the robot.

About the Role

Own complex mechanical subsystems that make robot manipulation and data collection work. You will turn uncertain requirements into mechanisms, end effectors, fixtures, and sensor assemblies, then carry those designs through fabrication, integration, validation, and repeatable builds.

This is a hands-on design role. You will define the approach within your scope, work closely with electrical, software, and research colleagues, and stay responsible for the reliability and maintainability of the hardware you build.

Responsibilities

• Translate manipulation and data-collection goals into mechanical requirements, interface definitions, and validation plans.
• Design complex parts and assemblies in CAD, including actuated mechanisms, end effectors, mounts, enclosures, and fixtures.
• Justify actuator, material, bearing, fastener, and process choices using load, stiffness, tolerance, wear, and packaging requirements.
• Build and test prototypes; use measurements and failure analysis to guide rapid, methodical iteration.
• Anticipate integration risks with sensors, wiring, electronics, and control software and drive their resolution.
• Deliver drawings, bills of materials, assembly instructions, and acceptance tests for repeatable fabrication and handoff.
• Follow build and operating feedback after delivery, resolve reliability issues, and improve design-review and documentation practices.

Requirements

• Evidence of independently owning complex mechanical design work through fabrication, integrated testing, and sustained use.
• Strong 3D CAD, engineering drawings, tolerance analysis, and practical application of GD&T.
• Sound mechanics and the ability to justify design choices with calculations, analysis, and experiment.
• Hands-on skill in prototyping and assembly, and practical understanding of machining and manufacturing processes.
• Ability to explain a failed design, the evidence that isolated the cause, and the iteration that resolved it.
• Ability to coordinate across disciplines, communicate risks early, and produce documentation others can build from.

Nice to have

• Robot end effectors, precision or compliant mechanisms, or other actuated hardware.
• Taking prototypes into repeatable production and using field feedback to improve reliability.
• Mechatronics, sensor integration, FEA, or basic controls and programming.

What Success Looks Like

• Define and validate an agreed subsystem with clear mechanical and software interfaces.
• Deliver a reliable integrated build and resolve the largest uncertainties through targeted experiments.
• Make fabrication, assembly, maintenance, and subsequent iterations repeatable for other team members.

$100,000 - $300,000 a year

At Tutor, engineers and researchers in R&D hold the title Member of Technical Staff (MoTS). Our job postings use familiar titles to help candidates find us; your level is determined through the interview process. Work evolves with the team's needs, and we value the technical depth and collaborative judgment that let people contribute across changing projects.

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