Senior Actuator Engineer (Hands Team)
Rhoda AI · Mountain View
At 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.
You will design the actuation at the heart of the hand: compact, efficient motor-and-gearbox units that must deliver human-hand dexterity in a human-hand package. Your actuators define what the entire system can do.
What You'll Do
Design compact motor-gearbox actuator units for the hand's fingers and wrist, from concept through production
Architect miniaturized geartrains — especially planetary — that hit torque, backlash, and packaging targets at finger scale
Size and select motors against torque, speed, power-draw, thermal, and efficiency requirements
Build and run bench and dyno tests to characterize actuator performance, efficiency, and durability
Partner with the structures engineer on packaging and thermal paths, and with the electrical engineer on drive and sensing integration
What You Bring
Track record of designing and shipping gearboxes, especially planetary gearboxes
Experience miniaturizing geartrains for tightly packaged, weight- and volume-constrained applications
Strong command of motor sizing and selection, including power draw, torque density, and efficiency analysis
Nice to Have
Gear design experience — tooth profiles, materials, and manufacturing methods
Experience with tendon- or linkage-driven finger actuation
Familiarity with backdrivability and transparency requirements for teleoperation
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