← All roles

Member of Technical Staff - Robotics Mechanical

Warp Sciences· Robotics
Apply on company site
South San FranciscoFull-timePosted 4d ago

About the role

Role focused on designing and implementing hardware for autonomous scientific workflows in lab automation. Collaborate with chemists, AI researchers, software and hardware engineers to build mechanisms, end effectors, workcells, and custom machines for automated chemistry workflows, and to develop data collection systems.

Responsibilities

  • Execute with speed and rigor. You know when to optimize for learning velocity vs. execution velocity, when to run a simulation vs. build a prototype, and when to use OTS hardware vs. build something custom.
  • Effectively evaluate and communicate trade-offs. You will work with stakeholders across chemistry, AI, hardware, and software to define the appropriate scope for the robotic systems that you’ll design and own.
  • Plan from a 10,000ft view. You will take initiative to understand the risk profile of the larger organization, and prioritize your work - and its scope - accordingly. Comfort with questioning assumptions and adopting a team mindset is critical.
  • Design and build mechanisms, end effectors, workcells, and custom machines for automating scientific workflows.
  • Build physical data collection systems for use by chemists in the lab.
  • Manage vendors and leverage outside design resources when necessary, practical, or expedient.
  • Help define the tone for a high agency high performance engineering culture.

Qualifications

  • 7+ years of cradle to grave hardware design experience, preferably across multiple engineering domains. Robotics specific experience is nice-to-have but not strictly necessary.
  • Hands-on mechanical intuition. You are comfortable building and working in the physical world, and have a strong sense of what will work and what won’t.
  • A demonstrated track record of making complex hardware projects come to life and work in the real world.
  • Strong debugging skills with integrated electrical/mechanical/software systems.
  • Exceptional ability to use digital and physical tools to accelerate your work and improve its quality. FEA, Claude/Codex, CAD, 3D printing, laser cutting, sheetmetal bending, mill, lathe, etc.
  • Strong mechanical design and engineering fundamentals. Functional tolerance stackups, material properties, statics, dynamics, freebody diagrams, kinematic constraints, actuator selection/sizing, thermals, electronics packaging, etc.
  • Experience managing and leveraging vendors. Your attention to detail will drive clear communication about costs, lead times, and bottlenecks, both internally and externally.
  • Design for assembly and design for manufacturing fundamentals. Direct experience with various manufacturing methods and a sense of their strengths and limitations (CNC machining, sheetmetal, overmolding, casting, injection molding, etc.)
  • High capacity for working in ambiguous environments and effectively adding structure when there’s not a clear path forward.

Skills

Required:Hardware designMechanical design and analysisVenture/vendor managementDesign for manufacturing / assemblyElectrical/electronic integration
Nice to have:Data collection systems
Last updated Oct 26, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
Warp Sciences logo

About Warp Sciences

Warp Sciences | AI and robotics for faster drug discovery

Warp is the U.S. chemistry CRO helping scientists discover new medicines faster. We bring expert chemists, AI, and robotics together to make the molecules research teams need—and build automated labs that learn from every experiment.

AIroboticsdrug discoverychemistry CROautomation
Company profileWebsite

More open roles at Warp Sciences