OpenAI
Mechanical Engineer, Soft Goods Design
About this role
OpenAI's Robotics team seeks a Mechanical Engineer to design and productionize flexible, compliant components for robotic systems. You'll translate soft material concepts into durable, manufacturable subsystems that integrate elastomers, textiles, foams, and other flexible elements with rigid hardware and sensors.
What you'll do
- Design and integrate compliant materials into mechanical subsystems with rigid hardware interfaces
- Use FEA tools to characterize material behavior under operational loads and environmental conditions
- Develop test methods and validation protocols for soft component durability and failure analysis
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to transition prototypes into manufacturable designs
- Source materials and work with contract manufacturers on bonding, molding, lamination, and sewing processes
- Investigate field failures and iterate designs based on wear patterns and performance degradation
What they're looking for
- Mechanical design of flexible and compliant systems
- Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
- Material characterization and testing
- Knowledge of elastomers, foams, TPUs, and textiles
- Manufacturing process expertise (molding, bonding, lamination, sewing)
- Cross-functional collaboration and communication
- Environmental and durability testing
- Technical documentation and specifications
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OpenAI
OpenAI builds AI infrastructure and products, including large-scale data center campuses for AI computing and generative AI applications for enterprise customers. The company is hiring civil engineers, project engineers, electrical design engineers, data center R&D engineers, and AI deployment engineers to expand its infrastructure capabilities and help customers deploy AI solutions.
View all jobs at OpenAILikely interview questions
- Walk us through a project where you designed soft or compliant components integrated with rigid hardware. What material challenges did you encounter, and how did you validate performance?
- Describe your experience with FEA modeling of elastomers, foams, or textiles. How do you account for nonlinear behavior like hysteresis, creep, or fatigue in your simulations?