Mechanical Engineer - Manipulation, Frontier AI & Robotics
About the job
- A bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, mechatronics engineering, or equivalent is required.
- Three to five or more years of experience designing mechanical systems for robotics, grippers, end-effectors, or complex electromechanical products is required.
- Proficiency in 3D computer-aided design using SolidWorks, Onshape, or an equivalent tool is required.
- Hands-on experience building prototypes, integrating hardware, and troubleshooting mechanical issues is required.
- Experience designing compact mechanisms with integrated actuation and sensing is required.
- Experience with rapid prototyping methods, including 3D printing, computer numerical control machining, laser cutting, and sheet metal fabrication, is required.
- Familiarity with actuator and motor selection for compact, force-controlled applications is required.
- Experience with structural analysis and material selection for lightweight, functional parts is required.
- Design grippers, end-of-arm tools, and low-degree-of-freedom multi-finger hands for robotic manipulation research and data collection.
- Develop UMI-style grippers and teleoperation hardware for collecting manipulation demonstration data.
- Design fixtures, jigs, and mounting systems for cameras, sensors, and manipulation test setups.
- Integrate tactile sensors, force/torque sensors, and cameras into compact gripper assemblies.
- Rapidly prototype and iterate on manipulation hardware from concept sketches to functional grippers in days or weeks.
- Partner with artificial intelligence researchers to determine which mechanical properties, including compliance, sensing, and geometry, matter for learned manipulation policies.
- Design data collection devices, such as UMI grippers, that enable repeatable, high-quality demonstration capture.
- Conduct mechanical testing of gripper performance, including grasp force, compliance, durability, and repeatability.
- Apply design for manufacturability and design for assembly principles to scale successful gripper designs from one-off units to small batches of tens to hundreds of units.
- Own cable routing, actuation, and sensing integration for compact end-effector designs.
- Support hands-on builds, debugging sessions, and real-world manipulation experiments.
- Collaborate with controls, perception, and artificial intelligence teams to ensure that hardware meets research needs.
- A master's degree in mechanical engineering, mechatronics, or robotics is preferred.
- Experience designing robotic grippers, end-of-arm tools, or dexterous manipulation hardware is preferred.
- Familiarity with tactile sensing, force/torque sensing, or compliant mechanism design is preferred.
- Experience with teleoperation hardware or data collection systems for robot learning is preferred.
- Exposure to imitation learning, learning from demonstrations, or sim-to-real transfer concepts is preferred.
- Experience with cable-driven mechanisms, tendon routing, or underactuated hand designs is preferred.
- Knowledge of design for manufacturability and design for assembly principles for small-batch production is preferred.
- Experience working in research environments with rapidly evolving requirements is preferred.
- Basic familiarity with the Robot Operating System, controls, or embedded systems for integrated design work is preferred.
About the company
Amazon runs the largest online store in the United States and rents cloud computing to businesses and governments through Amazon Web Services. AWS pioneered renting computing power over the internet, and Amazon built its own delivery network to get orders to customers quickly. Shoppers buy from Amazon and from independent sellers on its store, and Prime members pay a subscription for fast free shipping, streaming video and music, and other perks. AWS rents out computing power, storage, databases, and AI tools so companies can run software without owning servers, and Amazon also makes Kindle e-readers and Echo speakers with the Alexa assistant. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, and it is based in Seattle, Washington.
Company Size
10,001+
Company Stage
IPO
Headquarters
Seattle, Washington
Founded
1994
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- AI drives growth: AWS's AI and custom-chip sales each more than doubled, passing $25 billion a year by June 2026.
- Stock grants gained value: shares hit a record in August 2026, making Amazon the fifth company to reach $3 trillion.
- Ads are a third engine beside stores and AWS: they grew 26% to $19.8 billion in the June 2026 quarter.
What critics are saying
- AWS's lead is shrinking: in the June 2026 quarter, Google Cloud grew 82% and Microsoft's Azure 43%, versus AWS's 37%.
- Job security has slipped: Amazon cut 30,000 corporate jobs in October 2025 and January 2026 to reduce management layers.
- Expect five office days a week: Amazon ended its three-day hybrid policy for corporate staff in January 2025.
What makes Amazon unique
- Most of Amazon's profit comes from cloud: AWS made 21% of sales but 60% of operating profit in mid-2026.
- Amazon is America's biggest parcel carrier by volume: it handled 6.9 billion packages in 2025, more than the Postal Service.
- Writing matters more than slides: Amazon meetings open with silent reading of a six-page memo instead of PowerPoint.
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Benefits
Flexible Work Hours
Company Equity
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
2%1 year growth
2%2 year growth
1%Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares have fallen 10% since peaking two months ago, which one analyst sees as a buying chance. Concerns over rising AI spending and a rotation out of consumer tech stocks have weighed on the stock, which slightly lags the market in 2026. The business is growing fast. Net sales rose 20% last quarter, the strongest year-over-year jump since 2021. Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue surged 37% in the second quarter on AI demand; AWS makes up a fifth of revenue but three-fifths of operating profit. North American e-commerce sales rose 16%, helped by Amazon's AI shopping assistant, Rufus. At less than 25 times next year's earnings, the article argues, Amazon's premium is available at a discount.
A $1,000 investment in Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) could grow to about $2,059 by October 7, 2031, according to a 24/7 Wall St. base-case model. That implies a modeled share price of $532.62, a 105.87% total return, or 15.54% annually. Shares trade at about $258.35, up 16.49% over the past year. On October 7, 2030, the base path puts the stock at $498.59, or $1,927.14 for a $1,000 stake. The case rests on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which grew 37% to $42 billion last quarter. Amazon's AI and custom chip businesses each top $25 billion annually, with most 2027 Trainium capacity reserved. The risk is spending. A $200 billion 2026 capex plan has pushed free cash flow to -$7.6 billion, so AI demand must arrive for the bull case to hold. Amazon pays no dividend, so all gains must come from the share price.
Amazon is testing whether shoppers will pay a premium for its new Alexa tablet, as leadership of the Alexa unit changes hands. Shares fell about 0.8% to $260.39 at 12:30 EST. The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro starts at $499.99, against $329.99 for the 11-inch model and $229.99 for the 8-inch version. Shipments begin October 14. Amazon confirmed to Reuters that Daniel Rausch will leave the unit next month. Aidan Marcuss will take over. The tablet's success depends on whether customers keep using Alexa and spend more across Amazon's services. Shares trade 3.7% above the $251.11 GF Value estimate.
The San Francisco company’s software makes it easier for developers to switch between different AI chips.
Michael Moritz, who spent about 38 years at Sequoia Capital backing Google, YouTube, PayPal, and Stripe, says most investors fail because they cannot do nothing. Speaking on The Investor's Podcast Network, he said they sell over scary headlines, round-number prices, or gains that feel too big, cutting short the compounding that builds wealth. He pointed to Amazon, which has traded at all-time highs on many days in its 30 years as a public company. Its stock closed at $262.43 on October 9, up 531.6% in a decade. Amazon's second-quarter revenue rose 19.6% to $200.61 billion. AWS revenue grew 37% to $42.23 billion, with a backlog of $496 billion, despite planned 2026 capital spending of about $200 billion.