Mechanical Engineer

About Human ArchiveHuman Archive is a research lab backed by Y Combinator focused on modeling human embodied intelligence.Humans are the most sophisticated biological systems we have ever observed, yet we still do not fully understand ourselves. Research into human physical intelligence — including the human hand, proprioception, and vision — remains largely unsolved. Our mission is to recover human embodied intelligence as a learned model. To achieve this, we build custom hardware products, deploy them globally at scale, and publish research. Today, our data is used for robotics and world modeling, but the broader opportunity is advancing scientific research into intelligence itself.Founded by Stanford and UC Berkeley researchers, we are lean, deeply technical, and operate at extreme speed, taking on unglamorous and conventionally impossible problems that directly unlock step-function gains in model capability.The deployment of capable humanoids at scale will permanently redefine human labor. Undesirable physical work will disappear, and human effort will shift toward a new era of abundant creativity.We are building the infrastructure to accelerate that transition by assembling the Human Archive mafia. You will own meaningful systems from day one and see your work directly impact model capabilities. This is a once-in-a-generation inflection point. If you want to help reshape physical labor and work on problems that matter at civilizational scale, join us.We're hiring a mechanical / CAD engineer to lead the mechanical design of our wearable capture hardware. Hands-on work where physics, optics, manufacturing, and human factors all converge.What you'll work onMechanical architectureChassis design across consumer-grade and production-grade materialsPackaging, weight distribution, and human fitServiceability and assembly architectureOptical mount and alignmentCamera and lens mounting systems for multi-camera arraysTolerance stack-up against calibration accuracy targetsKinematic alignment systems and bonded insertsPower and battery packagingBattery enclosures including swap mechanismsConnector layout and cable routingDrop and impact resistanceThermal managementPassive thermal dissipation in tight wearable form factorsHeat spreader integration with chassis materialsTouch-temperature constraints against the userDFM and manufacturing handoffDesign for CNC, injection molding, sheet metal, and composite layupProduction drawings, GD&T, fixture designTolerance verification and first-article inspectionRequired technical experienceHands-on mechanical CAD: SolidWorks, NX, Creo, or Fusion 360Shipped consumer or wearable hardware to real usersDFM fluency across CNC, injection molding, and sheet metalTolerance stack-up and GD&T for precision optical systemsStructural and thermal FEAStrong plusHead-worn or body-worn product background (AR/VR, action cameras, sports tech, smart eyewear)Composite chassis design (carbon fiber, cyanate ester matrix)Multi-camera optical alignmentDirect work with Asian ODMs and tooling shopsBackground in research-grade capture systems or medical wearablesAbout this role You own mechanical design end-to-end. The product surface is broad, the pace is fast, and your work ends up on real users within months. Compensation reflects the stage. The autonomy reflects it too.