Mechanical Engineer
About Human Archive
Human 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 on
Mechanical architecture
Chassis design across consumer-grade and production-grade materials
Packaging, weight distribution, and human fit
Serviceability and assembly architecture
Optical mount and alignment
Camera and lens mounting systems for multi-camera arrays
Tolerance stack-up against calibration accuracy targets
Kinematic alignment systems and bonded inserts
Power and battery packaging
Battery enclosures including swap mechanisms
Connector layout and cable routing
Drop and impact resistance
Thermal management
Passive thermal dissipation in tight wearable form factors
Heat spreader integration with chassis materials
Touch-temperature constraints against the user
DFM and manufacturing handoff
Design for CNC, injection molding, sheet metal, and composite layup
Production drawings, GD&T, fixture design
Tolerance verification and first-article inspection
Required technical experience
Hands-on mechanical CAD: SolidWorks, NX, Creo, or Fusion 360
Shipped consumer or wearable hardware to real users
DFM fluency across CNC, injection molding, and sheet metal
Tolerance stack-up and GD&T for precision optical systems
Structural and thermal FEA
Strong plus
Head-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 alignment
Direct work with Asian ODMs and tooling shops
Background in research-grade capture systems or medical wearables
About 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.