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.