Principal Mechanical Engineer

Aescape is a New York-based physical AI and robotics company redefining human recovery through intelligent, precision bodywork, elevating it into a consistent, outcomes-driven practice. Powered by real-time body mapping, advanced robotics, and proprietary software, Aescape delivers deeply personalized bodywork that continuously adapts to the individual. This creates a superior way for members to move with greater ease, recover more efficiently, and optimize how they feel every single day.
 Aescape is building a defining brand for recovery, shifting behavior from a sporadic experience into a progressive, measurable routine, unlocking compounding benefits that build lasting resilience and laying the groundwork for an entirely new category of proactive human health and performance.
 Aescape powers recovery across leading fitness, hospitality, and wellness environments, including Equinox, Life Time, Marriott, Hilton, Four Seasons, Pause Studios, and Remedy Place, and is backed by Valor Equity Partners, BroadLight Capital, and Mecha Ventures. Aescape is looking for a Principal Mechanical Engineer to be the technical lead for our mechanical engineering domain. You will own the mechanical master model and drive system-level integration across the robot, making sure actuators, drivetrain, structure, and adjacent mechanisms work as a single system. This is a hands-on principal IC role on a small, senior hardware team: you will lead design, analysis, cost reduction, prototyping, and validation, set the design methodology the rest of the team works to, and partner directly with our contract manufacturer and key suppliers to take designs into production. You will work closely with Electrical, Firmware, Controls, and Operations, and you will ship hardware that real people experience with their bodies. If this sounds like you, we'd love to hear from you! For this role, we are open to candidates who can work fully on-site from our NYC office OR those based in the greater Boston area, with the ability to travel to our NYC office regularly. WHAT YOU’LL DO  - Mechanical Architecture & System Integration: Own the mechanical master model and drive system-level integration across the platform, ensuring actuators, drivetrain, structure, and adjacent mechanisms come together as one coherent machine. Make the architecture-level tradeoffs: cost, weight, acoustics, reliability, and perceived quality. - Design, Analysis & Validation: Lead design, analysis, prototyping, and validation of mechanical subsystems across our deployed fleet and next-generation platforms. Build and test your own prototypes, and drive design decisions from test data and physics. - Design Methodology & Technical Leadership: Set the design methodology and best practices for the mechanical engineering domain: CAD standards, FEA and tolerance rigor, and how design decisions get justified. Raise the technical bar through CAD reviews, design reviews, architectural guidance, and mentorship of other mechanical engineers and contractors. - Cost Engineering & DFM: Identify and engineer out hidden costs in design, materials, and manufacturing through strategic changes and design simplification. Refine designs for manufacturability, create and optimize tooling and fixtures, and analyze and improve assembly processes for cost and quality. - Manufacturing & Supplier Partnership: Work directly with our supply chain team, contract manufacturer, and key suppliers on manufacturability and supplier selection, leading prototype builds through NPI and into production. Produce the technical documentation for production transfer: CAD, BOMs, drawings, and cost reports. - Cross-Functional Partnership: Partner with Electrical, Firmware, and Controls on motor selection, drivers, sensors, and force-controlled tuning, and with Operations and Quality on reliability, test, and production readiness. - Technology Roadmap: Contribute the mechanical point of view to Aescape's overall technology roadmap, researching and evaluating options in actuation, transmissions, sensing, and structure for future cost and performance improvements across the product lineup. - Travel: As needed for supplier and CM engagements, including international travel. WHAT YOU’LL BRING - Education & Experience: BS in Mechanical Engineering (MS preferred) with 10+ years of mechanical engineering experience, including significant work on actuators, drivetrains, or complex motorized mechanical assemblies for human-interaction or safety-relevant products (robotics, medical devices, industrial automation, automotive, or similar). - System-Level Ownership: A track record of owning mechanical architecture and system-level integration across subsystems. You have been the senior technical authority for a mechanical domain and are comfortable being the person others escalate decisions to. - CAD & Analysis Depth: Expert in SolidWorks, with strong FEA, kinematics, dynamics, GD&T, and tolerance analysis. You have the engineering intuition to know where a design is likely to fail and the rigor to prove it quantitatively. - Manufacturing Knowledge: Deep knowledge of manufacturing processes including sheet metal, welding, casting, CNC machining, injection molding, and assembly, with direct experience working with contract manufacturers and key suppliers through EVT, DVT, PVT, and into mass production. - Cost Engineering: A proven history of successful cost-down initiatives and identifying hidden cost drivers, with proficiency in cost estimation tools such as should-cost modeling. - Hands-On Builder: You prototype, instrument, characterize, and test your own work, and you are comfortable in the lab and on the factory floor. - Cross-Disciplinary Fluency: Comfortable working with Electrical, Firmware, and Controls engineers, with an understanding of mechanical design as part of a larger electromechanical system. - Technical Leadership: You raise the bar of a team through technical reviews, written architectural guidance, and mentorship. - Pragmatic Judgment: You make good calls on tradeoffs with limited data, know when to test and when to decide, and avoid analysis paralysis. - Craftsmanship & Taste: High standards for how the machine looks, sounds, and feels. - Adaptability: Comfortable with ambiguity and able to pivot as priorities shift in a fast-moving startup; willing to take on work outside your core role when required. - For this role, we are open to candidates who can work fully on-site from our NYC office OR those based in the greater Boston area, with the ability to travel to our NYC office regularly. WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU  - Join a trailblazing robotics and AI company building the future of recovery - The chance to make a difference with a product that empowers healthier and happier living - Team culture driven by passion, ambition, empowerment, inclusion, curiosity, and fun! - 100% employer-paid healthcare coverage for employees with generous coverage for eligible dependents - Flexible time off - Quarterly Wellness Days - everyone fully unplugs - Generous parental leave - Complimentary OneMedical membership - 401(k) with employer matching - Home office budget - Annual stipend for professional development - Working late? Dinner is on us - Complimentary Aescape recovery sessions for yourself, friends & family Compensation: Base salary range of $250,000 - $280,000 annually, plus discretionary annual bonus, plus equity grant commensurate with the role and company stage. Full-time employees are also eligible for our comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401(k), paid time off, and paid parental leave.   EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER Aescape is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. The salary range listed above is a good-faith estimate provided in accordance with New York City's pay transparency law. BEGIN YOUR AESCAPE CAREER JOURNEY At Aescape, we're on a mission to redefine self-care for a better world, and we're seeking trailblazers to join us on this journey. We're inspired by individuals who are passionate, driven, and eager to learn. We value diverse perspectives and resourceful, determined individuals who are committed to making a difference. At Aescape, we empower people to reach their full potential, just as our product empowers better living. If you're ready to innovate, create, and make a meaningful impact, we want you on our team. YOUR JOURNEY. YOUR AESCAPE.