Senior 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 Senior Mechanical Engineer to own critical mechanical subsystems on our robotic platform. You will take subsystems from concept through design, analysis, prototyping, and validation, and carry them into production alongside our contract manufacturer and key suppliers. This is a hands-on role on a small, senior hardware team: you will design, build, and test your own work, and stay with it through manufacturing bring-up and into the field. You will work closely with Electrical, Firmware, Controls, Product, 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  - Subsystem Design & Ownership: Own the design of mechanical subsystems from concept through production release. Balance subsystem-level requirements against system-level constraints, and resolve complex mechanical design issues. - Analysis & Validation: Analyze and test your designs using FEA, kinematics, dynamics, and tolerance analysis. Build and test your own prototypes, and drive design decisions from test data and physics. - Design for Manufacturing & Cost: Design for manufacturability, reliability, and cost. Select components and processes with an understanding of what they cost at volume, and contribute to cost-down efforts across the product. - Manufacturing & Supplier Partnership: Work with our supply chain team, contract manufacturer, and suppliers to develop fixtures and assembly processes, support builds through NPI, and produce the documentation for production transfer: CAD, drawings, BOMs, and specifications. - Cross-Functional Partnership: Partner with Electrical, Firmware, Controls, Product, and Operations through the development process, translating requirements into mechanical designs. - Issue Resolution & Root Cause: Provide mechanical engineering support for manufacturing and field issues, troubleshoot process and component problems, and drive quality, manufacturing, and material defects to root cause. - Invention & Prototyping: Generate new concepts, write invention disclosures, and build rapid prototypes. - Travel: As needed for supplier and CM engagements, including international travel. WHAT YOU’LL BRING - Education & Experience: BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent experience, with 5+ years of hands-on mechanical design engineering experience on large-scale electromechanical devices. - Subsystem Ownership: A track record of owning mechanical subsystems through the full product development lifecycle: design, implementation, debugging, verification, qualification, and transfer to manufacturing. - CAD & Analysis Depth: Strong SolidWorks skills, with solid statics, dynamics, kinematics, strength of materials, stress analysis (FEA), 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: Demonstrated knowledge of component manufacturing processes including injection molding, sheet metal, weldments, CNC machining, surface finishes, and painting or powder coating, with a strong understanding of component selection criteria and design for reliability and manufacturability. - 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. - Communication: Strong written and verbal skills. You explain technical concepts clearly to non-technical partners and communicate effectively with geographically distributed teams and suppliers. - 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: A driven self-starter who is 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. - Nice to Have: High-volume consumer electronics product development experience; familiarity with design of experiments and statistical methods. - 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 $170,000 - $210,000 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.