Mechanical R&D Engineer
Location: Denmark, Copenhagen Team: R&D Reports to: Head of Innovation and RD Lead
About the role We are looking for a Mechanical R&D Engineer to become a key technical force in Levitate's R&D team. But we are not simply looking for someone with many years of mechanical engineering experience; we are looking for an inventor at heart. The kind of engineer who encounters a difficult mechanical problem during the day and catches themselves still thinking about it later. Someone who sees an interesting mechanism and immediately wants to understand how it works, why it was designed that way, where its limitations are, and whether there is a better way to do it. Maybe your hobbies somehow always become engineering projects. You rebuild motorcycles, work on cars or bicycles, machine parts, build robots, 3D-print things, restore old machinery, make test rigs, or take products apart simply because you want to understand what is happening inside. Mechanical engineering doesn't have to literally be your hobby. But we are looking for the level of curiosity where it very easily could be.
The R&D Team You'll join a team of design engineers, mechanical engineers, product developers, and specialists in materials, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing. Our process is hands-on and user-driven: we work closely with clinicians and, especially, the people who actually use our products — testing, observing, and turning real-world feedback into better solutions. You'll work across the full development process, from early concepts through prototyping, testing, verification, and production.
What you'll work on You'll take a technical role in our Mechanics product area, covering: mechanical systems and mechanisms, load-bearing/structural components, interfaces and connection systems, lightweight high-performance structures, new mechanical principles, materials and manufacturing technologies, and custom test equipment. This work supports our broader product portfolio wherever strong mechanical engineering, materials knowledge, and testing/verification are needed. You won't just turn finished requirements into CAD. You'll investigate technologies, explore principles, build and break prototypes, understand failures, and iterate until something is ready to become a product.
Your responsibilities Exploring and developing new mechanical concepts and technologies
Mechanical design, CAD, and mechanism development
Materials selection and structural engineering
Rapid prototyping and proof-of-concept builds
Designing test fixtures and dedicated test machines
Static, fatigue, functional, and durability testing; verification and validation
Working with relevant ISO standards
Failure analysis and root-cause investigation
Design for manufacturing and assembly; working directly with suppliers
Supporting other engineers and helping strengthen testing/verification practices R&D-wide
Taking concepts from whiteboard idea to something manufacturable and trustworthy
Who you are You have strong mechanical fundamentals, but what sets you apart is intuition and curiosity, about forces, movement, mechanisms, materials, and how physical things interact. You get excited by elegant mechanical solutions, want to know what's inside things, and don't accept "that's how it's normally done" as a real answer. When something fails, your first instinct is curiosity, not frustration, and you can pair that curiosity with the discipline to turn an invention into a reliable product.
Your background Degree in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related field
Significant experience developing physical products, with excellent CAD and mechanical design skills
Strong understanding of mechanics, materials, and structural behavior
Experience with mechanisms/moving assemblies, hands-on prototyping, CNC machining, and other manufacturing processes
Experience with fatigue/static/functional testing, and designing test setups or fixtures
Understanding of verification and validation, and experience moving products toward manufacturing
Strong analytical and root-cause problem-solving skills
Ability to work directly with suppliers
Proven experience developing highly loaded mechanical products (e.g., prosthetics, medical devices, bicycles, sporting goods, automotive components, robotics, or similar)
Demonstrated, repeated experience taking products through the full lifecycle, concept through engineering, testing, industrialization, launch, and post-market optimization, multiple times in your career, with concrete evidence of what you've personally built and solved
Why Levitate? At Levitate, the distance between an engineering idea and its real-world impact is unusually short. We build products people walk, run, train, and live their lives on; meaning they must be dynamic yet predictable, lightweight yet strong, sophisticated yet manufacturable, and able to survive millions of load cycles. We're looking for someone who doesn't just want to engineer our next product, but can't help wondering what it should be. You’ll join a small, ambitious and highly collaborative team where you’ll have real influence on both the products we build and how we build them. Your work won’t disappear into a large organization, you’ll be able to take ideas from early concepts through testing and development to products that make a tangible difference in people’s everyday lives. We offer a competitive salary package including pension and insurance, lunch at the office, and an informal and flexible working environment in Copenhagen.
Application & process Submit your application on The Hub. We review them on a continuous basis. The recruitment process consists of a practical engineering-focused interview and a concrete mechanical development case. Invited candidates will receive more information beforehand.