Design Intern (Industrial / Mechanical)

MorphLabs · New York City · 5-month internship, on-site · Rolling applications

MorphLabs is building non-invasive telekinesis: a brain interface that turns movement intent into action, starting with people underserved by existing technology.

We are starting with continuous, intuitive prosthetic control for upper-limb amputees, decoding movement intent from EEG in real time, without surgery or reliance on muscle sensors. We develop the hardware and models together, treating signal quality, learning and control as one problem. Prosthetics are where we start, not where we stop.

We are a small, scrappy, high-throughput team in NYC. We have raised a substantial pre-seed round, with our seed round underway, and we move quickly between research and building.

Our headset has to fit many different heads, hold electrodes in steady contact with the scalp, stay comfortable through a full day, and look like something a person would choose to wear in public. It also has to work alongside a prosthetic hand. Every one of those is a design problem, and each one affects the signal our models learn from.

As a Design Intern, you'll spend five months on the physical design of that system, working directly with the founding team and our hardware engineers. You'll own a well-scoped project from first sketch to tested part, and be expected to ship something real: a headset revision we build, a fit or retention design we adopt, or a clear finding that changes what we try next.

Most of the work is industrial design: fit, materials and mechanisms, plus a hand in how the headset looks and feels, carried all the way through mechanisms and working prototypes. Some of it is product and interface design for the software people use to set up, calibrate and control the system.

This is not a side project. Interns work on the same hardware, participants and open problems as the rest of the team.

• →Form and identity. Work with the founders on how the headset looks, feels and wears: proportions, materials, color and finish, so it reads as something people choose to wear, not a lab instrument.
• →Fit and comfort. Design for a wide range of head shapes and sizes, keep it comfortable through a full day, and make it fast to put on and adjust.
• →Electrode retention. Design mechanisms that keep electrodes in stable contact with the scalp, and work with the hardware team to measure how each change affects signal quality.
• →Miniaturization and enclosures. Work with our electrical engineers to package smaller boards and batteries into enclosures that are lighter, sturdier and easier to service.
• →Prosthetic integration. Design the mounts, housings and interfaces that connect our system to prosthetic and robotic hands.
• →Prototyping and testing. Move quickly from sketch to CAD to physical parts, test them on real people, and let each result shape the next iteration.
• →Design for manufacture. Prepare parts for production runs and document designs so they can be built the same way every time.
• →Product and interface design. Help design the setup, calibration and control screens that participants and users interact with, so the system is clear to use for people with and without limb differences.

• Ownership. What you design goes into the headset we build and test, not a concept deck.
• Direct access to the founders. You'll work beside the people making the decisions, with no layers in between.
• Your designs on real heads, every day. We record new EEG daily, so your prototypes get worn and tested constantly.
• Our own hardware. We build our own headset, electrodes and amplifier, so no part of the system is off limits to redesign.
• An IRB already in place, covering both healthy participants and patients.
• The resources to do the work. Equipment and materials won't be the bottleneck.

We're hiring industrial designers who build: students, recent grads, or anyone whose portfolio shows physical products they designed and made themselves. We judge your work, not your school, degree or résumé. You don't need a background in neuroscience, BCI or prosthetics.

What we expect:

• A portfolio of physical products you designed and built yourself, with a clear account of what was yours
• Form you can defend: the proportions, materials and finishes you chose, and why
• Sketch to CAD to physical prototype, many times over, with each round changing because of what you learned
• Design work that had to fit the human body for hours: wearables, medical devices, protective or sports gear
• Enough mechanical sense to make your designs actually work: tolerances, materials, mechanisms and assembly
• Testing with real people, and design changes you made because of what you saw
• Speed: iterations in days, not weeks

What sets candidates apart:

• Experience with wearables, medical devices or consumer hardware
• Design for manufacturing experience, such as injection molding, machining or sheet metal
• Experience packaging electronics: enclosures, cable routing, battery and thermal constraints
• Product or interface design for software, especially for people with disabilities
• Experience with prosthetics, orthotics or assistive technology
• Work with soft goods, textiles or flexible materials

The bar is high on purpose. If your portfolio clears it, apply, whatever your background.