# William Ryder > Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer @ Charge Robotics | Mechanisms · End Effectors · Robotic Assemblies Location: Oakland, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/williamryder I design mechanisms for robots — end effectors, tool changers, locking systems, large multi-body assemblies. I also build the engineering teams and processes around them: drawing standards, internal tools, PLM workflows, manufacturing handoffs. Currently at Charge Robotics. Previously Ambi Robotics, Balanced Body, Ground Control Systems. ## Work Experience ### Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer @ Charge Robotics Jan 2025 – Present | San Leandro, California, United States Own electromechanical architecture for solar farm construction robotics. • Designed a dual-mode end effector managing a 75:1 load ratio across operational modes through purely mechanical means — compliant alignment at 200 lbf, rigid constraint at 3,400 lbf/side. • Developed a rugged module carrier with load-decoupled locking mechanism, minimizing actuation force regardless of system loading or misalignment. ### Design Consultant @ The Co-Creation Company Jan 2021 – Present Designing the mechanisms that let robots interact with the physical world ### Sr. Mechanical Systems Engineer @ Ambi Robotics Jan 2022 – Jan 2025 | Berkeley, California, United States Owned vacuum systems and compliant end effectors across all product lines for AI-powered parcel sorting robots. • Led the design and development of custom electromechanical systems, integrating PCBs, solenoids, vacuum systems, and controls. • Built airflow models and custom test rigs to establish go/no-go performance criteria. • Supported national field deployments, managing installation teams and feeding learnings back into design. • Stood up design documentation standards, inventory control, and product lifecycle processes to support scaling. ### Product Design Engineer @ Balanced Body Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | Sacramento, California, United States One of three engineers at a $200M ARR company designing, prototyping, and manufacturing premium Pilates and fitness equipment. In-house machine shop, woodshop, and textiles, full lifecycle from concept through production. • Developed a space-efficient drive and selection mechanism for a flagship product — reduced BOM from 11 to 3 components, cutting mechanism cost by 80%. • Integrated closed-form computational analysis into the product development process, enabling rapid design changes through iterations. • Designed custom tooling saving $120K+ in prototyping costs. ### Co-Founder @ Construction Automation Startup Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | Sacramento Joined early to help build a manufacturing startup disrupting the Northern California commercial construction market. The bet was that automation on the shop floor and better front-end data management could undercut the incumbents on speed and cost. • Designed a 9,500 sq ft fabrication facility from the ground up - modeled budget, throughput, and staffing across three production stages. •Built the training programs and process flows to get the team operational. Partnership didn't last, but the zero-to-one experience of standing up a manufacturing operation from bare concrete stuck with me. ### Lead Mechanical Engineer & Operations Manager @ Ground Control Systems Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | Sacramento, California Lime, Bird, Jump, Lyft, Uber - micromobility was exploding and cities had no infrastructure for it. Ground Control built locking, storage, and charging solutions to keep bikes and scooters from spilling into streets and sidewalks. I worked directly with city planners, campus planners, and urban designers to develop standards and products for a category that barely existed yet. • Led NPD through 5 product launches - developed a modular product line that increased average job size four-fold. • Managed a team of 3 Design Engineers, establishing rituals, building a culture of trust and growth, as we moved fast and tried not to break TOO many things ;) • Ran domestic/international supply chains totaling $1.6M in yearly purchases. Reduced inventory ~15% by consolidating components and driving JIT production. • Built out the company's ERP system, managing a database of 10,000+ SKUs across production, assembly, and fulfillment. ### Mechanical Associate @ DMG MORI USA Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Davis, California Assembled and validated CNC machine tools for one of the world's largest machine tool manufacturers. Hands-on exposure to world-class manufacturing at scale that permanently calibrated how I think about precision, process, and production. ### Music Educator & Program Director @ Mandarins Drum and Bugle Corps · NorCal Indoor · Bay Area Youth Programs Jan 2010 – Jan 2018 Built and led percussion programs for youth ensembles across Northern California - designing curricula, directing rehearsals, managing staff, and touring nationally. Programs ranged from 3-person sections to 150 member ensembles. This world shaped how I work. Auditions with thousands competing for single digit spots. Twenty drummers playing thousands of notes within milliseconds of each other, day after day, in heat, rain, and exhaustion - chasing a standard of execution that's never fully achieved. You learn to establish and expect excellence, and you build the psychological resilience to keep pushing when execution inevitably falls short. ## Education ### Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering University of California, Davis ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/wtryder --- Source: https://flows.cv/williamryder JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/williamryder/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-05