A method for automated gearbox design includes: instantiating the gearbox model having an initial parameter state in a modeling environment; analyzing and/or characterizing the gearbox model in the modeling environment to determine gearbox model performance; and determining whether the gearbox model performance satisfies a performance target. Upon a determination that the gearbox model performance does not satisfy the performance target: a reward is calculated based on the gearbox model performance; a reinforcement machine learning agent determines a parameter change action based on the reward and a current parameter state of the gearbox model; and an updated parameter state of the gearbox model is determined based on the parameter change action.