Mechanical & Scaling Engineer, Droid

You will take droid subsystems from various stages of completion and drive them through DVT, PVT, tooling release, first-article inspection, and production ramp. You'll own test campaigns, stand up NPI and production lines at contract manufacturers, and manage supplier communication, ECOs, and schedules. This role focuses on execution and scaling, not ground-up design, and requires being physically present on the line during builds.

Responsibilities

• Take droid subsystems from the design phase through DVT, PVT, tooling release, first-article, and full-rate production, owning the execution end-to-end.
• Own test campaigns for the subsystems you drive. That will involve writing test plans, coordinating fixtures, running the campaigns, and driving root-cause when things fail.
• Stand up NPI and production lines at our contract manufacturers. So - process definition, work instructions, operator training, line balancing, yield ramp, and the first weeks of full-rate production.
• Be the point person for supplier communication, ECOs, deviation management, and the Jira / issue-tracking hygiene that keeps a hardware program from drowning in itself.
• Modify and improve existing designs where testing, DFM, or production reveals opportunities. You don't need to do ground-up mechanism design, but you do need to be fluent enough in CAD (we use Siemens NX) to make competent, drawing-ready changes and drive them through revision control.
• Partner directly with the design engineers, test engineers, and the TPM on our team, and with cross-functional partners in supply chain, quality, and manufacturing engineering.
• Drive first-article builds and pilot runs, being physically present on the line, catching problems the drawings didn't anticipate, and closing the loop with the design team.
• Travel to suppliers and manufacturing partners in China, Malaysia, Japan, Italy, Germany, and Vietnam.
• Bring the perspective of higher-volume production into design reviews earlier - pushing back on choices that will hurt at scale, and championing choices that make the product easier to build and repair.

Requirements

• BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related field, with 5+ years of hands-on experience delivering physical products from design through production.
• A track record of taking mechanical designs through the full NPI cycle - DVT, PVT, tooling release, first article, and ramp -on at least one product program.
• Direct experience running or heavily contributing to test campaigns for mechanical or electromechanical hardware.
• CAD fluency sufficient to make competent, drawing-ready changes to complex assemblies (we use Siemens NX; strong Creo, CATIA, or SolidWorks experience is considered equivalent).
• Comfortable with GD&T, tolerance analysis, and reading and marking up production drawings.
• Practical, hands-on knowledge of some or all of the manufacturing methods we use: injection molding, thermoplastic and thermoset composites, EPP foam molding, stamping, CNC machining and what it takes to actually get parts out of them at rate.
• Strong instincts for supplier engagement - you know how to run a good FAI review, how to escalate cleanly, and how to build the kind of working relationship with a CM that delivers functional and performant parts, on time and fully productionized.
• A willingness to travel internationally, sometimes on short notice.
• The kind of ownership mindset that treats the program's success as your personal responsibility.

Nice to have

• Prior experience at an automotive OEM, a drone or robotics company, a medical device company, or another high-mix / high-reliability hardware environment.
• Experience setting up NPI or production lines at a Chinese, Malaysian, or Vietnamese contract manufacturer.
• Test rig design experience -instrumentation, DAQ, fixture design for cyclic and environmental testing.
• Familiarity with the electrical and firmware side of the products you've integrated.
• Prior experience owning ECO, PLM, or JIRA workflows for a hardware program of nontrivial complexity.

Benefits

• The starting cash range for this role is $175,000 – $215,000 depending on experience. This is a target starting range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications; the final cash offer will depend on experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role also includes equity compensation and benefits (medical, dental, vision, PTO, and more).