Senior / Staff Mechanical Engineer, Dropbox

As a Senior Mechanical Engineer on Dropbox, you will own the mechanical architecture and detailed design of key assemblies through validation, production ramp, and fleet operation. You will make architecture-level tradeoffs that balance safety, reliability, manufacturability, and serviceability for an unattended field-facing product. This is a hands-on, individual-contributor role responsible for designs that must meet high-cycle life, environmental exposure, and low-maintenance targets in real-world sites.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end mechanical scope for Dropbox assemblies: requirements, architecture, detailed CAD, drawings, specifications, BOMs, and production release.
• Define success metrics for your systems (e.g., target field MTBF, service MTTR, production yield, or mean time between service actions) and drive design choices to meet them.
• Translate customer workflows, hazard analyses, and droid interfaces into mechanical requirements and verified designs that minimize field interventions.
• Lead trade studies and system-level decisions across safety, reliability, cycle time, environmental performance, serviceability, DFM, DFA, cost, and schedule; document chosen trade-offs and residual risks.
• Create GD&T, datum strategy, alignment schemes, and tolerance stack-ups across complex electromechanical interfaces to ensure consistent assembly and alignment during high-volume builds.
• Perform and apply first-principles analysis, hand calculations, kinematic analysis, fatigue/wear assessments, and FEA to set margins and validate designs against defined targets.
• Integrate actuators, transmissions, bearings, sensors, PCBAs, connectors, harnesses, seals, and embedded controls into reliable assemblies; define and verify mechanical/electrical interfaces.
• Partner closely with Electrical, Embedded Software, Systems, Test, Reliability, Manufacturing, Operations, and Safety to develop validation plans covering functional, lifetime, environmental, abuse, and fault-condition scenarios.
• Prototype rapidly, run targeted experiments and test campaigns, and use data to down-select concepts and reduce technical risk; own test evidence and acceptance criteria.
• Lead investigations of prototype, production, and field failures: contain, establish root cause, implement corrective actions, and track recurrence reduction metrics.
• Work directly with suppliers, NPI, and Manufacturing to implement DFM/DFA changes, improve yield, and qualify production processes; support supplier qualification and on-site manufacturing troubleshooting.
• Use fleet telemetry, service records, and field observations to prioritize design changes that reduce failure rates and maintenance burden; report measurable improvement in uptime or service events.
• Mentor other engineers, establish mechanical design best practices, and drive improvements in documentation quality and release discipline.

Requirements

• Proven end-to-end ownership of electromechanical hardware through concept, validation, production ramp, and field deployment in customer-facing or unattended systems.
• Deep mechanism and structure design experience (actuators, transmissions, bearings, seals, high-cycle moving assemblies) with demonstrated fatigue, wear, and environmental design competence.
• Strong mechanical fundamentals (hand calculations, FEA grounding, kinematics, bolted joints, materials, tolerance analysis) and advanced CAD skills managing system-level assemblies and drawing releases.
• Demonstrated GD&T mastery, datum strategy, and practical tolerance-stack experience enabling repeatable high-yield assembly.
• Prototyping and test experience; ability to define and run experiments and convert data into design decisions.
• Track record resolving complex or intermittent hardware failures through disciplined root-cause analysis and corrective action implementation.
• Experience integrating PCBAs, wiring harnesses, motors, sensors, and embedded controls into mechanical designs.
• Experience working directly with suppliers and manufacturing to ship high-volume, high-reliability hardware; comfortable leading supplier qualification and on-site problem solving.
• Location & logistics: this role is in-person in South San Francisco with regular on-site collaboration. Expect travel (~10–25% typical) to suppliers, manufacturers, test locations, and deployment sites depending on program needs.
• Operating intensity & constraints: you will work on customer-facing, unattended field systems where rapid escalation, supplier trips, test campaigns, and production-support nights are required to protect fleet uptime; must be comfortable with high-responsibility, hands-on delivery cadence.
• Traits: decisive engineering judgment, clarity in documenting assumptions and risks, rigorous data-driven decision-making, and calm, methodical troubleshooting under field pressure.

Benefits

• The starting cash range for this role is $160,000 - $250,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.