Founding Mechanical Engineer

Prevail Recruiting•San Diego, CA

9d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Founding Mechanical Engineer will own mechanical development across the hardware lifecycle, from defining requirements and evaluating concepts through detailed design, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing release. The role combines engineering calculations, CAD, simulation, and hands-on workshop work. The engineer will explain and validate design decisions by building hardware, measuring performance, and using results to improve designs. The position involves developing mechanical architectures, component designs, and integrated assemblies; making quantitative tradeoffs; analyzing and validating designs; building and testing prototypes; resolving failures; integrating mechanical and electronic systems; working directly with manufacturers; and moving hardware toward repeatable production. The engineer is expected to operate with technical ownership, identify uncertainty early, propose practical experiments, and drive engineering problems to resolution. The role is hybrid in San Diego. Compensation is $130,000–$200,000 plus equity.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent demonstrated engineering experience.
Demonstrated ownership of complex mechanical hardware from initial design through physical build and testing.
Strong fundamentals in solid mechanics, materials, machine design, heat transfer, and manufacturing processes.
Advanced proficiency in a parametric CAD platform such as SolidWorks, Siemens NX, Creo, or CATIA.
Experience producing manufacturing drawings using GD&T, appropriate datum schemes, and tolerance stack analysis.
Ability to perform engineering calculations and use FEA appropriately, including selecting boundary conditions, evaluating model assumptions, and checking results against physical expectations.
Practical knowledge of precision machining, sheet metal fabrication, additive manufacturing, and mechanical assembly.
Hands-on experience assembling, measuring, troubleshooting, and modifying hardware.
Ability to explain technical decisions through calculations, test results, and clearly documented tradeoffs.
Comfort working independently with evolving requirements and limited precedent.

Nice To Haves

Experience in aerospace, unmanned aircraft, robotics, autonomous systems, space hardware, or other demanding electromechanical products.
Experience with lightweight structures, precision mechanisms, actuators, bearings, seals, or composite assemblies.
Experience with mechanical packaging and thermal management for embedded computing, sensors, radar, or RF electronics.
Experience with environmental testing involving vibration, shock, temperature cycling, ingress protection, or corrosion.
Experience with fatigue, modal, nonlinear structural, or thermal analysis, including correlating simulations to test data.
Experience using Python, MATLAB, or similar tools for engineering calculations, test automation, optimization, and data analysis.
Experience transitioning prototypes into repeatable manufacturing processes.
Effective use of AI-assisted engineering tools, with independent verification of outputs.

Responsibilities

Own mechanical hardware development across the hardware lifecycle.
Translate system objectives into requirements, mechanical architectures, component designs, and integrated assemblies.
Make quantitative design decisions involving mass, stiffness, strength, thermal performance, reliability, cost, and manufacturability.
Develop detailed CAD models, engineering drawings, bills of materials, interface definitions, and release documentation.
Use engineering calculations and appropriate simulation tools to assess structural behavior, vibration, thermal performance, and other relevant operating conditions.
Build and test prototypes, develop fixtures and test setups, support fabrication and assembly, instrument hardware, and evaluate performance against requirements.
Investigate discrepancies between predicted and measured behavior, identify root causes, and implement corrective design changes.
Collaborate on mechanical and electronic system integration, including packaging, mounting, cooling, cable routing, environmental protection, and service access.
Work with machinists, fabricators, suppliers, and assembly teams to improve tolerances, processes, quality, and lead times.
Apply design for manufacturing and assembly, manage revisions, and develop repeatable build and inspection methods.
Identify uncertainty early, propose practical experiments, and drive open engineering problems to resolution.