Remote | Mechanical Design Engineer — Up to $80/hour

24-Mag•New York, NY

1d•$0 - $80•Remote

About The Position

We are sharing a specialised consulting opportunity for senior mechanical design engineers with doctoral-level expertise and substantial hands-on experience owning production designs through CAD development, GD&T, tolerance analysis, DFM, and drawing release. This role supports an advanced AI research initiative focused on developing highly challenging engineering problems grounded in realistic mechanical design scenarios. Selected professionals will author original free-response problems, prepare complete expert-level solutions, and validate each problem against frontier AI models to ensure it requires sophisticated professional reasoning.

Requirements

A PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Industrial Design, or a closely related discipline is required
At least 5 years of hands-on professional or industry experience in production design roles
Direct ownership of mechanical designs through development and production release
Strong practical expertise in CAD and mechanical design
Extensive experience with GD&T and tolerance stack analysis
Hands-on knowledge of design for manufacturability
Experience creating, reviewing, and releasing engineering drawings
Strong technical writing and analytical communication skills
Doctoral research should be complemented by substantial hands-on industry or production-design experience
Strong practical experience owning real mechanical designs through manufacturing and release is particularly important for this engagement
Hands-on production-design experience is required; candidates whose experience is limited to analysis or simulation without design ownership are unlikely to match the project requirements

Nice To Haves

CSWP or CSWE certification
Experience designing products or mechanical systems within a major industrial, aerospace, automotive, technology, or manufacturing organisation
Advanced CAD expertise using professional mechanical design platforms
Experience performing complex tolerance analyses
Strong knowledge of GD&T standards and drawing practices
Background working closely with manufacturing, suppliers, quality, and production teams
Experience resolving design-for-manufacturing issues during product development
Prior experience authoring engineering assessments, technical problems, or training materials
Familiarity with AI models or structured technical evaluation

Responsibilities

Author original, technically rigorous free-response problems based on realistic mechanical and product-design scenarios
Develop questions requiring advanced engineering reasoning rather than straightforward textbook recall
Incorporate real-world design constraints, manufacturing considerations, tolerances, and engineering trade-offs
Create problems reflecting genuine production-design responsibilities and decision-making
Develop scenarios involving CAD-based mechanical and product design
Apply GD&T principles to drawings, assemblies, interfaces, and manufacturing requirements
Incorporate tolerance stacks and dimensional analysis into complex engineering problems
Address DFM considerations and production constraints
Develop scenarios involving drawing creation, review, revision, and release
Write complete expert-level solutions for each authored engineering problem
Clearly document engineering assumptions, calculations, design reasoning, and methodology
Demonstrate how experienced design engineers evaluate competing design options
Ensure solutions are technically rigorous, internally consistent, and independently verifiable
Include appropriate consideration of manufacturability, tolerances, interfaces, and production requirements
Test authored problems against multiple frontier language models
Evaluate whether current AI systems can correctly solve each engineering problem
Identify reasoning errors, design mistakes, or incomplete technical approaches in model responses
Refine problems where necessary to maintain an appropriately demanding level of difficulty
Validate that each problem meaningfully tests advanced mechanical design expertise