Mechanical Engineer, Election Hardware

VotingWorks•Bellingham, WA

20h•Hybrid

About The Position

VotingWorks is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to building technology that powers elections everyone can trust. We utilize open-source software, modern product engineering, and advanced security to develop auditing technology that increases trust in legacy voting systems and modern voting systems that are broadly trusted. Our auditing system is used by 9 states, and our voting system is deployed in 2 states. We are seeking individuals who are passionate about improving democracy and contributing to trustworthy election technology.

Requirements

Strong SolidWorks skills across parts, assemblies, and manufacturing drawings.
Experience creating complete, unambiguous drawing packages with GD&T where appropriate.
Practical mechanical design experience across several common fabrication methods, especially sheet metal and injection molding.
Comfort designing for low-to-mid volume production, not just prototypes.
Good judgment around fasteners, joining methods, materials, finishes, and tolerance stack-ups.
Strong root cause instincts: ability to measure, compare to print, isolate variables, and write clear findings.
Confidence working directly with outside vendors, contract manufacturers, and production teams.
Willingness to stay close to production reality, including travel and onsite issue ownership during builds.

Nice To Haves

Based in or near Bellingham, WA, and able to work onsite regularly.
Experience supporting active builds in person.
Experience acting as a primary owner for production issues, not just a background design resource.
Experience with 3D printing for both prototyping and low-volume production.
Experience designing fixtures, jigs, gauges, or incoming inspection tools.
Familiarity with BOM control, revision control, and PLM/PDM systems such as SolidWorks PDM, Arena, Odoo, or similar.
Experience managing first article inspections and corrective actions.
Mechanical awareness of EMI and ESD design considerations.

Responsibilities

Design and release mechanical parts and assemblies in SolidWorks.
Create complete manufacturing drawings for various part types including sheet metal, CNC machined, 3D printed, injection molded, thermoformed, and laser-cut parts.
Support and participate in collaborative brainstorms, design reviews, and drawing redlines.
Drive root cause analysis for mechanical failures observed in receiving, assembly, and field use.
Work directly with contract manufacturers and suppliers on RFQs, DFM feedback, first articles, corrective actions, and production issues.
Serve as a primary issue owner during builds and production events, especially for mechanical problems affecting throughput, quality, or schedule.
Improve assembly reliability through better part design, tolerance strategy, fixtures, and jigs.
Design incoming inspection tools and processes to catch critical issues prior to production.
Help clean up BOM structure, revision control, and part/configuration management as we mature PLM and ERP workflows.
Support mechanical aspects of EMI and ESD mitigation, including grounding, shielding, cable routing, and bracketry.
Rework drawing packages to ensure vendors can build to spec without excessive back-and-forth.
Investigate product hardware failures, identifying reasons for part cracking, fastener failure in assembly, or tolerance stack-up issues causing fallout.
Be physically present at the start of a production build to support the team, answer questions, and unblock issues quickly.
Step in when a production problem appears, coordinate relevant people, and own the issue until containment and corrective actions are in place.
Design simple go/no-go fixtures to verify critical dimensions rapidly.
Translate test findings into practical mechanical fixes such as new grounding straps, shielding features, or cable routing changes.