Mechanical Engineer II

Axon•Seattle, WA

21h•Hybrid

About The Position

As a Mechanical Engineer II on Axon’s New Ventures team, you will design, build, and iterate on mechanical systems that support early-stage exploration and small-batch hardware products. You’ll apply strong mechanical engineering fundamentals and practical design-for-manufacturability judgment to rapidly prototype, test, and learn — helping the team assess feasibility, production risk, and real-world behavior of new product concepts. This role is ideal for an engineer who enjoys hands-on work, thrives in ambiguity, and knows how to balance prototype speed with manufacturable design choices when a concept may move toward small-batch production. You will help ensure that promising concepts are not only compelling as prototypes, but also grounded in realistic mechanical design, assembly, supplier, and manufacturing considerations.

Requirements

A Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
3+ years of relevant experience in mechanical engineering, product design, prototyping, hardware development, or low-volume manufacturing.
Proficiency with CAD tools and experience creating parts, assemblies, drawings, tolerance-critical features, and prototype- or manufacturing-ready files.
Hands-on experience building, assembling, testing, and iterating mechanical prototypes.
Practical understanding of mechanical design fundamentals such as tolerances, material selection, fastening methods, mechanisms, structural considerations, thermal considerations, sealing, ruggedization, and assembly design.
Experience applying design-for-manufacturability and design-for-assembly principles to real hardware, ideally including parts or assemblies that moved from prototype toward low-volume or production manufacturing.
Familiarity with common manufacturing and prototyping processes such as 3D printing, CNC machining, sheet metal, casting, injection molding, elastomers, adhesives, coatings, off-the-shelf hardware, or vendor-built prototypes.
Ability to evaluate tradeoffs between prototype speed, manufacturability, part cost, tooling cost, assembly complexity, reliability, and product performance.
Comfort integrating mechanical designs with electronics, sensors, actuators, batteries, cameras, embedded systems, or other electromechanical components.
Comfort working in ambiguous, early-stage environments with evolving requirements.
A collaborative mindset aligned with Axon’s values and mission to Protect Life.

Responsibilities

Independently design and develop mechanical components, assemblies, fixtures, mechanisms, and enclosures for exploratory prototypes and small-batch hardware products.
Create CAD models, drawings, prototype files, and mechanical documentation that support both rapid iteration and clear handoff to fabrication or manufacturing partners.
Select materials, manufacturing methods, finishes, fastening strategies, and assembly approaches that balance speed, cost, durability, manufacturability, and learning goals.
Apply design-for-manufacturability and design-for-assembly principles early, especially for concepts that may transition from prototype to low-volume or small-batch production.
Build, assemble, test, and troubleshoot physical prototypes using hands-on fabrication methods and external prototype vendors when appropriate.
Collaborate with manufacturing, DFM, supply chain, electrical, software, industrial design, product, and applied research partners to identify production risks and practical design tradeoffs.
Identify and resolve mechanical design challenges at the component, subsystem, and assembly level with minimal supervision.
Support rapid Build-Measure-Learn cycles by prioritizing speed, learning, and clarity while avoiding design choices that create unnecessary manufacturing or assembly risk.
Contribute mechanical engineering input to feasibility assessments, early risk identification, cost and manufacturability tradeoffs, and potential transition paths into New Ventures Edge or other product teams.
Document design decisions, tolerance assumptions, material choices, supplier/vendor inputs, test results, prototype learnings, and open manufacturing risks to support team decision-making and future iterations.