Mechanical Engineer, Hardware Systems

Normal Computing Corporation • Palo Alto, CA

1d

About The Position

Normal Computing is seeking a founding mechanical engineer for its hardware team to define the physical design of AI inference hardware built around its Thermo In-Memory Computing architecture. The role spans accelerator, server, and rack integration, turning system architecture into deployable hardware. The engineer will make decisions about form factor, thermal management, mounting, serviceability, and supplier platforms, and will help ensure the hardware can be manufactured, qualified, and supported in customer environments.

The position reports to the head of the hardware systems organization and works closely with silicon, systems, and deployment engineers, as well as external design and manufacturing partners. The engineer will own mechanical definition and integration, build readiness, validation, and mechanical and thermal qualification, and will coordinate safety, EMC, and environmental compliance with the electrical team and test lab. Normal notes that candidates from OEM or ODM server teams, hyperscaler infrastructure teams, and earlier-stage hardware companies may be well qualified.

Normal Computing is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to an inclusive environment. Reasonable accommodations are available to individuals with disabilities.

Requirements

• Six or more years of experience, or equivalent shipped work, owning accelerator or server hardware.
• Experience taking a relevant hardware design from prototype through qualification and production, and ability to explain design decisions, failures, and resulting changes.
• Strong mechanical design skills using SolidWorks, Creo, NX, or similar, including FEA, tolerance analysis, and design for manufacturing.
• Ability to release drawings that a manufacturing partner can build from.
• Hands-on thermal design and validation experience for server or accelerator hardware, with first-principles reasoning and practical lab experience.
• Experience integrating server hardware into standard chassis and racks, with understanding of mechanical interfaces and serviceability.
• Electrical fluency sufficient to read schematics and work with electrical engineers on power and interconnect integration.
• Experience directing external design or manufacturing partners, including reviewing designs, releasing build documentation, and resolving build issues.

Nice To Haves

• Direct experience turning industrial design concepts and appearance models into production mechanical designs.
• Experience shipping hardware to external customers, including certification, documentation, and service obligations.
• Experience with soft and hard tooling decisions and fixture and test setup design with an ODM or contract manufacturer.
• Experience integrating liquid cooling into server or rack systems.
• Experience designing to Open Compute Project or other open modular server and rack architectures.

Responsibilities

• Own the electromechanical design of inference hardware as it progresses from engineering configuration to deployable product, including form factor, thermal solution and airflow, connectors and cabling, and power and thermal envelope.
• Define the mechanical configuration of products, including assembly structure, bill of materials, and the space envelope for boards and components; identify assembly, cooling, and serviceability problems before parts are ordered.
• Define mechanical integration of compute, host platform, networking, and power in the chassis; validate airflow and thermal performance in a fully populated system; and design for technician serviceability in a live rack.
• Set rack configuration, power distribution layout, cabling, weight and blanking plan, and mounting approach across standard and open-rack formats.
• Own drawing and BOM releases, manufacturability, supplier engineering reviews, and resolution of build failures.
• Assess cost and lead-time implications of design and supplier choices, and conduct hardware bring-up and validation in the lab.
• Own mechanical and thermal qualification, write test specifications and procedures, run shock, vibration, and thermal-cycling tests, and investigate lab and field failures to root cause.
• Coordinate safety and EMC certification and environmental compliance with the electrical team and test lab.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed