Principal Solutions Design Engineer

Instrumental, Inc. • Palo Alto, CA

61d • $210,000 - $300,000

About The Position

Instrumental is hiring a Principal Solutions Design Engineer to create custom manufacturing hardware and software solutions for customer production lines across applications such as AI infrastructure, networking equipment, consumer electronics, and defense. The role combines mechanical design, electronics manufacturing expertise, and direct customer collaboration, with responsibility for solutions from initial technical scoping through deployment in production.

The engineer will work with customer engineering, manufacturing, and operations teams to understand production processes, requirements, and constraints, then design end-to-end inspection solutions. This includes determining station placement and defining imaging strategies, mechanical fixtures, optics, and lighting. The role also involves balancing cycle time, manufacturability, ergonomics, cost, and inspection coverage, and incorporating customer manufacturing data—such as images, test results, bills of materials, and production records—into solutions that improve production visibility and decision-making.

Instrumental builds a manufacturing acceleration platform that captures production-line data and engineering context and uses AI to identify insights. Its customers and manufacturing partners include NVIDIA, Meta, and Cisco. The company describes its team as collaborative, supportive, energized by the potential for impact, and committed to an inclusive environment.

Requirements

• 15 or more years of experience in mechanical design, manufacturing engineering, product design, automation, test equipment, or a related discipline.
• Excellent communication skills and enthusiasm for working directly with customers.
• Experience on high-volume electronics or NPI manufacturing floors, including understanding production workflows, line constraints, and challenges in moving from NPI to mass production.
• Strong CAD skills using SolidWorks, Creo, NX, or similar software.
• Fluency in design for manufacturability (DFM), tolerance analysis, and mechanical design tradeoffs.
• A builder's mindset and willingness to solve ambiguous problems.
• Willingness to travel occasionally to customer sites.

Nice To Haves

• Startup experience or a track record of independently driving initiatives.
• Experience in high-volume consumer electronics.
• Experience in robotics or automation.
• Experience with AI server or networking hardware.
• Experience with optical systems or machine vision.

Responsibilities

• Partner with customer engineering, manufacturing, and operations teams to understand production processes, technical requirements, and constraints.
• Architect end-to-end customer inspection solutions, including placement of Instrumental stations to maximize coverage, throughput, and business impact.
• Lead technical customer engagements throughout the customer lifecycle, balancing cycle time, manufacturability, ergonomics, cost, and inspection coverage.
• Collaborate with Sales, Product, Hardware, Software, and Customer Success.
• Define production-ready deployment solutions, including station placement, imaging strategy, mechanical fixtures, optics, and lighting.
• Understand how customers use manufacturing data, including images, test results, bills of materials, and production records, and incorporate it into solutions that improve visibility and speed decision-making on the production floor.

Benefits

• Health insurance
• Vision insurance
• Dental insurance
• Public transit/commuter plans
• Maternity and paternity leave

What This Job Offers

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