Senior Mechanical Design Engineer, Manufacturing Fixtures

Instrumental, Inc.•Palo Alto, CA

About The Position

Instrumental is seeking a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer specializing in Manufacturing Fixtures to design custom fixtures, nests, test setups, and station hardware for electronics manufacturing environments. This role is distinct from generic product design, focusing on individuals with proven experience in creating production-ready fixtures for electronics manufacturing. The ideal candidate understands the transition from CAD to factory floor realities, with strong opinions on datums, repeatability, part protection, tolerancing, operator usability, quick-turn fabrication, and designing for real-world line conditions. The engineer will collaborate with Instrumental’s Hardware Design & Solutions team to support leading electronics companies, designing solutions for a wide range of products from wearables to industrial systems and high-performance compute hardware. This position demands strong mechanical fundamentals, manufacturing judgment, and the ability to work efficiently without compromising quality, operating at the intersection of hardware, manufacturing, computer vision, and AI.

Requirements

8–12+ years of mechanical design experience, with significant experience designing fixtures, nests, test setups, or manufacturing aids for electronics production environments.
Has designed hardware that was actually built, deployed, and used in manufacturing environments — not just modeled in CAD.
Understands datum strategy, tolerancing, repeatability, operator usability, part protection, ESD, manufacturability, and quick-turn fabrication.
Has experience working with electronics products such as consumer devices, wearables, PCBs, server hardware, industrial electronics, or other high-volume hardware products.
Can anticipate fixture and production risks before they happen, including alignment drift, product damage, cosmetic issues, tolerance stackups, operator misuse, and throughput constraints.
Is highly fluent in CAD and comfortable spending significant time designing, reviewing, and improving mechanical systems.
Communicates design tradeoffs clearly to internal teammates, customers, and manufacturing partners.
Thrives in fast-moving environments where timelines are compressed, requirements are imperfect, and the design still needs to work the first time.

Nice To Haves

Ideally in electronics manufacturing, fixture design, test hardware, automation, manufacturing engineering, or related roles.
Deep experience designing fixtures, nests, test hardware, or production tooling for electronics products.
CAD fluency in at least one professional 3D modeling tool; NX experience is a plus.
Strong understanding of CNC machining and other quick-turn fabrication methods.
Practical knowledge of GD&T, tolerance stackups, datum selection, material selection, and design for assembly.
Experience designing for factory environments, including operator usability, robustness, ESD considerations, product protection, and throughput.
Strong written and spoken English communication skills.
Ability to travel occasionally to support customer deployments or manufacturing partners.
Experience with optics, vision systems, AOI, camera stations, or inspection systems is a plus.

Responsibilities

Design production-ready fixtures, nests, test setups, and station hardware for electronics manufacturing environments.
Own mechanical design from requirements gathering through CAD, prototype, fabrication, review, iteration, and deployment support.
Develop fixture concepts that control product position repeatably while protecting sensitive electronics, cosmetic surfaces, buttons, flexes, connectors, and other high-risk features.
Apply strong datum strategy, tolerance analysis, material selection, and design-for-manufacturing judgment to ensure fixtures work reliably in production.
Partner with Solutions Architects, Hardware Engineering, Operations, customers, and manufacturing partners to understand product requirements and factory constraints.
Communicate design tradeoffs, risks, assumptions, and schedule implications clearly and proactively.
Support quick-turn fabrication using processes such as CNC machining, 3D printing, laser cutting, sheet metal, and other appropriate manufacturing methods.
Review and improve existing designs, identifying risks related to manufacturability, assembly, robustness, usability, and long-term line performance.
Help Instrumental deliver high-quality deployments for customers building some of the world’s most complex electronics products.