Mechanical Engineer

About the Role

As a Mechanical Engineer, you will design, build, and test the mechanisms for a robotic pharmacy. This is a hands-on role where you will take parts and subassemblies from a sketch and hand calculation to hardware running on a bench, then iterate based on learnings. The role requires individuals who build things and can explain their designs from first principles. You will work alongside senior engineers and gain ownership of hardware early, with your scope growing with your judgment. Your hardware will handle real medication for real patients, offering a unique early-career opportunity to design, build, fail, fix, and deploy mechanisms into a product with nationwide deployment.

What You'll Do

• Build and Iterate
• Design, fabricate, and assemble prototype mechanisms, fixtures, and test rigs.
• Utilize methods such as 3D printing, laser cutting, manual and CNC machining, and hand tools for fabrication.
• Assemble, debug, and rework hardware on the bench.
• Engage in short development loops: build, learn, and improve in days.
• Engineering Judgment from First Principles
• Initiate designs with a sketch, free-body diagram, and hand calculation before CAD or simulation.
• Size components like springs, motors, bearings, shafts, and fasteners based on loads, energy, and duty cycle.
• Select materials and finishes for reasons such as strength, stiffness, wear, fatigue, and cost.
• Perform tolerance stack-ups on critical interfaces.
• State assumptions, determine acceptable limits, and validate predictions against hardware.
• Test and Learn
• Write simple test plans, instrument builds, and collect reliable data.
• Compare results to calculations and explain discrepancies.
• Perform root cause analysis for failures.
• Document learnings for future reference.
• Grow into Production Design
• Create parts in CAD and release drawings for manufacturing.
• Learn design for manufacturing (DFM) by working with senior engineers and suppliers on machined, molded, and sheet metal parts.
• Collaborate with electrical and software engineers to integrate motors, sensors, and harnesses.
• Support the transition of designs from prototype to reliable 24/7 production systems.

What Our Client Is Looking For

The client values demonstrated ability over degrees. A portfolio of built hardware, including failures and improvements, is required.

• Builder First: A portfolio of hardware designed and physically made, including project teams, internships, research, and personal projects.
• Experience: 0–3 years of hands-on mechanical or mechatronic engineering experience (industry or personal).
• First-Principles Fundamentals: Working command of statics, dynamics, mechanics of materials, and machine design, with the ability to derive and defend calculations.
• Engineering Judgment: Ability to articulate the reasoning behind design choices (materials, mechanisms, tolerances) and understand trade-offs.
• Hands-on Fabrication: Proficiency with 3D printers, hand tools, and basic machining; comfortable debugging with physical measurement tools.
• CAD Proficiency: Solid part and assembly modeling in a 3D CAD platform (OnShape, SolidWorks, Creo), and ability to create clear manufacturing drawings.
• Ownership: Demonstrates completion of tasks, transparency about knowledge gaps, and rapid learning from feedback.

Nice to Have

• Mechanisms with moving parts: linkages, cams, gear trains, linear stages, grippers, dispensers.
• Mechatronics basics: motors, sensors, and microcontroller wiring/programming.
• Tolerance analysis and GD&T.
• Exposure to manufacturing methods like machining, injection molding, sheet metal, or casting.
• Python or MATLAB for test data analysis and calculations.
• Simulation (FEA) used as a validation tool for hand calculations.

What We Offer

• Early-stage equity in automated pharmacy dispensing technology.
• Direct impact with hardware dispensing medication to real patients.
• Small team environment with minimal bureaucracy and high trust.
• Opportunity to solve challenging problems in precision mechanisms, high-reliability hardware, regulatory compliance, and real-time hardware integration.
• Competitive salary.
• Meaningful early-stage equity.
• Health and 401(k) benefits.