Founding Mechanical Engineer

Location
San Francisco
Workplace
Hybrid
Compensation
$130k – $200k + equity

About this role

We are looking for a Founding Mechanical Engineer with 4+ years of experience to help define how the world's leading space, defense, manufacturing, and robotics companies evaluate their next generation of mechanical talent. You'll be a CAD-focused design engineer with broad mechanical engineering foundations, ideally coming from a Series A–E startup or defense prime in the aerospace and defense space. You'll work directly with mechanical leads across disciplines — propulsion, thermal, structural — to deeply understand their workflows and translate that knowledge into scalable, real-world engineering assessments. This is a rare opportunity to shape what great mechanical engineering looks like at an early-stage company transforming how hardtech teams hire.

What will you be doing?

Building and owning the Mechanical Space & Defense Taxonomy — mapping the full landscape of mechanical engineering roles, required skills, and how to evaluate them through remote, online assessments

Conducting intake conversations with mechanical leads (thermal, propulsion, structural) at client companies to understand their work, goals, and what great talent looks like to them

Designing CAD-based assessment tasks across SolidWorks, OnShape, and Autodesk that reflect real engineering workflows and capture true engineering judgment

Creating transition guides and resources that help candidates with different CAD backgrounds apply their skills across platforms

Translating domain expertise into deterministic scoring rubrics and structured evaluation criteria that scale across clients

What happens next

Skip the application pile. I get you in front of the people who decide.

Confirm the fit

A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.

I pitch you to the company

I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.

A meeting lands on your calendar

When the company wants to meet, I get the call on your calendar. You just show up.

Culture & values

Culture emphasizes autonomy, speed, creative problem solving, critical thinking, and hungry early-stage builders.

They value people who genuinely enjoy solving hard problems (not just doing tasks).

Work cadence: standard expectation is 5 days/week, with occasional extra time for urgent needs (not a formal every-week 6-day requirement).

Hybrid/in-office: preference for in-office 5 days/week, but flexible.

Know someone who'd be great for this?