Senior Mechanical Engineer

The Role

You will be a key contributor to the mechanical design and manufacturing of all our hardware products – will have high visibility and contribute throughout all phases of mechanical design, NPI, regulatory compliance, tooling and manufacturing tasks. You will weigh risks, options and outcomes with your teammates, exercising sound design judgement. You thrive in small and collaborative multidisciplinary teams, and are eager to pitch in to debug and solve gnarly cross-functional issues. You have practical experience to guide material selection when designing components that must survive in harsh environments, and you have a strong foundation in design for manufacturability and pushing products through the NPI process to mass production. You strive for the shared success of improving the health of our oceans and planet by shipping a cohesive, solid and impactful product.

Some projects you’ll be a part of:

• Building new Bristlemouth (www.bristlemouth.org) integrations for Spotter and Smart Mooring. Expand the sub-sea sensing ecosystem with new modules and payloads.
• Developing next generation platforms for global weather and environmental monitoring.
• Advanced research and experiments with new and emerging technologies and materials.
• Integrated system testing, open ocean deployments, and the occasional throwing of things out of airplanes to see what breaks.

Responsibilities

• Provide direct engineering contributions to all Sofar projects/products, including mechanical design, new product introduction and manufacturing engineering.
• Mechanical product design, including, appearance/ID, detailed metal/plastic component design, subassemblies and final product, that includes environmental, thermal and regulatory mitigation, from concept to production.
• Engage with the cross-functional development team from concept, prototype, pilot development, through product launch and production ramp, to ensure schedule, cost, yield, capacity and quality/reliability objectives are met.
• Collaborate with engineering/development team members to identify DfX (manufacturing, quality, sourcing, service, cost) opportunities throughout the development process to ensure all products are designed to meet MVP requirements for manufacturability, reliability, and within cost targets.
• Ensure all required specifications/documentation, materials, equipment, and procedures are in place for all prototype, pre-production and production launches (BOMs, technical documentation, Control Drawings).
• Work directly with part/tooling suppliers on DFM, tooling reviews and kick-off, tool bring-up, final tool/part qualifications, first article inspection, and visual quality requirements.
• Manage ECOs (Engineering Change Orders) and collaborate with manufacturing partners to account for all changes.

Minimum Job Qualifications

• At least 8 years of professional ME experience, including in a relevant field (eg: marine, harsh environments, robotics, aerospace etc.).
• Competent in 3D CAD systems (Solidworks required).
• Managing CAD data with revision control and transitioning documents with ECO control to a PLM system (Arena preferred).
• You have participated in the mechanical design of products that have shipped to customers at a variety of scales (10’s to +100,000s).
• You have transitioned designs to contract manufacturers.
• You have experience creating 2D drawings and tracking revision changes in a BOM.
• You have expertise in material and process selection for use in marine and/or other harsh environment applications.

Bonus Points

• A multidisciplinary skillset with some experience in electronics or software engineering.
• Expertise in FEA and/or CFD modeling and analysis for static, cyclic, and thermal load cases.
• Experience designing o-ring seals for water proofing in harsh environments.
• Experience with potting and encapsulation.
• Experience maintaining a workshop and operating FDM 3D printers for rapid prototyping.
• Operating manual lathe and milling machines.
• A passion for or connection to the ocean.

Estimated Salary Range

• $125,000 - $160,000
• The range listed is what we reasonably expect to pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and may be modified in the future. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, experience, and equity package.

Sofar's Commitment to Climate Justice

We at Sofar Ocean acknowledge that careers in the marine sciences “... have traditionally been, and remain, non-diverse work environments”, thereby limiting the entry and prosperity of underrepresented groups in the space. (Johri et al., 2021) Many of these same groups are disproportionately affected by climate change, and are often excluded from decision-making that directly address their interests and needs.

We are committed to addressing these climate injustices and highly encourage people who identify as women, LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) to apply.