Founding Mechanical Engineer (Full-Time)

About the company

Aseon Labs builds robotic pitstops for self-driving cars. A depot in a box for charging, cleaning and inspecting autonomous fleets directly in operating zones.

Autonomous driving is working. The operational layer around it is not. Today, fleets lose significant time and money traveling to centralized depots for charging, cleaning and servicing, creating dead miles, lower uptime and operational bottlenecks that limit fleet scale.

Aseon Pods are modular, rapidly deployable robotic stations that keep autonomous fleets operating near demand. By bringing operations directly into demand zones, Aseon helps fleet operators increase uptime, reduce operational overhead and scale markets more efficiently without relying on large centralized depots.

George and Dan are second-time founders and mobility infrastructure operators. Previously, they built and scaled Pushme to 5,000 stations across 40 cities and were acquired by TIER-Dott ($600M raised). Aseon Labs is backed by Y Combinator and headquartered in Redwood City.

About the role

Aseon is looking for a Founding Mechanical Engineer to own the physical design of the Aseon Pod from the ground up. As the first dedicated mechanical design hire you will carry full ownership of the mechanical architecture from day one. That means making crucial design decisions with limited precedent, navigating tradeoffs between performance, cost and manufacturability, and seeing decisions through from early concept into hardware that ships across the world. The role is scoped for someone with 5+ years of experience in Mechanical Engineering. Exceptional candidates with 3+ years who can demonstrate the right track record may be considered.

What you will do

• Own the mechanical architecture of the Aseon platform, defining how robotic systems, vehicle interfaces, electromechanical assemblies and off-the-shelf equipment come together as a deployable product
• Serve as the technical authority for mechanical engineering decisions, including system layout, packaging, assembly strategy, deployment requirements and make-versus-buy tradeoffs
• Lead mechanical development from concept through CAD, prototyping, EVT, DVT, validation, manufacturing and deployment
• Design and develop the core mechanical systems of the product: structural assemblies, robot mounting systems, gantries, end-effectors, vehicle interfaces and service access features
• Decide where Aseon designs custom hardware, where existing products are modified and where commercial off-the-shelf solutions are integrated
• Work closely with robotics, electrical and software engineers to integrate subsystems into a single product
• Work with suppliers and manufacturing partners on prototyping, fabrication, tooling and production
• Build, test, debug and improve hardware through repeated prototype and deployment cycles
• Help hire additional mechanical engineers as the team grows, while remaining the owner of the platform's mechanical architecture

What you will bring

Must have

• 5+ years of mechanical engineering experience with a demonstrable track record of taking complex hardware from concept to shipped product
• Deep command of 3D CAD (SolidWorks, CATIA, NX or equivalent) and the ability to produce detailed drawings, specifications and assembly documentation for manufacture
• Strong fundamentals across mechanisms, electromechanical system design and a broad range of production fabrication methods: casting, sheet metal, machining, injection moulding and beyond
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes, materials and production constraints, with a demonstrated ability to design hardware that is practical to fabricate, assemble, deploy and scale
• Experience working across the full production pipeline from building prototypes by hand through to working with quality and manufacturing teams at scale
• Comfort working across mechanical, electrical and robotics engineering boundaries and resolving tradeoffs across disciplines
• Ability to work in a high-agency environment: making sound engineering decisions quickly, with limited resources, incomplete information and without a large support structure
• Strong communication skills: able to move between detailed technical discussion with engineers and clear, accessible explanation for non-technical stakeholders

Useful to have

• Prior experience as a mechanical engineer in a robotics context
• Experience designing large-scale industrial or infrastructure equipment
• Experience operating as a technical lead with accountability for a team's engineering output
• Demonstrable hands-on prototyping experience as someone who has physically built and iterated on hardware, not just designed it
• Previous time in a high-agency, early-stage or resource-constrained environment where the support structure was minimal

Why this role

• Most mechanical engineers own a subsystem. This role owns the platform. Every architecture decision you make in the next 12 months ships to production and scales across multiple cities
• The operational infrastructure piece is the unsolved piece of the autonomous vehicle puzzle, and this is a high-authority position to build the hardware that flips the script on fleet profitability and scale
• Early equity in a YC-backed company with second-time founders who have already scaled physical infrastructure to thousands of deployments across 40 cities

Role details

• Full-time
• $170-250k base + 0.25-1% equity depending on experience
• HQ in Redwood City, Bay Area
• In-person, hands-on engineering role
• Visa: US citizen/visa only

Recruitment Timeline

• Founder screening 1 (20 mins)
• Founder screening 2 (20 mins)
• Take home exercise
• Technical Interview (1hr 30mins)
• Decision in 1 - 2 week