Staff Mechanical Engineer

Staff Mechanical Engineer

PulseForge, Inc. · Austin, TX · On-site

PulseForge builds pulsed-light manufacturing systems for electronics, semiconductor, energy, and advanced-materials production. Our systems create process windows that conventional thermal tools cannot reach, enabling customers to manufacture in ways that were previously not possible. We’re at the forefront of advanced manufacturing.

Our next step is scaling the platform: larger process areas, higher throughput, tighter uniformity, continuous operation, and production-grade reliability. Mechanical engineering sits at the center of that work.

We are hiring a Staff Mechanical Engineer to help design the next generation of the platform and to establish how mechanical systems are developed, released, and maintained as we scale.

This role carries broad technical ownership: the architecture, the design decisions, and the release calls, with visibility into the business context that shapes them. You will work with a small team, move quickly from concept to hardware, and see your designs operating in customer production environments.

The Work

You will design across the mechanical architecture of the platform: machined structures, high-voltage packaging, production racks, lamp heads, and quartz optics. You will also own precision mechanisms, cooling and fluid systems, web and conveyor handling, and the hardware that integrates our systems into customer production lines.

You will work from physics and architecture through drawings, suppliers, assembly, test, field performance, and the next revision. This is not a design-only role.

What You Own

• Mechanical subsystems from architecture through production release and sustaining.
• The approach, the materials, the suppliers, and the release decision.
• When to calculate, when to prototype, when to test, and when to simulate.
• The mechanical practices we adopt: drawing standards, review depth, and configuration control.
• Close, deep collaboration with electrical, controls, software, manufacturing, and supply chain.

Required Qualifications

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent technical depth.
• 10+ years designing hardware that was built, tested, and released or deployed. Exceptional candidates with demonstrated ownership will be considered regardless of years of experience.
• Strong 3D CAD. Inventor preferred; SolidWorks, NX, or Creo translate.
• Mechanical fundamentals applied in practice: statics, dynamics, materials, heat transfer, machine design, fasteners, structures, tolerancing, and manufacturability.
• Release-ready output: clean models, drawings, BOMs, and packages that manufacturing and suppliers can build from without coming back to you.
• Design for manufacturability, assembly, serviceability, and cost, including scaling from prototype to production.
• Hands-on experience building, testing, modifying, and troubleshooting hardware.
• Clear communication about tradeoffs, risk, cost, schedule, performance, and release decisions.
• Demonstrated technical leadership and mentorship of cross-functional engineering teams

Preferred Qualifications

• High-voltage or power electronics packaging.
• Thermal management, closed-loop cooling, heat exchangers, chillers, or fluid systems.
• Precision or alignment-sensitive assemblies, optics-adjacent hardware, quartz, or lamp-head assemblies.
• Web handling, conveyor systems, or roll-to-roll equipment.
• Semiconductor or industrial capital equipment installed into customer fabs, factories, or production lines.
• Harsh-environment design: vibration, thermal cycling, contamination control, sealing, ruggedization, and serviceability.
• Autodesk Vault or similar PDM; Odoo or similar ERP/MRP; BOM management, ECO/ECR, and configuration control.
• FEA, CFD, thermal simulation, GD&T, and tolerance stack analysis.

Strong Signals

• You have owned hardware end to end, and your decisions moved cost, schedule, reliability, or manufacturability.
• You get from rough requirements to a defensible mechanical architecture without waiting for every input to be defined.
• You know when a hand calculation is enough, when a test is faster, and when serious simulation is warranted.
• You have debugged problems that cross mechanical, thermal, fluidic, electrical, optical, and controls boundaries.
• You understand how designs fail when they scale: tolerance stackups, assembly variation, supplier capability, service access, and configuration control.
• You leave the engineering system better than you found it: cleaner drawings, better reviews, faster root cause, fewer repeated mistakes.

Location and Travel

North Austin, TX. On-site. Travel is typically less than 5%.

Salary Range: $140,000- $180,000 annual