Senior Mechanical Engineer

We are looking for a passionate Senior Mechanical Engineer to join our team. In this role, your primary responsibility will be developing multiple mechanical systems within a complex manufacturing machine. You will design, from scratch, functionally elegant mechanical and electromechanical systems and subsystems. We’re looking for someone with experience in mechanical design who is excited about the risks and rewards of joining a Series A-funded startup.

About us

unspun is a robotics and digital apparel company, with a mission to reduce global carbon emissions by 1% through automated, localized, and intentional manufacturing.

Included in Time's Best Inventions & Fast Company's World Changing Ideas, unspun aims to rapidly transition the trillion-dollar apparel world into one that is more intentional, inclusive, and efficient by focusing on the overlap between sustainability and profitability.

We’ve developed a proprietary and patent-pending technology at the crossroads of 3D printing and automated textile manufacturing. By skipping the flat 2D fabric stage, we can additively build custom apparel products from the ground up- straight from yarn to final product. If additive manufacturing, industrial automation, and synchronized systems of hundreds of sensors & actuators gets you excited, we’d love to talk!

About You

You enjoy working on early-stage teams and have experience designing, prototyping, and validating mechanical systems. You thrive on the lack of clear answers at the outset of high-reaching projects and look forward to finding clarity and articulating it to others.

As part of the hardware team, you will design the mechanical systems for Vega, our revolutionary new manufacturing process. 

What You’ll Do

• Participate in the entire product design lifecycle for mechanical sub assemblies including requirements gathering, concept generation, detailed design with analysis, validation testing, cross-functional reviews, and manufacturing release
• Design and build mechanical systems for unspun’s automated textile machinery
• Evaluate new designs through engineering analysis (e.g. kinematic, dynamic, power, efficiency, thermal, manufacturability, etc.)
• Iterate on design concepts with rapid hands-on prototyping
• Mechanical component design including machined parts, sheet metal, cast metal, and plastics
• Work cross-functionally with other teams to take designs from prototype to production
• Provide mentorship to help grow capability within the engineering team
• Write and maintain documentation for internal communication

Ideal Qualities

• BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering or related fields with 5+ years experience, or 10+ years working experience in related fields
• Experience using basic physics and mechanical engineering analysis for part and system design
• Experience in designing for machined, sheet metal, castings, extrusions, and injection molded parts
• Familiarity with designing and integrating electromechanical systems
• Proficiency with 3D CAD tools (Onshape preferred)
• Experience with hands-on prototyping, system bring-up, and reliability testing
• Experience taking designs from ideation to manufacturing
• Experience in production design optimizing for DFM and DFA.
• Interest in working in an ambiguous problem space and improving documentation as you go
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Experience self-managing engineering project timelines and budgets

Bonus Points

• Excited about weaving, carbon reduction, or both!
• Demonstrated technical leadership experience during cross-functional engineering projects
• Proven capability in designing large capital equipment for field deployment, ensuring robust performance and reliability in diverse operating environments
• Knowledge of applicable regulations and standards for capital equipment and machinery, including safety, environmental, and industry-specific compliance requirements

We don't expect you to have all of the listed qualities and are looking for someone who hopes to learn those areas where they don't have as much experience. So if you don't meet all of the requirements listed above but can make up for it with a voracious passion for learning how to do so, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Our philosophy

We won’t roll our eyes if your socks don’t match. We get it. But then, if you spend those extra few minutes in the morning matching your socks and shirt, we get that too. Our workspaces are sometimes spotless and sometimes chaotic, and we celebrate messy exploration. We work through complex problems but generate simple and elegant solutions. We strive to look at things differently, and never do anything solely because “that’s the way it’s always been done.”

We’re a team of designers and engineers, industry-veterans and serial entrepreneurs, artists and developers. We’re aspiring chess masters and climbers, bakers and photographers. Originally spun out of Stanford and the University of Colorado, we now call the Bay Area home, with strong ties to Hong Kong. We are looking for teammates who share our desire to work on ambitious problems and leave the world better than we found it.

unspun is an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to being a diverse team that reflects a broad range of background, thought, and experience. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, status as an individual with a disability, status as protected veteran, or any other legally protected characteristics. Women, minorities, and people from underrepresented backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.

The salary range for this role is $150,000 - $171,000 USD, annually.

Benefits include:

• self-regulated vacation policy
• comprehensive (gold & platinum) health/dental/vision insurance (or equivalent cash bonus if already insured)
• company sponsored 401k
• monthly gym membership or relevant online education grant of up to $150/month
• pre-tax commuter benefits
• incentive stock options