Forward Deployed Mechanical Engineer Engineering · · San Francisco, CA $200K - $250K 1-2%

Adam; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Adam in San Francisco is hiring a Forward Deployed Mechanical Engineer to bring Adam into a customer’s CAD workflow. You’ll install it in their environment, sit with their engineers, and drive production-ready results on day one.

This role is on-site, field-oriented, and requires 3+ years in deployment or manufacturing settings; you’ll coordinate IT conversations, install, and work directly with the founders to close gaps quickly.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of relevant experience deploying CAD systems.
• Experience working on-site with customers in manufacturing or engineering environments.
• US citizen or visa holder, eligible to work in the US.

Responsibilities

• Deploy Adam on customer CAD environments and ensure production-ready operation.
• Work from customer sites and the shop floor, bridging IT and engineering.
• Document gaps, file bugs, and coordinate with founders to close issues quickly.

Skills

Field engineer

Deployment end-to-end

CAD integration

Tools

CAD software integration

IT coordination

Job description

Forward Deployed Mechanical Engineer at Adam (W25)

AI Powered CAD

San Francisco, CA, US Full-time US citizen/visa only 3+ years

Adam is an applied research and product lab building the future of computer-aided design, where engineers will be able to speak physical objects into existence. With Adam, you’ll use AI to complete design tasks end-to-end. For example, select a face and say, “Add mounting holes matching the bolt pattern from the other part, with identical diameters, spacing, and offsets,” and Adam handles the geometry, selects standard hardware, and outputs production-ready CAD.

We just wrapped up YC’s W25 batch, built a state-of-the-art text-to-CAD interface, and had one of the most viral YC launches of all time.

Our first product made CAD approachable and fun with AI, bringing tens of thousands of people into 3D printing. Now we’re enhancing the capabilities of engineers to create feature-rich models compatible with industry-standard software.

We’re a small technical team of engineers, designers, and researchers who love CAD and building things. Our founders are UC Berkeley alumni, second-time founders, and early employees at major AI startups.

We're in-person at the Adam House in the SF Marina, powered by green tea, lots of natural light, and a wall of 3D printers.

If you’re excited about shipping fast and shaping the future of how things are made, come join us.

About the role

You are the person who walks into an engineering firm or a factory and makes Adam real. You install it in their CAD environment, sit with their engineers, take their actual backlog, and don't leave until Adam is doing production work for them. Forward deployed means forward deployed: you work from the customer's office and shop floor more than from ours.

This is not a support role and not a sales role, though you'll do parts of both. It's closer to being a field engineer for a new kind of machine. You own the deployment end to end: the IT conversation, the install, the first week of real tasks, the moment the team's skeptical senior engineer sees Adam finish something they expected to babysit.

You'll also be our highest-bandwidth product channel. What blocks you on-site becomes the roadmap. You'll file the bugs, write up the gaps, and work directly with the founders to close them, sometimes within days.

San Francisco, CA, US Full-time $160K - $250K 1.00% - 2.00% 1+ years

San Francisco, CA, US Full-time $160K - $250K 1.00% - 2.00% 3+ years

Hundreds of YC startups are hiring on Work at a Startup.