Hiring: Senior Mechanical Engineer

Withcargo; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Early-stage equity

Medical and dental

401(k) with company match

Unlimited PTO

Free lunch every day

Job summary

Cargo Robotics in Menlo Park is seeking a Senior Mechanical Engineer who loves building real hardware and takes ownership from concept to deployment. You’ll lead mechanical subsystems, collaborate with electrical, software, and manufacturing teams, and drive designs from prototype through production while improving reliability and reducing costs.

In your first year you’ll own one or more production subsystems, ship hardware to deployments, visit suppliers, and help scale production for fleets.

Qualifications

• BS or higher in ME, 5+ years experience developing complex mechanical systems.
• At least one cycle owning a complex mechanical system from prototype to volume production.
• Expert-level CAD (SolidWorks preferred).
• Strong mechanical intuition and hands-on build skills.
• Experience driving transition from prototype to production including FMEA, DFM/A, BOMs, drawings, test and qualification procedures.
• Experience diagnosing real-world failures and redesigning systems for reliability, serviceability, and long cycle life.

Responsibilities

• Develop core mechanical subsystems from concept through production: end effectors, transmissions, structures, and user-facing systems.
• Collaborate with electrical, software, controls, manufacturing, and operations.
• Lead pilot builds and develop production-level manufacturing and assembly documentation.
• Visit and qualify international suppliers and drive transition to production.
• Own production readiness and scale-up efforts for large deployment.

Skills

Mechanical design

Analytical depth

Hands-on build

Project ownership

Education

BS in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

SolidWorks

Job description

At Cargo, we’re backed by some of the best robotics investors in the Valley to transform a massive legacy industry and we’re more than doubling our engineering team to satisfy overwhelming customer demand. If you’re an exceptional mechanical engineer with a passion for robotics, we want to talk to you. See the JD and instructions on how to get in touch with us below.

About us

Cargo Robotics is creating the logistics infrastructure of the next 100 years by automating the entire delivery chain with containerized physical AI, starting at the delivery van.

Every day, millions of delivery drivers spend hours loading, organizing, and searching for packages in their vehicles. It's physically brutal, wildly inefficient, and one of the most important unsolved problems in global logistics. Our founders worked undercover at UPS and FedEx before starting Cargo, and their experience living these problems firsthand shapes everything we build.

Our first product is the X1 Robotic Cargo Bay, which turns every delivery vehicle into a robotic warehouse. This is the first step to build fast, flawless, and fully automated logistics networks of the future.

We’re backed by leading robotics investors and building alongside teammates from Tesla, NASA JPL, Lockheed Martin, Saildrone, Machina Labs, Roam Robotics, Stanford AI Lab, Stanford, Georgia Tech, and Caltech. We are doubling our engineering team and accelerating to meet overwhelming demand from some of the world’s largest logistics companies.

The role

We're looking for a versatile Senior Mechanical Engineer who loves building real hardware and takes ownership of their work from concept to customer deployment. You’ll play a central role on our hardware team developing key mechanical subsystems from concept through prototype and test through manufacturing, deployment, and production scale up. We are a small team, and every engineer owns significant portions of the product. We’re also a user and product-centric company, so expect to deliver some actual parcels in your first week at work!

Get ready, there’s lots to build :)

What you’ll do

Develop core mechanical subsystems from concept through production: including end effectors, transmissions, actuated structures, and user-facing mechanical systems

Collaborate with electrical, software, controls, manufacturing, and operations

Codify promising designs with detailed engineering analysis, develop functional requirements and test plans, anticipate and eliminate failure modes before they occur

Refine designs to increase reliability while cutting cost and weight.

Drive transition to production: lead pilot builds, develop production-level manufacturing and assembly documentation, visit and qualify international suppliers

Help recruit, mentor, and manage as we scale up the team

Work hard and ship fast modeling ownership, integrity, hands-on building, and a production mindset

Directly support and debug our pilots and customer deployments in the US and abroad, and tackle any and all mechanical and production issues on the way to 10’s, 100’s and 1000’s of X1 units operating continuously

Personal characteristics: you are

• Biased toward action: take initiative and get stuff done
• Driven and gritty: can take punches and keep on going
• A quick study: learn fast and teach those around you
• Calm in chaos: keep your composure and work through the hurricane
• Self-aware and low ego: take and give feedback with grace

You need to bring this:

• BS or higher in ME, 5+ years experience developing complex mechanical systems
• At least one cycle owning a complex mechanical system from prototype to volume production
• Expert-level CAD (SolidWorks preferred)
• Strong mechanical intuition and hands-on build skills (machine and wood tools, etc.)
• Significant analytical depth: statics, dynamics, FEA, tolerance analysis, fatigue, vibration
• DFM/DFA, BOM ownership, production documentation, and manufacturing processes
• Experience driving transition from prototype to production including FMEA, DFM/A, BOMs, drawings, test and qualification procedures
• Experience diagnosing real-world failures and working with manufacturers to redesign systems for increased reliability, serviceability, and long cycle life

We’d love if you also have this:

• Experience managing product life cycle and navigating supply chain process
• Electrical integration, wiring, and cable routing experience
• Familiarity with electronics prototyping (Arduino/ESP, etc.)

In your first year

You’ll own one or more production robotic subsystems, ship hardware into customer deployments, improve designs through field feedback, visit suppliers, and play a direct role in scaling production from pilots to large commercial fleets.

Compensation and benefits

• Competitive salary and meaningful early-stage equity
• Company-sponsored medical and dental
• 401(k) with company match
• Unlimited PTO
• Free lunch every day :)

How We Work

We're an in-person team in Menlo Park. Building world-class hardware requires rapid iteration, hands-on collaboration, and frequent testing. We’ve got an inspiring industrial office space with an outdoor picnic area and palm trees, and you’ll love coming in every day!

On-site 5 days a week (Menlo Park)

We’re a small team with a big mission, and are passionate about building the future. This takes a lot of time and focus, but we believe it’s also important to invest in the other parts of your life as well to maintain a fast pace long term.

We work in person 5(+) days per week from our office in Menlo Park (industrial loft feel with high ceilings and tons of natural light). We believe this is important to enable tight collaboration and fast iteration.