Junior Mechanical Engineer

Protingent; Incline Village (NV); On-site; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Protingent Staffing is seeking a junior mechanical engineer in Carson City, NV to design, build, and test components for power plants. You’ll work with senior engineers from day one on real hardware, applying first-principles thinking rather than expecting to know everything at start.

This early-career role emphasizes hands-on learning, fast iteration, and clear communication with vendors. You’ll contribute to CAD models, tolerance analyses, and test setups while developing a deep understanding

Qualifications

• You have a degree (or are finishing one) in Mechanical Engineering or a related field.
• Hands-on hardware experience from a lab, capstone, internship, competition team, or personal project.
• You can show an example of taking something from concept through design to a built and tested result.
• You are comfortable with CAD and core mechanical engineering fundamentals.
• You are excited to own problems, ask for help when stuck, and move fast.

Responsibilities

• Translate design challenges into clear functional requirements.
• Build early concept designs using order-of-magnitude estimates to set system bounds.
• Apply first-principles tools: free body diagrams, energy balances, pressure/flow estimates.
• Talk to vendors and the team early and often to pressure-test ideas.
• Produce 3D CAD models of components to inform layouts, interfaces, and clash checks.
• Help define subsystem specs and the mechanical, electrical, and flow interfaces between them.
• Develop higher-fidelity CAD toward as-built level under guidance from senior engineers.
• Learn to analyze designs carefully, including stresses, vibration, fatigue, and thermal growth.
• Document your analysis, design decisions, and reasoning clearly.
• Get hardware built and tested quickly; hand drawings to fabrication partners and follow parts through to delivery.
• Help develop test setups: structures, sensors, and schedules; test early and often.

Skills

Hands-on hardware

First principles thinking

CAD skills

Problem solving

Education

Mechanical Engineering degree

Tools

CAD

Job description

Job Title: Junior Mechanical Engineer Position Description: Protingent Staffing has an exciting direct hire Junior Mechanical Engineer with our client located in Carson City, NV.

Job Description:

We are hiring an early-career Mechanical Engineer to help design, build, and test key components of our power plants. You will work closely with senior engineers on real hardware from day one. We do not expect you to know everything coming in, but we do expect you to have gotten your hands dirty somewhere: a research lab, a capstone, an internship, Formula SAE, a personal build, anything where you turned a design into a physical thing that worked (or failed and taught you why). Our product is inherently mechanical: high-speed rotating machinery, dynamic loads, and high-power temperature management. You will learn these systems deeply. What we care about most is how you think from first principles and how fast you move from idea to tested hardware.

Job Responsibilities:

Concept Engineering and First-Principles Design:

• Help translate design challenges into clear functional requirements
• Build early concept designs using order-of-magnitude estimates to set system bounds
• Apply first-principles tools: free body diagrams, energy balances, pressure/flow estimates
• Talk to vendors and the team early and often to pressure-test ideas

CAD and Subsystem Design:

• Produce 3D CAD models of components to inform layouts, interfaces, and clash checks
• Help define subsystem specs and the mechanical, electrical, and flow interfaces between them

Detailed Design and Analysis:

• Develop higher-fidelity CAD toward as-built level under guidance from senior engineers
• Learn to analyze designs carefully. With high-power machinery, failures can be catastrophic, so we build the habit of checking: mechanical stresses, vibration and fatigue, contact loads, tolerance stack-ups, thermal growth, and fluids under pressure and temperature
• Document your analysis, design decisions, and reasoning clearly and concisely

Build and Test:

• Get hardware built and tested quickly. Speed to power is our edge
• Hand detailed drawings to fabrication partners and follow parts through to delivery
• Help develop test setups: structures, sensors, and schedules
• Test early and often. We win by finding problems fast and iterating quickly

Job Qualifications:

• You have a degree (or are finishing one) in Mechanical Engineering or a related field
• You have hands-on hardware experience from a lab, capstone, internship, competition team, or personal project
• You can show an example of taking something from concept through design to a built and tested result
• You are comfortable with CAD and core mechanical engineering fundamentals
• You are excited to own problems, ask for help when stuck, and move fast

Nice To Have:

• Coursework, research, or project experience with turbomachinery, engines, or rotating equipment
• Work involving high temperature, pressure, or speed conditions
• Exposure to gearboxes, couplings, generators, lubrication systems, or exhaust/environmental systems
• Time in a startup, lab, or small-team environment with real ownership

Job Details:

• Job Type: Direct Hire
• Salary: TBD
• Location: Carson City, NV (Onsite)

About Protingent:

Protingent is an Award-Winning provider of top-tier Engineering and IT talent, trusted by companies at the forefront of innovation — from Software and Aerospace to AI, Clean Tech, Medical Devices, and Connected Technologies. We’re passionate about making a positive impact by connecting exceptional talent with meaningful opportunities and helping our clients build the future.