Manufacturing Automation Engineer

Open Select; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Ownership from day one

Job summary

Open Select in Austin is seeking an Automation Engineer to design and build an automation stack from scratch for a seed-stage manufacturing tech company. You will standardise processes, own the cell architecture, and drive unattended operation on the shop floor.

You will lead tool sets, pallets, and machine monitoring while collaborating with software engineers to push lights-out production forward. A mechanical Eng degree and US work eligibility are required.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of hands-on mechanical or manufacturing engineering experience.
• Ability to work on the shop floor while thinking at a systems level.

Responsibilities

• Define the standard tool set, wear parameters, and swap thresholds across the cell.
• Design the vise and workholding system to cover the widest range of parts.
• Own the pallet strategy, including job assignment and sequencing for unattended operation.
• Specify and implement machine monitoring hardware for spindle load, torque, and vibration.
• Define the quality inspection stack, evaluating CT scanning, in-machine probing, and CMM.
• Lead equipment selection for CNC machines, wash stations, and quality hardware.
• Prove out new parts through first article and process qualification before unattended release.

Skills

Shop floor

Systems thinking

CNC/CAM exposure

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

Marposs

Caron Engineering

Job description

Location: Austin, TX (On-site, 5 days a week)

Industry: Manufacturing tech

Who You'll Join

A seed-stage mechanical engineering company in Austin building automated machining systems designed to run without supervision, through nights and weekends. They are moving fast, expanding facilities after their next funding round, and need their first Automation Engineer to standardise processes and build out the automation stack from scratch. If you want to own the architecture of a lights-out machining cell rather than maintain someone else's work, this is the role.

What You'll Do

• Define the standard tool set, tool wear parameters, and swap thresholds across the cell.
• Design the vise and workholding system to cover the widest range of parts.
• Own the pallet strategy, including job assignment and sequencing for unattended operation.
• Specify and implement machine monitoring hardware for spindle load, torque, and vibration.
• Define the quality inspection stack, evaluating CT scanning, in-machine probing, and CMM.
• Lead equipment selection for CNC machines, wash stations, and quality hardware.
• Prove out new parts through first article and process qualification before unattended release.

Who You Are

• Bring 3 or more years of hands-on mechanical or manufacturing engineering.
• Work comfortably on the shop floor and think at a systems level simultaneously.
• Have CNC, CAM or machine-shop exposure, a plus but not required.
• Have built hardware, robotics or manufacturing projects; automated cell work is a plus.
• Hold a mechanical engineering degree, or close discipline, from a top school.
• Are eligible to work in the US without visa sponsorship, and are ITAR compliant.
• Bonus: Have machined titanium, Inconel, or other hard alloys, ideally in aerospace or defense.

Mechanical design and CAD, CNC machining and CAM (a plus), G-code, in-process probing, machine monitoring (Marposs, Caron Engineering), automated CMM, CT scanning, pallet automation systems

Why You'll Thrive

• Earn $150K to $200K plus stock options in a company at an early, high-growth stage.
• Build the automation cell architecture from scratch, with genuine ownership from day one.
• Solve real inefficiencies in a shop that needs standardisation, not incremental improvement.
• Work directly with software engineers to push lights-out production further than it has gone.
• Join before the Series A expansion and grow with the team as the facility scales.