Mechanical Engineer

Merge Labs; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Merge Labs seeks a Mechanical Engineer to own the physical architecture and packaging of our brain–computer interface hardware, spanning from early R&D prototypes to manufacturable product. You will bridge electrical performance, mechanical constraints, and manufacturing realities while delivering repeatable, high‑quality instrument subsystems.

You will collaborate with scientists and engineers to replace fragile setups with fixtures, alignment systems, calibration tools, and modular instrument

Qualifications

• Deep experience designing complex mechanical hardware.
• Strong fundamentals in tolerance analysis and material selection.
• Thermal design and system architecture expertise.
• Experience delivering manufacturable designs with vendor collaboration.
• Rapid prototyping mindset with instrument tooling capability.

Responsibilities

• Own mechanical lifecycle from napkin sketch to production.
• Design fixtures, jigs, mounts, and calibration tools for repeatable workflows.
• Lead thermal modeling and validation of compact electronic systems.
• Coordinate with Electrical, Industrial Design, and scientists.
• Establish acceptance criteria and document procedures for reproducibility.
• Set standards and manage vendor relationships for fabrication tooling.

Skills

Mechanical design

Thermal analysis

Tolerance analysis

Vendor management

Prototyping

Systems engineering

Tools

3D printing

CNC

Sheet metal

Job description

Merge Labs is a frontier research lab with the mission of bridging biological and artificial intelligence to maximize human ability, agency and experience. We’re pursuing this goal by developingfundamentally new approaches to brain-computer interfaces that interact with the brain at high bandwidth, integrate with advanced AI, and are ultimately safe and accessible for anyone to use.

About the Team

Merge is building the most advanced interface to the brain, capable of interacting with neurons at unprecedented scale and bandwidth. Delivering that capability in form factors that anyone would want to use will require engineering at the frontier of what’s possible. We’re assembling a team of exceptional builders across electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, mixed-signal IC design, materials science, systems engineering, and engineering physics. We reason from fundamentals, move comfortably across disciplines, and build technology that scales. We prototype, test, and iterate in tight loops at unreasonable speed because the platform we build makes the science possible.

About the Role

We are seeking a Mechanical Engineer to own the physical architecture and packaging of our BCI systems, spanning early-stage R&D prototypes to product-ready hardware, while also building the instrumentation and tooling that makes our science faster and more reproducible. You will bridge electrical performance, mechanical constraints, manufacturing reality, and experimental workflow. In addition to driving compact integrated hardware from a napkin sketch to manufacturable reality, you will work directly with scientists to replace fragile, one-off setups with fixtures, alignment systems, calibration tools, and instrument subsystems that are repeatable, accurate, and easy for others to operate. The goal is not simply to help run experiments; it is to engineer away recurring setup work so scientists get meaningful time back and experimental quality improves at the same time. You will own the full mechanical lifecycle, manage critical vendor relationships for fabrication and tooling, and set the standard for mechanical engineering excellence at Merge Labs.

In this role, you will:

• Drive the mechanical architecture and packaging of high-density PCBAs, sensors, mixed-signal components, cables/flexes, thermal interfaces, and user-facing structures, selecting materials and processes that balance performance, durability, manufacturability, and biocompatibility where relevant.
• Execute tight iteration loops using 3D printing, CNC, sheet metal, soft goods, quick-turn tooling, and other rapid fabrication methods to validate form, fit, function, and key engineering risks quickly.
• Own thermal modeling and validation of compact integrated electronic systems, ensuring high-performance ICs operate within strict temperature and form-factor constraints and driving cross-disciplinary thermal solutions across the system architecture.
• Design scientist-facing instrumentation and mechanical tooling—fixtures, jigs, mounts, sample holders, alignment/calibration mechanisms, environmental interfaces, and test stands that turn manual or expert-dependent setups into repeatable workflows.
• Define quantitative performance and acceptance criteria for those setups, including tolerance, accuracy, repeatability, drift, calibration, environmental stability, and measurement uncertainty as appropriate; validate them with data and document procedures so another user can reproduce the result.
• Own the transition from prototype to production through EVT/DVT/PVT or equivalent, applying DFM/DFA and working directly with vendors to develop tooling, establish inspection/acceptance criteria, and resolve yield or reliability issues.
• Work intimately with Electrical Engineering, Software/Platform, Industrial Design, Clinical, and scientists to ensure physical systems meet device-performance, measurement-quality, usability, and experimental requirements.
• Establish rigorous testing protocols for mechanical reliability and repeatability, including drop, ingress, fatigue, wear, thermal cycling, calibration drift, and other application-specific failure modes.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• Deep experience designing complex mechanical hardware and a track record of personally taking designs through build, test, failure analysis, and multiple product turns.
• Strong fundamentals in tolerance analysis, materials/process selection, thermal design, mechanical architecture, and design verification.
• Experience delivering manufacturable designs and working directly with vendors through tooling, production release, and yield/reliability issues.
• A builder’s instinct for rapid prototyping: you know when a rough fixture is enough to learn, when precision matters, and how to instrument the result so the next decision is obvious.
• A systems mindset toward experimental tooling: you care about datums, calibration, repeatability, error budgets, ergonomics, documentation, and whether the next scientist can reproduce the setup without you.
• Empathy for scientists and other technical users; recurring support requests make you want to build a durable tool or platform rather than become the permanent human workaround.
• A rigorous, analytical approach to problem-solving and a willingness to challenge assumptions in a fast-moving R&D environment.
• Bonus: experience with scientific instrumentation, precision motion/alignment, medical devices, implantables, lab automation, or lightweight test automation/data analysis.

For more information about hiring at Merge, please visit our Hiring FAQ

Merge Labs does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, family status, ancestry, citizenship, U.S. military (state and federal) and veteran status, or any other legally protected status. It is our intention that all applicants be given equal opportunity and that selection decisions are based on job related factors. We are an equal opportunity employer.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made by emailing [e-mail].