Mechanical Engineer, Hardware Systems

Digitailor; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Normal Computing in Silicon Valley is seeking a founding mechanical engineer to lead the mechanical design of our AI inference hardware. You will define form factor, thermal envelope, and serviceability for deployment across racks and servers, ensuring manufacturability and reliable integration with partners.

You will collaborate with silicon, systems, and deployment engineers, and oversee external design and manufacturing partners throughout the build and qualification process.

Qualifications

• Six or more years of experience owning accelerator or server hardware.
• Strong solid modeling skills in SolidWorks, Creo, or NX with FEA and tolerance analysis.
• Hands-on thermal design and validation for server or accelerator hardware.
• Experience integrating server hardware into standard chassis and racks with serviceability considerations.
• Electrical fluency to read schematics and coordinate with electrical engineers.

Responsibilities

• Own the electromechanical design of inference hardware from configuration to deployable product.
• Define mechanical integration of compute, host platform, networking, and power in the chassis.
• Validate airflow and thermals with a fully populated system and design for serviceability by a technician in a live rack.
• Set rack configuration, power distribution layout, cabling, and mounting approach across common formats.
• Own drawing and BOM releases, manufacturability reviews, and resolution of build failures.
• Coordinate safety and EMC certification and environmental compliance with the electrical team and lab.

Skills

SolidWorks

Creo

NX

FEA

Tolerance analysis

Design for manufacturing

Thermal design

Server hardware

Rack integration

Job description

Normal Computing | Build with Us Normal is an applied AI company solving the hardest problems in AI and silicon. We build foundational hardware and software for the semiconductor industry, critical AI infrastructure, and the broader systems that power our world, in partnership with the world's most advanced institutions. We work as one team across New York City, Silicon Valley (Mountain View), London, Copenhagen, and Seoul.

The Role

Normal is building AI inference hardware based on our Thermo In-Memory Computing architecture, designed to deliver orders-of-magnitude more efficient compute. As the founding mechanical engineer on our hardware team, you will define the physical design of that hardware at every level of integration, from the accelerator through the server to the rack. You will help determine what fits, what can be cooled, what can be serviced, and where an existing supplier platform does the job. You report to the head of our hardware systems organization and partner with our silicon, systems, and deployment engineers, and with the external design and manufacturing partners who build to our drawings. We're looking for someone who thrives on turning a system architecture into hardware and takes pride in catching the problem before the build does. The form factor, thermal envelope, mounting, and serviceability decisions you make set the foundation for the systems Normal ships, and the hardware you define is the hardware our customers run. Candidates from OEM and ODM server teams, hyperscaler infrastructure teams, and earlier-stage hardware companies could all be well qualified for this role. What You Will Own Mechanical Design: Own the electromechanical design of our inference hardware as it moves from engineering configuration to deployable product, including form factor, thermal solution and airflow, connectors and cabling, and the power and thermal envelope it has to live within. System Configuration: Build the mechanical definition of what we ship, from the assembly structure and BOM to the envelope every board and component has to fit within, and identify assembly, cooling, and serviceability problems before parts are ordered. Engineering and go-to-market build against it. Server Integration: Define the mechanical integration of compute, host platform, networking, and power in the chassis, validate airflow and thermals with the system fully populated, and design for serviceability by a technician in a live rack. Rack Integration: Set the rack configuration, power distribution layout, cabling, weight and blanking plan, and the mounting approach across standard and open-rack formats. Build Readiness: Own drawing and BOM releases, manufacturability, supplier engineering reviews, and the resolution of build failures. Weigh the cost and lead-time consequences of design and supplier choices before they are made, and run bring-up and validation on real hardware in our lab. Compliance and Reliability: Own mechanical and thermal qualification, writing the test specifications and procedures, running shock, vibration, and thermal cycling, and taking lab and field failures to root cause. Coordinate safety and EMC certification and environmental compliance with the electrical team and the test lab. What Makes You a Great Fit Six or more years, or equivalent shipped work, owning accelerator or server hardware. You have taken a relevant design from prototype through qualification and production, and can explain what you designed, what failed, and what you changed. Strong mechanical design skills in SolidWorks, Creo, NX, or similar, including FEA, tolerance analysis, and design for manufacturing. You can release drawings that a manufacturing partner can build from. Hands-on thermal design and validation for server or accelerator hardware, with strong first-principles reasoning and practical lab experience. Experience integrating server hardware into standard chassis and racks, with an understanding of mechanical interfaces and serviceability. Electrical fluency to read schematics and work with electrical engineers on power and interconnect integration. Experience directing external design or manufacturing partners, including reviewing designs, releasing build documentation, and resolving issues during builds.

Bonus Points

Direct experience turning industrial design concepts and appearance models into production mechanical designs. Experience shipping hardware to external customers, including certification, documentation, and service obligations. Experience with soft and hard tooling decisions and fixture and test setup design with an ODM or contract manufacturer. Experience integrating liquid cooling into server or rack systems. Experience designing to Open Compute Project or other open modular server and rack architectures.