Product Design Engineer

Grounded RVs Inc.; Detroit, Northern (MI, KY); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Grounded is seeking a Product Design Engineer to own the module library for every Grounded vehicle — from mobile health clinics to command units — ensuring modular interiors are designed, modeled, and ready for fabrication.

You will work with our CPO at the intersection of mechanical engineering and product design, sourcing components, developing new modules, packaging layouts for customer proposals, and producing visuals that help customers configure and buy.

Qualifications

• Degree in mechanical engineering or industrial design (or both).
• Strong CAD fluency and ability to move between tools.
• Rendering and visualization skills with 3D tools.
• Serious product research skills to select best components.
• Interest in parametric or computational design and collaboration with software.
• Bias toward buildable design with good DFM instincts.
• Startup mindset, comfortable with ambiguity and ownership.

Responsibilities

• Design and 3D model interior modules and own the module library.
• Scout market for best components for the library stack and defend choices.
• Develop vehicle configurations and packaging layouts for proposals.
• Produce renderings and visualizations for sales, proposals, and marketing.
• Build parametric versions of modules for the product configurator with the software team.
• Support prototype builds and feed learnings back into the library.

Skills

CAD fluency

Product design

Market research

Rendering

Visualization

Parametric design

DFM mindset

Education

Mechanical engineering degree

Industrial design degree

Tools

Onshape

NX

Job description

Product Design Engineer — Grounded

Detroit, MI (in-person)

About Grounded

Grounded is a 25-person Detroit-based startup building modular electric platforms for specialty vehicles. We take cab chassis from OEMs like Ford and Harbinger and build configurable vehicle systems on top, serving mobile healthcare, RVs, command centers, food and beverage, pet care, and more. Our customers include Colgate, Nokia, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and Portland PD. We've raised ~$5M in VC funding and are shipping vehicles in market today.

We also build our own software: a mobile app, fleet dashboard, and onboard computer system that lets customers monitor and control vehicle systems remotely. We design, fabricate, and assemble everything in-house at our facility in Corktown.

The Role

We're hiring a Product Design Engineer to own the heart of our product: the module library. Every Grounded vehicle — mobile health clinic, food service van, command unit, adventure van — is assembled from a library of engineered interior modules, configured to the mission. That library is the product, and this role designs, models, and maintains it.

You'll work directly with our CPO at the intersection of mechanical engineering and product design: sourcing best-in-class components, developing new modules, packaging vehicle layouts for customer proposals, and producing the visuals that sell them. What you design gets fabricated in-house and installed in real vehicles — and it feeds our product configurator, so the library you build becomes something customers configure themselves.

What you'd actually do

• Design and 3D model interior modules — cabinetry, medical and food equipment integrations, mounts — and own the module library as the single source of truth

• Scout the market for best-in-class components for the library stack: power systems, refrigeration, commercial equipment, hardware. Compare specs, weight, power draw, certifications, and cost, and make the pick defensible

• Develop vehicle configurations and packaging layouts for customer proposals, validating fit, weight, and power budgets

• Produce renderings and visualizations for sales, proposals, and marketing

• Build parametric versions of modules for our product configurator, working alongside the software team

• Support prototype builds on the floor and fold what you learn back into the library

What we're looking for

• Degree in mechanical engineering, industrial design, or both

• Strong CAD fluency and comfort moving between tools (Onshape, NX, or similar)

• Rendering and visualization skills (KeyShot, Blender, or similar)

• Serious product research skills: you can survey a component category you've never touched, cut through spec sheets and vendor claims, and land on the right part fast

• Interest in parametric or computational design — you don't need to be a software engineer, but you should like working with them

• A bias toward buildable: DFM instincts, real materials, real tolerances

• Startup fit: comfortable with ambiguity, you own outcomes rather than tasks

Nice-to-haves

• Aluminum fabrication, composite, or sheet metal knowledge

• Vehicle or furniture industry experience

• Grasshopper or scripting experience

Compensation

Competitive base salary + meaningful equity in Grounded + comprehensive health insurance

Why this role is different

At most companies this job is a slice: rendering someone else's design, or modeling parts that never leave the screen. Here you own the library the whole company builds from — the modules you design get fabricated downstairs, installed in vehicles, and put to work by real customers weeks later. You'll work directly with the CPO, touch every vertical we serve, and see your work show up everywhere: in proposals, in the configurator, in marketing, and on the road.