Mechanical Engineer - Intern

What You Will Actually Do

• Design from First Principles: You will model complex mechanical assemblies in CAD (SolidWorks/NX), moving from napkin sketches to production-ready drawings by owning sub-assemblies.

• Get Your Hands Dirty: You will spend 30-50% of your time in the shop. You will assemble, modify, and repair your designs. If a part doesn’t fit, you will find out why and fix it.

• Rapid Prototyping: You will utilize 3D printing, laser cutting, and CNC machining to validate ideas in hours, not weeks.

• Test to Failure: You will design test fixtures and torture-test hardware to find the breaking points before our customers do.

• Vendor Management: You will communicate directly with machine shops and suppliers to get parts made to spec and on time.

The Toolbox (Requirements)

• CAD Fluency: You are fast in CAD. You understand top-down design and can manage large assemblies without breaking references.

• Mechanical Sympathy: You understand how things are made. You know the difference between 3-axis and 5-axis machining. You understand why we don't put tight tolerances on non-critical dimensions.

• Practical Experience: You have built things that move. Formula SAE, Baja, Solar Car, Rocketry, or BattleBots experience is highly preferred. We want to see what you built, not just what you studied.

• FEA/Hand Calcs: You can do a quick free-body diagram on a whiteboard to prove your design is safe before you open the simulation software.

• GD&T Basics: You can create a drawing that a machinist can actually read.

Who You Are:

• Obsessive: You have "garage projects." You take things apart to see how they work. You are learning new skills on the weekends because you want to, not because you have to.

• High Agency: You don’t wait for permission. 

• Resilient: You don't hide your mistakes. When you break a part (and you will), you own it, analyze the root cause, and fix it immediately.

• Do not apply if: You prefer working fully remotely. Hardware happens in real life.

• Do not apply if: You are looking for a slow-paced, structured corporate environment with 3 weeks of orientation.

• Do not apply if: You are uncomfortable using a drill press, band saw, or soldering iron.

To Apply

Attach your resume and a portfolio/link to the coolest thing you have physically built. Tell us what went wrong during the build and how you fixed it. Resumes without project portfolios will not be read.