Senior/Staff Mechanical Engineer, Factory Automation

A Senior/Staff Mechanical Engineer on the Factory Automation team will own the mechanical design and deployment of automation systems that form the foundation of Divergent’s Adaptive Production Systems (DAPS). These systems will enable Divergent factories to rapidly reconfigure for simultaneous production of automotive, aerospace, and defense structures—eliminating the traditional tooling bottlenecks that constrain flexible manufacturing.  

This is a hands-on role with significant technical ownership. You will translate manufacturing and operational needs into robust mechanical designs, evaluate tradeoffs across performance, cost, reliability, manufacturability, and deployment speed, and drive complex mechanical systems from concept through production. The ideal candidate has a track record of independently architecting, designing, building, testing, and deploying complex mechanical systems, with strong experience in machine design, manufacturing methods, motion systems, and structures.  

You will work on bleeding-edge industrial automation systems and help develop technologies that have few existing precedents. By combining advanced automation, software, and factory data, you will contribute to a new model for flexible, sustainable manufacturing. Divergent is pushing the boundaries of what a factory can be, and we are looking for an engineer who thrives in a fast-moving environment, operates with a high degree of autonomy, and wants to turn ambitious concepts to deployed hardware.  

• Own the mechanical design and development of significant automation systems and mechanical initiatives, from problem definition and concept development through detailed design, release, integration, validation, and deployment. 
• Translate manufacturing and operational needs into clear system requirements, interfaces, constraints, and acceptance criteria, working closely with mechanical, electrical, controls, software, manufacture, and operations teams. 
• Develop effective solutions to complex and evolving factory needs, balancing technical requirements with practical constraints around cost, schedule, manufacturability, and deployment.  
• Develop mechanical architectures and detailed designs for complex automation systems using CAD, drawings, GD&T, tolerance analysis, engineering calculations, component selection, and bills of material, while ensuring designs meet system-level requirements.  
• Apply broad mechanical engineering expertise across structures, mechanisms, precision motion, fluids, thermal systems, sealing, enclosures, and machine integration to solve challenging technical problems and deliver robust designs.  
• Evaluate design alternatives and make sound technical tradeoffs across performance, reliability, safety, manufacturability, serviceability, cost, schedule, and technical risk.  
• Identify technical and integration risks and path and execute appropriate analysis, prototyping, assembly, testing, troubleshooting, and design iteration to resolve them. 
• Lead the resolution of complex technical issues within owned systems and incorporate lessons learned into design improvements and future development. 
• Lead technical coordination across engineering, manufacturing quality, supply chain, suppliers, and other stakeholders; communicate technical decisions, status, risks, actions, and required support clearly. 
• Contribute to engineering standards, design practices, system interfaces, and reuseable designs that improve the speed and reliability of automation development and deployment. 
• Drive technical readiness of owned systems through release, procurement, manufacturing planning, validation, deployment and operational ramp, identifying and closing technical gaps along the way. 
• Support machine integration and fleet investigations when needed, helping distinguish individual failures from broader design issues and converting findings into durable design improvements.  
• Provide technical guidance, mentorship, and design reviews to other engineers, helping raise the quality and consistency of mechanical engineering decisions across the team. 
• Contribute to the architecture, modularization, and standardization of automation systems, as well as supplier and contract-manufacturing  
• Identify opportunities to simplify, automate, and scale the development and deployment of automation hardware, balancing near-term project execution with the evolving needs of DAPS.  

• Ability to lawfully access information and technology that is subject to US export controls.
• Batchelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering discipline 
• Demonstrated a track record of architecting and delivering complex mechanical systems from concept through detailed design, build, test, release, and deployment, while establishing technical direction and driving cross-functional execution.  
• Expert capability in 3D CAD, engineering drawings, GD&T, tolerance analysis, component selection, and design for manufacturability and assembly 
• Broad understanding of mechanical engineering fundamentals and the ability to apply them to unfamiliar or multidisciplinary design problems. 
• Ability to convert ambiguous needs into practical designs and make sound technical decisions with incomplete or evolving information 
• Hands-on experience developing prototypes and integrating, testing, and troubleshooting mechanical equipment 
• Ability to lead cross-functional technical work and communicate technical reasoning, decisions, risk, and status with limited oversight. 
• Ability to provide technical guidance, design, review, or mentorship to other engineers. 
• Ability to perform hands-on work around industrial equipment and occasionally lift or carry up to 25lb. 

• Experience in Siemens NX and Teamcenter 
• Experience with Jira, Confluence 
• Experience with Microsoft tools – Teams, Sharepoint, PowerBI 
• Experience with Oracle 
• Experience with Capital Equipment: Industrial Automation, Industrial Robotics, Chemical conversion / electrodeposition / plating / dip coatings, Adhesives / Bonding, Welding Systems, Machine Tools, Laser powder bed fusion, Additive manufacturing 
• Experience designing: Precision mechanisms, Motion systems, Fluid systems, Thermal systems, Vacuum systems, Structural assemblies, Machine enclosures 
• Experience mentoring engineers and providing technical leadership across multidisciplinary teams 
• Experience with: Engineering change control, Configuration management, Supplier collaboration, Contract manufacturing, Qualifying & releasing production hardware   

• This is an on-site role performed across office, laboratory, prototype, build, and production-floor environments. 
• Work involves regular interaction with industrial equipment and may include moving machinery, elevated noise, metal powers, inert gas systems, lasers, chemicals, adhesives, ovens, robotic systems, and high power electrical equipment. Required PPE and EHS controls apply. 
• Occasional travel and schedule flexibility may be required during critical design, build, integration, testing, or commissioning activities.