Hybrid Senior Mechanical Engineering Manager

at Gridware

• Job title: Senior Mechanical Engineering Manager
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Senior
• Salary: $170,000 - $216,000 per year
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Location requirements: Hybrid, San Francisco, United States

About the role

• Mechanical Engineering Manager overseeing design efforts for Gridware’s sensing hardware. Leading a team to enhance reliability engineering and manufacturability for real-world applications.

Responsibilities

• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing mechanical engineering team with a focus on reliability engineering, ruggedization, and design excellence.
• Drive technical direction, coaching, and best-practice adoption across CAD standards, modeling, analysis, and documentation.
• Establish team norms around DFM/DFA, design reviews, requirement-setting, and risk management.
• Lead recruiting efforts for expanding mechanical/hardware engineering roles.
• Oversee the mechanical architecture of Gridware’s sensing devices, including enclosures, thermal paths, fastening, sealing, and mechanical-electrical integration.
• Ensure designs meet field durability requirements relating to shock, vibration, moisture ingress, UV exposure, thermal cycling, wildlife/weather interaction, and long-term corrosion.
• Direct trade studies, material selection, tolerance stack-ups, and structural/thermal simulations.
• Own the release of engineering drawings, documentation, ECOs, and revision control.
• Partner with EE, firmware, and data teams to ensure mechanical constraints and design choices integrate seamlessly with system performance, power budgets, and sensing requirements.
• Work closely with manufacturing, supply chain, and operations on tooling, test fixtures, jigs, and scalable production processes.
• Collaborate with field engineering teams to incorporate real-world deployment insights back into design requirements.
• Support safety, compliance, and certification processes (UL, FCC, environmental standards).
• Translate product requirements into engineering specifications with clear performance, reliability, and manufacturability targets.
• Develop project timelines, staffing plans, and technical risk mitigation strategies.
• Lead root cause analyses for field or production issues and drive corrective actions.
• Champion continuous improvement across prototyping workflows, build processes, and supplier engagement.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or related field (Master’s preferred).
• 8+ years of experience in mechanical product development, preferably in ruggedized or field-deployed hardware.
• 3+ years leading engineering teams or managing cross-functional deliverables.
• Strong proficiency with CAD (SolidWorks preferred), GD&T, DFM/DFA, and mechanical system modeling.
• Experience designing for harsh environmental conditions, vibration/shock loading, and IP-rated enclosures.
• Proven track record delivering hardware from concept through production and field deployment.
• Excellent communication, documentation, and technical decision-making skills.

Benefits

• Health, Dental & Vision (Gold and Platinum with some providers plans fully covered)
• Paid parental leave
• Alternating day off (every other Monday)
• “Off the Grid”, a two week per year paid break for all employees.
• Commuter allowance
• Company-paid training