Senior Mechanical Engineer
Scout AI · Sunnyvale · $170,000–$260,000 (stated in the posting)
The future of defense will be decided by those who field intelligent machines at scale. At Scout, we’re developing Fury, the first robotic foundation model for defense, to give U.S. forces overwhelming, adaptable, and autonomous power across every domain. Fury enables human operators to command fleets of robots through natural language, and empowers those machines to sense, decide, and act together as one. This mission will ask everything of us: urgency, precision, and relentless work.
The Role
As a Senior mechanical engineer you will take full ownership of the hardware development across Scout’s robotic platforms. You'll design, build, and validate everything from vehicle testbeds to ruggedized compute enclosures and field-ready payload integrations. You'll help define requirements.
This role means rapidly iterating on real-world systems, designing for environmental resilience. You’ll work across disciplines and domains, collaborating tightly with our software engineers, mission operations team, and external partners to ensure our systems deliver dominance in the field. You’ll be moving fast, context-switching daily, and helping define the culture and process as we go. This is a rare opportunity to come in early and architect the hardware foundation for the AGI-powered future of defense.
Responsibilities
- Lead the design, build, and deployment of mechanical and electromechanical systems across ground, maritime, and aerial platforms
- Architect autonomy systems, including component selection for compute modules, communication devices, networking components, and sensors
- Design rugged enclosures to house custom electronics - own the process from napkin sketch through prototyping and environmental qualification
- Own all mechanical roles related to testing: fixture design, hardware selection, wiring, environmental sealing, and system validation
- Integrate hardware with electrical and software systems in field-ready robotic platforms
- Collaborate closely with mission operations and software/autonomy teams to ensure real-world readiness and performance
- Troubleshoot hardware in the shop and in the field
- Develop scalable, rugged, and modular hardware architectures that can evolve across mission types and environments
- Author documentation for test plans, validation results, integration procedures, and hardware specs
- Contribute to a rapid, iterative development loop between R&D and mission deployment
Qualifications
- 8+ years of experience in mechanical, electrical, mechatronics, or hardware test engineering, preferably in robotics, aerospace, automotive, or defense
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering
- Strong 3D CAD skills to design fixtures, enclosures, and electromechanical systems
- Experience architecting systems and selecting sensors, communications, and compute
- Hands-on experience with ruggedized electronics design and qualification
- Comfortable working with electrical engineers to define PCBA outlines and mechanical interfaces, including thermal management and connector selection
- Broad test and analysis skills in the areas of thermal, structural, fluid, shock & vibe and environmental
- Strong communication, documentation, and cross-disciplinary collaboration skills
- Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export controlled information or facilities
- Passion about defense of the United States and its allies
- May be expected to obtain and hold a U.S. Top Secret security clearance
Why Join Scout
- Work on the world’s most important frontier, ensuring U.S. and allied dominance in the age of intelligent machines
- Be a core part of a team building the first defense-specific robotic foundation model
- Collaborate with some of the top engineers in autonomy, AI, and national security
- See your work deployed on real systems
- Backed by investors including Draper Associates and Booz Allen Ventures
Benefits
- Competitive compensation package including base salary and bonus
- Meaningful equity
- Premium medical, dental, and vision plans with $0 paycheck contribution
- Competitive PTO and company holiday calendar
- Catered lunch daily and fully stocked kitchen
- EV charging
- Relocation assistance (depending on role eligibility)
The stated salary range below represents an estimated base pay only and reflects consideration of multiple compensation factors. Final salary offers may differ depending on factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience or training background, specialized skills, and business needs. Most full-time positions also include highly competitive equity awards, which form part of Scout AI's overall compensation package. In addition, Scout AI provides comprehensive, top-tier benefits to full-time employees.
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