Find and fix known and unknown issues, improve yields, and transform operations using Instrumental's Manufacturing Acceleration Platform. Backed by First Round Capital.
About the role
Most senior mechanical engineers we talk to have hit the same wall: you've spent a decade getting great at one product category, and now every new project feels like a smaller version of the last one. You're ready for harder, more varied problems — but most senior IC roles just mean more of the same thing, not different things. Found on 1752vc Careers, the job board for startup and VC roles.
What they're looking for
- 15+ years in mechanical design, manufacturing engineering, product design, automation, test equipment, or related disciplines
- Excellent communication skills and genuine enthusiasm for working directly with customers
- Experience on high-volume electronics or NPI manufacturing floors — you understand production workflows, line constraints, and what actually breaks going from NPI to mass production
- Strong CAD chops (SolidWorks, Creo, NX, or similar)
- Real fluency in DFM, tolerance analysis, and mechanical design tradeoffs
- A builder's mindset — you'd rather solve an ambiguous problem than wait for a perfectly-scoped one
More about this role
Most senior mechanical engineers we talk to have hit the same wall: you've spent a decade getting great at one product category, and now every new project feels like a smaller version of the last one. You're ready for harder, more varied problems — but most senior IC roles just mean more of the same thing, not different things.
This role is the opposite. You won't spend years iterating on a single product — you'll work across a wide range of customer applications, from AI infrastructure and networking equipment to consumer electronics and defense, often several of them in the same month. Every project is a new engineering challenge, a new manufacturing floor, and a new problem that hasn't been solved yet at that company.
As a Principal Manufacturing Solutions Engineer, you'll combine mechanical design, electronics manufacturing expertise, and direct customer collaboration to build custom hardware and software solutions that go straight into real production lines — not a slide deck, an actual station on an actual floor.
And if you've ever considered an MBA or a more strategic track that still uses your technical depth — this role is a rare way to get there without leaving...
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