The Hardware Design Engineer will design solutions for diverse products, communicate with customers, manage projects, and improve processes using CAD and engineering fundamentals.
Manufacturing advanced electronics requires understanding millions of signals generated across complex assembly processes. Instrumental builds systems that capture and analyze those signals — images, test results, and process data — enabling engineers to discover failures, identify root causes, and deploy production controls that improve yield and product maturity. Leading companies such as NVIDIA, Cisco, and Meta rely on Instrumental to accelerate new product development and scale manufacturing across global factories. Instrumental has become mission-critical for manufacturers building and scaling the next generation of AI infrastructure hardware.
About the Role:
As a Hardware Design Engineer, you will work with Instrumental’s growing Hardware Design & Solutions team, playing a critical role in designing solutions for Fortune 100 customers. You will leverage your design and manufacturing intuition to develop custom and complex fixtures, optical systems, and station/industrial hardware.
The Solutions team is part of our larger sales organization, which is uniquely full of former mechanical and electrical engineers who are now using their skills to support and enable engineers around the world. Our Solutions team is scrappy and entrepreneurial – this is a team that doesn’t wait for things to happen, we make them happen. Successful team members are problem-solvers and adaptable. When it’s not in the playbook, they create the next play. This team is critical to scoping, selling, and successfully implementing Instrumental technology on NPI and production lines for products as diverse as smartglasses, solar inverters, the F-35, and high-performance compute racks. Every customer and product is different – leading to exciting, impactful projects.
Our team is continuously learning from our customers and each other to understand the challenges that come with different products. We incorporate those learnings into better designs, processes, and ways of working – and are looking for a team member who will leverage surround-sound feedback to provide better solutions for our customers.
You’ll tackle novel design challenges and leverage mechanical engineering fundamentals, CAD fluency, and knowledge of manufacturing processes. Good listening and natural curiosity are critical, as this role is all about understanding and designing for Instrumental’s users and integrating seamlessly into their processes.
We're Looking for Someone Who:
- 1.5+ years experience leveraging CAD in a professional setting – as a CAD engineer, machinist, mechanical engineer, or similar
- Has a get-stuff-done attitude, with an enthusiasm for solving problems and overcoming roadblocks
- Has attention to detail and enjoys continuously improving and optimizing their work
- Demonstrated experience working cross-functionally, including directly with customers, with a customer-success mindset
- Can take a mission, create their own plan, understand the requirements, and execute on-time and to the specifications
What You'll Be Doing:
- Design Ownership: Create fixtures and optical designs for a wide range of products, ranging in size from tiny wearables to industrial appliances, that integrate smoothly into customer lines and processes
- New Capabilities: Design novel solutions that expand our technology to new applications
- Design Communication: Meet and lead meetings with customers, partners, and contract manufacturers to understand their needs and feedback; collaborate internally with sales, Solutions Architects, our global operations team, and even engineering to deliver for the customer
- Project Management: Clearly communicate accurate timeline expectations and execute on high-quality designs to ensure our Operations team meets all of their committed deploy dates
- Continuous Design and Process Improvement: Identify, collaborate, and execute on better ways for our team to deliver our product
- Rapid Learning: Work with the rest of the Solutions team to develop technical expertise in manufacturing to become a trusted advisor for our customers
- Travel occasionally on-site to customers to understand their unique integration requirements, oversee new designs in action, and identify ways to improve the next one
This position requires access to items and data that are developed under U.S. government contracts and subject to dissemination controls that limit access to U.S. citizens only.
We’re a growing team that consistently works collaboratively, is supportive of each other, and is highly energized by the opportunity for large impact. We actively work to promote an inclusive environment, valuing passion and the ability to learn. You’re encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn’t precisely match the job description!
The following is a representative annual base salary range within the Bay Area: $108,000 - 144,000. Job level and salary opportunities are evaluated through our interview process—we review each applicant's experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities.
All candidates must have an unrestricted right to work in the U.S.
Instrumental Palo Alto, California, USA Office
909 Alma Street, Palo Alto, CA, United States, 94301
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