Senior R&D Mechanical Engineer (Scientific Instrumentation)

Location: Santa Clara, California, United States; additional location in San Francisco, California, United States. Onsite role with occasional travel.

Salary: $153,823–$269,550 per year, plus eligibility for bonus, stock, and benefits.

Company

hirify.global provides laboratories worldwide with scientific instruments, services, consumables, applications, and expertise.

What you will do

• Lead mechanical architecture and detailed design for scientific instruments, subsystems, prototypes, fixtures, and test hardware from concept through release.
• Translate scientific, system, and customer-use requirements into mechanical concepts, specifications, tolerance schemes, and verified designs.
• Select materials, finishes, adhesives, fasteners, seals, and manufacturing processes for laboratory, vacuum, high-voltage, thermal, and contamination-sensitive environments.
• Create and maintain 3D models, assemblies, drawings, bills of material, and configuration-controlled design documentation using MCAD and PLM systems.
• Perform or direct thermal, structural, tolerance, fit, and stack-up analyses; plan prototype builds, design verification, root-cause investigations, and corrective actions.
• Collaborate across science, engineering, manufacturing, quality, procurement, supplier, and service functions; lead technical reviews, resolve integration issues, communicate risks, and mentor engineers and technicians.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related engineering discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 8 years of professional mechanical design experience delivering complex hardware products, with expert-level depth and independence.
• Ability to solve ambiguous, complex, and high-impact design problems with limited direction.
• Strong knowledge of engineering materials and their behavior under thermal and mechanical loading, including heat conduction and thermal expansion.
• Experience designing equipment for laboratory or scientific use, considering cleanliness, chemical exposure, temperature, humidity, vibration, transportation, and normal operating conditions.
• Experience producing engineering drawings, applying geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, performing tolerance analysis, and following design-release practices.
• Experience with machined, sheet-metal, molded, fabricated, rapid 3D-printed, and purchased components, as well as external suppliers.
• Ability to communicate technical decisions clearly and collaborate across scientific, engineering, manufacturing, quality, and service functions.

Nice to have

• Advanced proficiency with Siemens NX or a comparable parametric 3D CAD platform and experience with Teamcenter or another PLM system.
• Experience with thermal and structural finite-element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, or tools such as Simcenter FloEFD.
• Experience with analytical instruments, mass spectrometry, chromatography, spectroscopy, diagnostics, semiconductor equipment, or other precision scientific systems.
• Experience with high- or ultra-high-vacuum hardware, ion-optics or charged-particle assemblies, vacuum pumps, feedthroughs, seals, gas-flow control valves, pneumatic controls, and contamination-sensitive designs.
• Knowledge of low-outgassing materials, thermal isolation and heat dissipation in high-voltage environments, high-voltage clearances, electromagnetic effects, cable routing, electronics packaging, and PCB technologies.
• Expertise in specifying thermal-management components, heaters, temperature sensors, cartridge heaters, resistive heating, and gas heating for atmospheric, vacuum, and high-purity environments, including control systems.
• Technical leadership on major projects, invention or patent contributions, supplier collaboration, and mentoring engineers or technicians.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time position with a regular daytime shift and no fixed end date.
• Eligibility for bonus, stock, and benefits.
• Equal-opportunity and merit-based workplace committed to inclusion and accessibility.
• Occasional travel is required.