Mechanical Engineer

Mechanical Design Engineer, San Francisco, CA. At IDEO, we use design to create new products, services, experiences, tangible strategies, and creative capabilities. IDEO San Francisco is in search of a Mechanical Design Engineer to partner with interdisciplinary teams designing innovative and human centered physical products and services. The ideal candidate will bring a thorough “build to think” style of working, champion hands on prototyping, and collaborate fluidly with a wide variety of design professionals from communications design to UX researchers.

This hire will have the unique opportunity to design cutting edge products, and grow as a design thinking practitioner within IDEO’s diverse network of Design Directors, Partners, and Business Leaders. At IDEO, a Mechanical Design Engineer is responsible for independently executing components of highly complex client projects, showcasing advanced skills in mechanical design, knowledge of manufacturing processes, and an ability to collaborate closely with multi-disciplinary designers to realize a product vision.

You will bridge form and function, while balancing user needs and technical considerations to create solutions that resonate with end users and businesses alike. What makes a career at IDEO unique is our radical empathy and compassion for the user, always leading with creative confidence and collaborative rigor. Engineers at IDEO creatively solve technical challenges, design components or product ideas as quickly and cost-effectively as possible within given usability and manufacturing constraints, and contribute to a variety of IDEO client challenges throughout the entire design process from research to ideation to realization.

You will work with world class researchers, business designers, data scientists, and other disciplines outside of design, to push the edges of your craft, creating solutions that are as inclusive as they are transformative. We are especially excited to meet candidates with exceptional visual storytelling abilities, a drive to get tangible by prototyping in both digital and physical realms, and a grounding in design for manufacturing principles and practices.

This hire must be within a commutable distance of IDEO’s San Francisco studio. IDEO proudly supports flexible work.

• Apply your engineering expertise to develop compelling physical product architectures, balancing form, function, and manufacturability.
• Present ideas through sketches, CAD models, and physical prototypes to clients and team members.
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams, including industrial designers, software developers, interaction designers, brand strategists, and design researchers.
• Develop novel and comprehensive mechanisms, surfaces, and assemblies in a 3D CAD software (Solid Works preferred).
• Actively contribute to and lead in person, prototype driven research with users to inform design strategies. Your design responsibilities will include making prototypes for user testing, as well as joining design research activities to learn from users.
• Create prototypes at varying fidelities using tools such as 3D printers and other rapid prototyping methods to explore, test, and validate design concepts iteratively.
• Deliver exceptional visual storytelling and compelling presentations using tools like Adobe Creative Suite and 3D CAD.
• Mentor other designers by sharing knowledge and demonstrating advanced craft techniques.

• 3-5+ years of experience in mechanical engineering or product design, including examples of significant contributions to projects in consumer products, medical devices, or related fields.
• Professional experience with one or more of the following:
• • Complex Mechanism Design: proven ability to design, test, and develop robust mechanisms for products like medical devices or consumer electronics.
  • Packaging:
    Understand basic structural packaging design and sustainability considerations.
  • Health and Life Sciences Products:
    Usability and functionality with a focus on ergonomics and medical specific requirements.
  • Injection Molded Plastic Part Design: general knowledge of tooling approaches to…