Director of Mechanical Engineering, Hardware Platform
Atomic MachinesAbout the role
About The Role:
Atomic Machines is seeking a deeply technical and execution-oriented Director of Hardware Platform to lead the team responsible for developing the core hardware platform that enables our digital manufacturing Nodes and ultimately the Matter Compiler. Each Node implements a class of physical manufacturing process as a fully automated machine built on Atomic Machines’ modular hardware and software platform.
In this role, you will report to the executive leader responsible for the broader Hardware / Nodes organization and will own the design, execution, and delivery of key hardware platform systems. You will lead a team of exceptional mechanical and hardware engineers through early prototypes, design iterations, experiments, verification, validation, and transfer toward commercial readiness. Your team will work closely with our Hybrid Fab, giving you a fast feedback loop between development, deployment, and manufacturing learning.
This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can operate with technical depth, drive clarity through ambiguity, and build a high-performing team. As Atomic Machines grows, you will also play an important role in hiring and developing bar-raising engineering talent while ensuring the team delivers rigorous, reliable, and scalable hardware systems.
What You’ll Do
Hardware Platform and Node Architecture
- Own the hardware architecture for Atomic Machines’ platform and Node systems, including mechanisms, kinematics, structures, thermal control, sensing, actuation, fixturing, serviceability, and interfaces to software, controls, and manufacturing.
- Lead the design and development of precision motion subsystems, including stages, gantries, rotary axes, Z / force axes, end-effectors, fixturing, and in-situ metrology.
- Drive hardware requirements, error budgets, and subsystem specifications for precision, throughput, reliability, accuracy, repeatability, stiffness, settle time, drift, uptime, MTBF, and MTTR.
- Guide architectural decisions and technical tradeoffs across mechanical, electrical, controls, software, vision, manufacturing, and supply chain domains.
- Ensure platform and Node hardware is designed for scalability, calibration, alignment, serviceability, and manufacturing readiness.
Mechanical Engineering Technical Leadership
- Provide deep technical leadership in mechanical design for robotics, precision automation, and advanced manufacturing systems.
- Establish and maintain high standards for design reviews, design documentation, interface control documents, GD&T, tolerance analysis, DFMEA / PFMEA, verification and validation plans, and engineering change control.
- Drive disciplined engineering practices while maintaining speed, creativity, and first-principles problem solving.
- Engage directly in technical problem solving as needed with a “do whatever it takes” mindset.
- Partner with teams to debug complex hardware, factory, and system-level issues with urgency and rigor.
- Build scalable calibration and compensation strategies into the hardware, including datums, fiducials, kinematic mounts, reference artifacts, automated calibration, and drift detection.
Prototype-to-Production Execution
- Lead hardware development from concept and early prototypes through design implementation, debug, verification, validation, qualification, manufacturing transfer, and production ramp.
- Partner with Manufacturing Engineering to build the prototype-to-production pipeline for Node and platform hardware.
- Drive DFM, DFA, DFS, supplier strategy, first-article inspection, incoming quality, build documentation, assembly fixtures, tes
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