Level

Scout AI

Mechanical Engineer

Scout AI is hiring a Mechanical Engineer in Sunnyvale, United States. It pays $120k-$180k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Scout AI.

Level's read on this job

  • On Level's scale, this role is Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
  • Level classifies it as a mid-level role.
  • Level lists 24 other open roles at Scout AI.

AI in this role

The future of defense will be decided by those who field intelligent machines at scale. At Scout, we’re developing Fury, the first robotic foundation model for defense, to give U.S. forces overwhelming, adaptable, and autonomous power across every domain. Fury enables human operators to command fleets of robots through natural language, and empowers those machines to sense, decide, and act together as one. This mission will ask everything of us: urgency, precision, and relentless work.

The Role

As a mechanical engineer you will take full ownership of the hardware development across Scout’s robotic platforms. You'll design, build, and validate everything from vehicle testbeds to ruggedized compute enclosures and field-ready payload integrations. You'll help define requirements.

This role means rapidly iterating on real-world systems, designing for environmental resilience. You’ll work across disciplines and domains, collaborating tightly with our software engineers, mission operations team, and external partners to ensure our systems deliver dominance in the field. You’ll be moving fast, context-switching daily, and helping define the culture and process as we go. This is a rare opportunity to come in early and architect the hardware foundation for the AGI-powered future of defense.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the design, build, and deployment of mechanical and electromechanical systems across ground, maritime, and aerial platforms

  • Architect autonomy systems, including component selection for compute modules, communication devices, networking components, and sensors

  • Design rugged enclosures to house custom electronics - own the process from napkin sketch through prototyping and environmental qualification

  • Own all mechanical roles related to testing: fixture design, hardware selection, wiring, environmental sealing, and system validation

  • Integrate hardware with electrical and software systems in field-ready robotic platforms

  • Collaborate closely with mission operations and software/autonomy teams to ensure real-world readiness and performance

  • Troubleshoot hardware in the shop and in the field

  • Develop scalable, rugged, and modular hardware architectures that can evolve across mission types and environments

  • Author documentation for test plans, validation results, integration procedures, and hardware specs

  • Contribute to a rapid, iterative development loop between R&D and mission deployment

Qualifications

  • 3+ years of experience in mechanical, electrical, mechatronics, or hardware test engineering, preferably in robotics, aerospace, automotive, or defense

  • Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering

  • Strong 3D CAD skills to design fixtures, enclosures, and electromechanical systems

  • Experience architecting systems and selecting sensors, communications, and compute

  • Hands-on experience with ruggedized electronics design and qualification

  • Comfortable working with electrical engineers to define PCBA outlines and mechanical interfaces, including thermal management and connector selection

  • Broad test and analysis skills in the areas of thermal, structural, fluid, shock & vibe and environmental

  • Strong communication, documentation, and cross-disciplinary collaboration skills

  • Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export controlled information or facilities

  • Passion about defense of the United States and its allies

  • May be expected to obtain and hold a U.S. Top Secret security clearance

Why Join Scout

  • Work on the world’s most important frontier, ensuring U.S. and allied dominance in the age of intelligent machines

  • Be a core part of a team building the first defense-specific robotic foundation model

  • Collaborate with some of the top engineers in autonomy, AI, and national security

  • See your work deployed on real systems

  • Backed by investors including Draper Associates and Booz Allen Ventures

Benefits

  • Competitive cash compensation

  • Meaningful equity

  • Premium medical, dental, and vision plans with $0 paycheck contribution

  • Competitive PTO and company holiday calendar

  • Catered lunch daily and fully stocked kitchen

  • EV charging

  • Relocation assistance (depending on role eligibility)

How we rate this

Mechanical Engineer at Scout AI rates 31 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

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