Role Snapshot

You’ll help turn Aerostacks’ radar-based snow sensing prototype into a robust, field-ready hardware product. The product is a sensor mounted on a snow groomer, designed to operate in snow, freezing temperatures, water, vibrations, and demanding outdoor conditions.

This role is for a hands-on Senior Mechanical / Hardware Engineer who has helped build real physical products — not only CAD models. You’ll work closely with the founding team and RF/hardware contributors to design the mechanical architecture, enclosure, mounting concept, and practical product details needed to test the system in a ski resort environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Assess the current mechanical design and identify key risks, weaknesses, and improvement areas
• Design a more robust mechanical architecture for the sensor system
• Develop the mounting concept for installation on a snow groomer
• Design or improve the enclosure protecting electronics, RF components, cabling, and connectors
• Solve practical challenges around water resistance, vibration, serviceability, and durability
• Support fast prototyping through 3D printing, CNC, off-the-shelf components, and rapid manufacturing methods
• Think through field failure modes: what can break, loosen, leak, freeze, vibrate, or become hard to service
• Collaborate with RF/hardware engineers to ensure the mechanical design supports signal performance and protects sensitive components
• Recommend practical manufacturing and assembly approaches for the next prototype iterations
• Help move the system from a lab-style prototype toward a product that can be mounted, tested, maintained, and improved in real conditions

What You Bring

Technical Toolkit

• Strong mechanical design skills for real-world hardware products
• Experience with CAD, 3D printing, CNC, and rapid prototyping
• Practical understanding of enclosures, mounting systems, seals, fasteners, cables, connectors, and service access
• Ability to design for water resistance, vibration, impact, temperature changes, and outdoor reliability
• Good engineering judgment around manufacturability, assembly, cost, and iteration speed
• Ability to work with incomplete information and make pragmatic design decisions
• Basic understanding of electronics packaging and how mechanical decisions affect hardware reliability

Professional Experience

• 5+ years of experience in mechanical engineering, hardware product development, or physical product design
• Proven experience helping build a real physical product that operated outside the lab
• Track record of turning prototypes into more robust, testable, and manufacturable systems
• Hands-on approach to prototyping, testing, debugging, and improving mechanical designs
• Ability to think beyond CAD: assembly, service, field use, cables, mounting, failure modes, and user constraints
• Clear communication style and ability to collaborate with a small multidisciplinary team
• Startup mindset and motivation to solve an unusual, practical engineering problem

Nice-to-have

• Experience with defense hardware, IoT devices, automotive, robotics, industrial sensors, or ruggedized electronics
• Experience designing products for harsh environments such as cold, water, dust, vibration, impact, or outdoor use
• Familiarity with vehicle-mounted hardware or equipment used in field conditions
• Basic understanding of RF, radar, antennas, sensors, or electronics integration
• Experience supporting early-stage hardware teams from prototype toward production
• Interest in mountain environments, snow, robotics, outdoor hardware, or field testing