Director of Mechanical Engineering, Hardware Platform

Director of Mechanical Engineering, Hardware Platform

Emeryville or Santa Clara, CA

Atomic Machines is ushering in a new era of micromanufacturing with its Matter Compiler™ technology platform. This platform enables new classes of micromachines to be designed and built by providing manufacturing processes and a materials library that are inaccessible to semiconductor manufacturing methods. It unlocks MEMS manufacturing not only for device classes that could never be produced by semiconductor methods, but also for entirely new categories.

Furthermore, this digital platform is fully programmable in the way 3D printing is digital—but whereas 3D printing produces parts of a single material using a single process, the Matter Compiler™ technology platform is a multi-process, multi-material system: bits and raw materials go in, and complete, functional micromachines come out. The Atomic Machines team has also created an exciting first device—made possible only through the Matter Compiler™ technology platform—that we will be unveiling to the world soon.

Our offices are in Emeryville and Santa Clara, California.

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.

• 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.

• 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,…