Mechanical Engineer

Wildfire Defense Systems (WDS) is the North American leader in insurer wildfire services, combining professional wildfire consulting and loss intervention services with Qualified Insurance Resources (QIR). Founded in 2001 to fulfill initial-attack assignments for the US Forest Service, the company added professional services support in 2005 and launched wildfire loss‑intervention programs for insurers in 2008.

WDS Wildfire Loss Intervention Service (WDS Service) applies a comprehensive approach to reducing risk in catastrophic exposure on an industry scale, decreasing the average annual loss (AAL) for our insurer clients, and providing peace of mind to their policy holders during wildfire events. WDS provides these industry‑leading services to insurer clients and their policy holders across a 22‑state service area.

FLSA Status :
Exempt

Reports To :
Director of Engineering

Location :
Post Falls

Salary Range : $84,900 to $124,100 DOE

The Mechanical Engineer II/III transforms ideas into field‑ready wildfire mitigation solutions that protect structures, support operations, and reduce wildfire risk. This role is for a bold, highly creative engineer who thrives in ambiguity, moves quickly from concept to prototype, and is driven to build things that have never been done before. The ideal candidate is not risk‑averse. Instead, they are a disciplined innovator who learns fast, iterates relentlessly, and pushes ideas to practical, operational success.

This position bridges engineering design and field deployment. The engineer owns projects end‑to‑end: conceiving, designing, prototyping, testing, refining, and helping transition solutions into production and operational use. Success requires balancing speed, ingenuity, safety, manufacturability, and cost so that innovation creates not only technical value, but also scalable and profitable business outcomes.

Wildfire Defense Systems Inc, (WDS) operates as a family of integrated companies and subsidiaries that combine engineering, operations, innovation, and consulting expertise to deliver end‑to‑end wildfire mitigation solutions, from concept and design through field deployment and real‑world execution. WDS is the parent company and is the largest professional wildfire consulting and risk intervention company serving the insurance industry. This role operates within an entrepreneurial, agile, and mission‑driven environment at WDS, where engineering decisions directly affect reliability, safety, and continuity of operations.

Innovation is expected to perform under pressure, and the engineer’s ability to think critically, build effectively, and adapt quickly will have a tangible, real‑world impact. The Mechanical Engineer position operates within an integrated engineering ecosystem that spans three core functions within the organization:

• Wildfire Protection Engineering (WPE): a department within WDS that focuses on designing and developing wildfire mitigation technology, testing materials, and advancing new wildfire protection technology for internal customers.
• Innovation & Assembly: a department within WDS that executes the construction, prototyping and testing phase of projects and entrepreneurial ideas, assembling fire apparatus and upfitted resources, wiring and integrating critical systems, and delivering fully tested innovative wildfire fighting equipment from concept to field‑ready deployment.
• Wildfire Technical Services, LLC (WTS): a subsidiary of WDS that provides consulting wildfire protection engineering for external clients, delivering wildfire risk assessments, hazard mitigation recommendations and structural and site design concepts for wildfire resilience.

The successful applicant will work in an entrepreneurial, agile, and mission‑driven environment where engineering decisions directly affect reliability, safety, and operational continuity. Innovation at WDS is expected to perform under pressure, and the engineer’s ability to think critically, build effectively, and adapt quickly will have tangible, real‑world impact.

This position will report directly to the Director of Engineering.…