Senior Mechanical Design Engineer, Tooling & Factory Equipment

Position Summary

Antora is scaling production of our thermal batteries, which store renewable electricity as high-temperature heat and deliver it to industrial customers as zero-carbon heat and power, while designing the next generation of the product and the gigafactory that will build it.

You will serve as the primary tooling and equipment design engineer within the NPI and Manufacturing Engineering team: the engineer who personally designs, analyzes, and releases the fixtures, build tooling, and lifting and handling equipment that production runs on. You work from first principles, with hand calculations and FEA carrying each design from load path through proof load, on equipment that handles heavy industrial hardware. Your tooling will set production rates, enable new product launches, and shape the next-generation build process before the factory around it is committed.

This is a broad role inside a growing team. Beyond the design work, you will help take products from concept to a running process: defining build sequences, supporting workstation and process development, writing work instructions, and getting it all running on the floor alongside the technicians who use it. The engineers here carry both halves: the design authority and the manufacturing follow-through.

Roles & Responsibilities

Design tooling, equipment, and process

Lead process, tooling, and workcell design for your subsystems, from requirements and concept through structural analysis, detailed design, release, fabrication, and proof load

Work with design engineering to define the build sequence, and review product designs early to drive manufacturability in before designs harden

Develop the work instructions and PFMEAs for your stations

Support the new gigafactory

Turn the production process into facility requirements: layout, material flow, workstation footprints, and tooling and equipment needs

Partner with factory planning and capital equipment owners through launch

Own your stations

Support your stations in production and carry them through product revisions

Implement production test processes and rigs while protecting takt, line balance, and rework access

Share in the team's day-to-day work: EVT builds, process plan and work instruction releases, change incorporation, issue triage and root cause, tooling upkeep, and equipment commissioning

Work with production and EH&S to make the line safer, including designing out ergonomic and handling risks and reviewing lifting and handling equipment before it goes live

Key Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent practical experience

5+ years in mechanical design within a manufacturing environment, NPI, tooling, or equipment design engineering

Structural design skills: FEA checked by hand calculations, with sound judgment on loads, load paths, and factors of safety

Proficiency in 3D CAD (SolidWorks preferred), GD&T, and enough hands-on machining, welding, and sheet metal experience to design for them

Working knowledge of DFM, lean manufacturing, PFMEA, and work instruction development

Comfortable working across teams and making decisions with incomplete information

Domestic travel up to 25% during factory launch periods, typically much less

Additional Qualifications Desired

Ground support equipment, heavy handling fixtures, or custom production machines

Welding process development or qualification

Commissioning automated production equipment, vendor-built or in-house

Launching a new factory or production line

Production test systems and validation methods

Battery, energy storage, or other thermally or electrically demanding hardware

Work Location:  Onsite - San Jose, CA

Salary Range:  $142,000 USD - $190,000 USD

Salary Basis:  Annual

Please note that the salary range listed above reflects Antora Energy's estimated pay for this position. The actual salary offered will be within the posted range and determined based on several factors including but not limited to a candidate's experiences, credentials and expertise, as they pertain to the position's requirements.

In addition to a competitive base salary, Antora Energy’s Total Rewards program includes equity compensation in the form of stock options, a premium health benefits package with life and disability insurance, a 401K plan with employer contributions, flexible spending accounts, and an industry leading paid-time-off policy that features flexible and inclusive holiday observance, as well as paid volunteer time off.

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