Mechanical Engineering Manager

Atomic Machines is building the Matter Compiler™, the first in a new class of AI-native, all-digital manufacturing systems that build working machines directly from code. The Matter Compiler (MC) is aimed at micro-machines: motors and gears the size of a grain of sand, robots small enough to work inside the body, cooling built directly into the chips that run AI, and the many devices like them that have been waiting on a way to build them. Its first product is PrimeSwitch™, an electromechanical power relay the size of a button battery that carries 150 amps continuous current and opens in 50 microseconds, about a thousand times faster than a conventional contactor. Founded by Jeff Holden — serial entrepreneur, ex-Amazon SVP and Uber’s first Chief Product Officer — the company has raised $250 million to date.

Atomic Machines is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices in Emeryville and Santa Clara.

About The Role:

You’ll lead a mechanical engineering team that builds the machines expanding the Matter Compiler’s capabilities. The machines your team develops will determine which devices we can manufacture, at what throughput and cost. The work spans precision motion, workholding, thermal control, and multi-physics processes. You’ll set technical direction for your team and own delivery of its Nodes.

If you’re a Senior or Staff Mechanical Engineer who has been leading designs and projects and you’re looking to build your people management skills, this is the perfect role. You don’t need to have formally managed a team before. You do need to be an exceptional engineer who wants to grow into leading one.

This is a hands-on technical management role. You’ll be in design reviews, the lab, and the machine shop, digging into the physics, setting the architecture with your engineers, and solving hard problems alongside your team. You’ll also learn to hire, coach, and develop engineers, with support from experienced engineering leaders.

Our engineering leaders are deeply technical, accomplished engineers themselves, and involved in the details. Your team will develop, test, and deploy Nodes in our Hybrid Fab, accelerated by in-house labs and a machine shop. Your team ranges from multi-decade principal engineers to brilliant early- to mid-career engineers. You’ll build alongside technical partners across device, process, AI, electrical, controls, software, and manufacturing engineering.

Problems You'll Solve:

• Deliver systems with performance capabilities at micron-to-submicron precision, enabling high-volume, high-mix combinatorial manufacturing capability.

• Develop systems capable of executing novel manufacturing processes to meet cutting-edge product requirements.

• Take machines from prototype through qualification, repeatable builds, and sustained operation supporting high-volume device production.

• Build cutting-edge machines for world-class fabrication processing.

Build, Own, Drive

• Build. You help set the bar, run interviews, and grow your team as our needs expand. You’ll coach engineers day-to-day and develop senior engineers into tech leads.

• Own. You hold responsibility for your team’s outcomes. You own Node performance, throughput, reliability, and cost through direct architectural definition and technical leadership. You uphold engineering standards and drive root-cause problem solving using frameworks like DMAIC.

• Drive. You set priorities and own delivery for your team’s programs. You lead by example through tough technical problems and apply phase-gate processes to ensure production readiness.

How We Work

• Fast learning loops. In-house robotics labs and our shop and build team let you validate machine designs early and iterate within weeks. Our Hybrid Fab supports device and process validation using your equipment.

• First principles over opinions. We decide through analysis, experiments, and open technocratic debate.

• System in the loop. Your machines produce devices for customers, so your work gets tested by physics and by the market.

• Forecasts over predictions. We cannot predict the future with certainty, but we can update our priors with new evidence and revise our forecasts, accelerated by fast learning loops, driving us toward convergence between our forecasts and actuals.

What You’ll Need:

Deep, hands-on experience in one or more of:

• Designing robotic systems from concept to production release.

• Precision mechanisms, motion systems, and workholding.

• Optical systems design and manufacturing.

• High-vacuum systems, deposition equipment, or vacuum material handling.

Ideally Your Background

• 8+ years developing complex integrated electromechanical systems as a senior mechanical engineer.

• Experience as a technical lead: owning a subsystem or program, directing the work of other engineers, and mentoring junior engineers.

• A clear interest in people management, and a point of view on how you would hire, coach, and grow a team. Prior formal management experience is a plus, not a requirement.

• Deep expertise in precision engineering, machine design, systems development, and the fundamentals to back it up.

• A record of delivering complete systems from concept through qualification, documentation, and production.

• Experience turning ambiguous requirements and new process physics into working machines with customer stakeholders and process engineers.

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.

The compensation for this position also includes equity and benefits.

Salary Range

$200,000—$260,000 USD

Atomic Machines is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity and does not discriminate based on characteristics protected by applicable law. We are committed to an inclusive interview experience, including for individuals with disabilities. To request an accommodation, contact rc@atomicmachines.com. To help our recruiting team manage application volume and respond to candidates more efficiently, Atomic Machines may use AI-assisted tools.