Mechanical Engineering Leadership, Mechanisms

The posting, as Atomic Machines wrote it

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 Mechanisms and Fluid Systems and build the teams to expand the Matter Compiler’s capabilities. The machines your teams develop will determine which devices we can manufacture, at what throughput and cost. The work spans precision motion, workholding, fluid handling precision beyond demonstrated state-of-art, thermal control, and multi-physics processes. You’ll set technical direction and own delivery across multiple Nodes.

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 principal engineers and technical leads, and solving hard problems alongside your team. You’ll also develop managers and technical leads who can own design and execution independently, giving them the autonomy and frameworks to succeed.

Our engineering leaders are deeply technical, accomplished engineers themselves, and involved in the details. Your teams 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.
• Chart the roadmap from prototypes through qualification, repeatable machine builds and sustained operation supporting high-volume device production.
• Building cutting-edge machines for world-class fabrication processing.

Build, Own, Drive

• Build. You set the bar, run the interviews, shape the team structure, and grow the team to support our corporate needs and vision. You’ll turn senior engineers into tech leads, tech leads into managers, and mold teams

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redict 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

• Designing robotic systems from concept to production release.
• Optical systems design and manufacturing.
• High-vacuum systems, deposition equipment, or vacuum material handling.
• Fluid handling, dispensing, or electrochemical processing systems.

Ideally Your Background

• 15+ years developing complex integrated systems, including 7+ years managing engineering teams.
• Currently managing at least five people directly, with experience scaling a team toward 25, including managers and senior technical leads.
• A record of hiring top engineers, developing them into leads and managers, and growing them.
• 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 sustained volume production.
• Experience turning ambiguous requirements and new process physics into working machines with customer stakeholders and process engineers.
• Operational leadership: guiding technical strategy, establishing engineering tools and processes, and mentoring managers.
• 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.