Director of Mechanical Engineering – The Unicorn of ME Leadership
We are looking for a seasoned leader who loves designing cutting-edge hardware and thinking about the bigger picture. Do you geek out over mechanisms and structures just as much as you enjoy building teams and talking shop with clients? If so, you might be the unicorn we’re looking for.
At Dovetail Product Development, we are a team of engineers tackling novel hardware challenges across a multitude of industries—medical devices, robotics, aerospace, consumer tech, energy storage, and more. We thrive on solving the tough problems, and we are looking for a Director of Mechanical Engineering who brings the right mix of technical expertise, business acumen, and leadership instinct to help us grow.
What Makes This Role Unique?
This isn’t just an engineering job. It’s engineering plus—plus leadership, plus strategy, plus the ability to drive projects from idea to reality. You will help shape how we execute projects, establish engineering best practices, build the team, and develop our business. And when things get messy you are the kind of person that rolls up their sleeves first!
What You’ll Be Doing:
- Engineering Excellence – Own mechanical engineering and design best practices across a wide range of industries, from aerospace to medical to EV chargers.
- Technical Leadership – Guide full-time staff and contractors, setting the standard for quality, efficiency, and innovation. You set the bar and define excellence.
- Business Impact – Work with clients to turn ideas into actionable designs and be a key player in how we grow our business and engineering capabilities.
- Mentorship & Team Building – We’re best together, and you’ll help foster a team that collaborates, shares knowledge, and works without ego. You get to build your team!
Technical Skills & Experience:
- 3D CAD - Strong experience with a variety of CAD packages – Solidworks, Creo, and NX are some examples of CAD packages we regularly use.
- Engineering analysis – You know how to execute hand calcs when it's appropriate to dig in with deeper simulation tools
- Simulation – Experience with software like Ansys, Solidworks Simulation, and other simulation tools
- Mechanisms – Experience designing and developing novel mechanisms for both mechanical-only and electro-mechanical systems. Knowledge of geartrains, planar machinery, motors, and the analytical skills to develop them.
- Manufacturing methods – Deep knowledge of both high and low volume manufacturing methods – CNC machining, sheetmetal, laser cutting, plastic injection molding, die casting, welding, etc.
- Hands-on prototyping skills - You have experience building physical prototypes – you know when it makes sense to build a prototype to prove out a concept vs. performing analysis or doing CAD.
What We’re Looking For:
- A Technical Leader By Example – You edit work thoughtfully with your insights and experience to guide others on your team. And when necessary, you are just as comfortable rolling up your sleeves and digging into the hard problems also.
- Business-minded – You are eager and persistent in finding new business and project opportunities for client collaboration, and your personal skills gain trust fast.
- A Project Leader- You see beyond the CAD pixels and understand the impact of engineering decisions on timelines, budgets, and product success.
- A Go-Getter – You don’t wait for direction; you find the problems ahead of you and your team and you solve them.
- A True ME generalist – You’ve worked across multiple industries (aerospace, medical, EV, consumer, etc.) and can jump between CAD, project oversight, concept generation / brainstorming, design reviews, and prototyping like its second nature. You also know when you need to call on more help.
What We Offer:
- Our leaders are compensated like founders - you share in our success with salary and a portion of the business you generate and oversee as a leader along with discretionary performance-based bonuses
- Salary range $190k - $240k
- A collaborative, fast-paced environment where you’ll never be pigeonholed.
- A team of like-minded engineers who care about great design and product, transparency, and taking action.
- No bureaucracy, no egos—just smart people building cool stuff.
If you’re a lead and engineer who loves tech but wants to have a bigger impact, we want to hear from you. Let’s build something amazing together. Send us your resume and portfolio to info@dovetailpd.com
