Mechanical Engineering Expert at Mercor

Mechanical Engineering Expert | $100-120/hr | Remote | Contract

Mercor is seeking experienced mechanical engineers to support an advanced engineering and AI research initiative with a leading technology organisation. You will apply hands-on engineering expertise to technically complex problems involving real physical systems and products.

What the work involves

• Apply hands-on mechanical engineering expertise to complex tasks involving real physical systems and products.
• Review and evaluate mechanical designs, engineering analyses, simulation results, test methodologies and troubleshooting approaches.
• Analyse engineering trade-offs involving structures, materials, thermal performance, mechanical design, dynamics, vibration, controls, reliability and manufacturability.
• Assess technical correctness and practical feasibility of engineering solutions for real-world mechanical problems.
• Identify incorrect assumptions, unrealistic boundary conditions, design deficiencies, failure modes and reliability risks.
• Develop or review rigorous engineering problems, reference solutions, evaluation criteria and technical documentation.
• Provide clear technical feedback grounded in real-world experience and established engineering principles.

Who it's for

• 5+ years of professional mechanical engineering experience, including at least 3 years of recent, actively hands-on work in hardware development, analysis, testing, validation, integration, bring-up or troubleshooting — not solely program or people management.
• Experience as the responsible engineer for real hardware or physical systems, owning meaningful portions of the lifecycle from requirements and analysis through design, prototyping, testing, validation, qualification and manufacturing readiness.
• Deep expertise in at least one core domain: structural/stress analysis and FEA; thermal analysis, heat transfer and thermal management; mechanical design and product development; or dynamics, vibration, mechanisms and controls.
• Strong command of materials, loads and boundary conditions, structural margins, fatigue, thermal constraints, tolerances/GD&T, component selection, reliability, manufacturability, system integration and failure-mode analysis.
• Hands-on experience analyzing, testing, debugging and validating physical hardware, using tools such as CAD/CAE, FEA, CFD/thermal simulation, dynamics or controls simulation, test instrumentation, data acquisition and root-cause analysis.
• Experience developing hardware in real-world product or manufacturing environments — e.g. aerospace/defense, space, automotive/EV, semiconductors, consumer electronics, robotics/eVTOL, industrial/energy or medical devices — with the ability to clearly explain technical decisions, design trade-offs, test results and failure mechanisms.

Preferred background

Experience at a company that designs, builds, tests and manufactures physical hardware products or systems is strongly preferred. Candidates from comparable hardware-focused organisations are equally encouraged to apply.

Pay and schedule

$100-120/hr, hourly contract.

Location

Fully remote, with flexible engagement structures.

Why join

• Work on technically challenging problems at the intersection of advanced hardware engineering and AI research.
• Help improve how advanced AI systems reason about mechanical design, structural analysis, thermal systems, dynamics, controls, testing and hardware troubleshooting.
• Work where practical, real-world engineering judgment and first-principles thinking are valued over purely theoretical knowledge.