Cyngn, Inc.
Compensation: 150.000 - 210.000
Based in Mountain View, CA, Cyngn is a publicly-traded autonomous technology company. We deploy self-driving industrial vehicles - specifically autonomous tuggers - to factories, warehouses, and other facilities throughout North America. To build this emergent technology, we are looking for innovative, motivated, and experienced leaders to join us and move this field forward. If you like to build, tinker, and create with a team of trusted and passionate colleagues, then Cyngn is the place for you.
Key reasons to join Cyngn:
We are small and big.
With under 100 employees, Cyngn operates with the energy of a startup. On the other hand, we’re publicly traded. This means our employees not only work in close-knit teams with mentorship from company leaders—they also get access to the liquidity of our publicly-traded equity.
We build today and deploy tomorrow.
Our autonomous vehicles aren’t just test concepts—they’re deployed to real clients right now. That means your work will have a tangible, visible impact.
We aren’t robots. We just develop them.
We’re a welcoming, diverse team of sharp thinkers and kind humans. Collaboration and trust drive our creative environment. At Cyngn, everyone’s perspective matters—and that’s what powers our innovation.
About the role
- We are searching for a Senior Mechanical Engineer to join our team. You will own mechanical design and release for our autonomous industrial vehicles and the equipment they tow — structures, drivetrain and drive-unit integration, mechanisms, enclosures and sheet metal — from concept through engineering, design and production validation builds to production release. The vehicle engineering team is small and growing, and this hire adds a second mechanical design stream so that we can develop new vehicle programs in parallel with the ones we are launching.
- You are a generalist who has shipped a vehicle or a large electromechanical machine. You have sized motors, gearboxes and brakes against real load cases, designed the weldment they bolt to, released the drawings, argued with the fab shop about tolerances, and then built and broken the first prototype yourself. Robotics, automotive, off-highway or material handling — the domain matters less than the habit of owning the whole mechanical problem, from the first sketch to the production change order.
- You are drawn to a small team where the design you release in one quarter is driving on a test lot the next. You treat the environment the machine lives in — sealing, drainage, thermal, dust and rain — as design inputs, not afterthoughts. You are comfortable making trade-offs with incomplete information, writing them down, and revisiting them when the test data comes back. You treat electrical, firmware and autonomy engineers as peers, and you think about harness routing, sensor sight-lines and service access while the frame is still a sketch.
- You move fast but release cleanly: GD&T, tolerance stacks and DFM feedback are part of how you design, not a step afterwards. You are hands‑on in the lab, direct in design reviews, and you mentor by review and by example.
What you'll do
- Own the mechanical technical specification, design, integration and release of vehicle systems: frame and structure, mounting and integration of supplier drive units and axles, wheel ends, braking, hitching and tire packaging, with structural analysis for industrial tow loads and duty cycles.
- Lead drive-system and long‑lead component trade studies with electrical and firmware (supplier drive units, torque / grade / brake performance, battery packaging) and drive those decisions to purchase orders on the program schedule.
- Design product variants as one platform — common structures and a single bill of materials with configuration‑specific options — so that variants are released, built and certified from one design.
- Own environmental readiness of the mechanical design: enclosure and compartment sealing, drainage, thermal paths, cable entries and connector selection, and the design‑for‑test needed to pass ingress, vibration, shock and temperature testing.
- Co‑design operator‑interface hardware and service‑access features with electrical: hand‑held control hardware (grip, controls, sealing, cable management and docking) and the features technicians will use every day.
- Own mechanical design for towed equipment and attachments — frames, steering geometry and tracking, powered conveyance, couplers and guarding — from first prototype through production release.
- Release drawings, GD&T, tolerance stacks and fabrication packages; partner with weldment, sheet‑metal, machining and molded‑part suppliers on quotes, DFM and first articles, and with our contract manufacturer on work instructions and engineering changes.
- Lead the mechanical side of prototype builds and redesign loops across engineering, design and production validation; own the change list and design freezes; build the test fixtures your mechanisms need; support system test and root‑cause field issues from customer deployments.
- Serve as design release engineer for electronics enclosures, harness mechanicals and sheet‑metal assemblies; own the subsystem bills of materials, assembly structures and documentation in PLM (Arena), and plan builds, long‑lead parts and supply‑chain risks with program management and operations.
Priorities: 3-6-12 Month Goals
First 90 Days
- Learn the current vehicle platform — chassis, body, drivetrain, harness and sensor integration — and the release process (CAD, PLM, drawings, DFM reviews) with the mechanical team; identify what carries over to the next program and what must change.
- Build working relationships with the electrical, firmware, systems and autonomy owners, with operations and sourcing, and with our key fabrication suppliers.
- Take ownership of the drive‑system trade study for the next program and bring the long‑lead components to purchase order; publish the preliminary chassis and drivetrain concept with the risks and open questions called out.
By 6 Months
- Chassis, drivetrain and enclosure design released to fabrication for the first engineering‑validation build; frames, sheet metal and operator‑interface hardware on order.
- First engineering‑validation vehicles built, with you leading the mechanical build week, and running on the test lot; sealing and thermal design verified on the vehicle.
- Mechanical design‑for‑test features and fixtures in place for the environmental and vibration campaign; the towed‑equipment mechanical concept and supplier strategy defined.
By 12 Months
- Second engineering‑validation build and the design‑validation build complete, with a closed change list and the product variants built and tested from the one design.
- Vehicles in customer evaluation; field issues root‑caused with data and fed into the production‑validation change list.
- First towed‑equipment prototype built and running behind the vehicle; the mechanical release process runs the same way across programs, and you are the engineer the team and our suppliers trust to say a design is ready.
Qualifications
- BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering (or equivalent experience) and 5+ years designing electromechanical systems in robotics, automotive, off‑highway, material handling or a similar field.
- Has taken at least one vehicle‑level or large electromechanical product through engineering, design and production validation phases to production.
- Expert in 3D CAD (SolidWorks or equivalent), FEA fundamentals, drawings, GD&T and tolerance analysis.
- Motor / gearbox / brake sizing, load‑case and duty‑cycle analysis; steering and suspension geometry fundamentals; experience integrating supplier drive units or transaxles.
- Weldment, sheet‑metal, machined and molded‑part design with hands‑on supplier and DFM experience; experience designing for ingress protection, vibration and harsh environments.
- Hands‑on: builds and debugs own prototypes; comfortable in a vehicle lab, on a test lot and at a supplier.
- Analysis skills for DFMEA and first‑order thermal and structural simulation; data‑driven design decisions.
- Experience with PLM systems (Arena or similar) and release discipline: BOMs, assembly structures, ECOs.
- Clear communicator who documents trade-offs and decisions; works well with electrical, firmware and software peers.
Bonus Qualifications
- Tow tractors, AGVs/AMRs, forklifts or outdoor industrial vehicles.
- Traction‑drive and transaxle suppliers and 48 V electric powertrains; brake and parking‑brake systems.
- Thermoformed, rotomolded or RIM enclosure design; sealed electronics enclosures (IP65–IP67).
- Functional‑safety and industrial‑truck standards exposure (ISO 3691‑4, UL 583 / UL 3100, ANSI/ITSDF B56.5).
- Contract‑manufacturer hand‑off and production ramp support.
- Characterizing sensing systems (encoders, sensors) for closed‑loop motor control.
- Health benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision) through Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, and Guardian, with multiple plan tiers to choose from
- Ancillary benefits including accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity plans (Voya)
- Company‑paid basic life insurance, plus voluntary (supplemental) life for you and your dependents
- Short‑term and long‑term disability insurance, fully paid by Cyngn
- HSA and FSA (Health & Dependent Daycare)
- Employee Assistance Program
- Company 401(k)
- Flexible PTO policy
- Daily lunches for in‑office employees and fully‑stocked kitchen with snacks and beverages
What You Can Expect (Cyngn’s interview process)
- A real person will review your application
- We’ll kick off the process with a one‑sided video interview where you’ll share a little more about yourself and we’ll get some basic questions out of the way
- A Recruiter touch point will go over the process in more detail and answer your questions
- A 45‑minute interview with the hiring manager
- A full‑loop interview process consisting of 3-4 additional conversations to gauge technical and soft skills and culture fit.
- A final onsite interview with the team.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
Cyngn is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, marital status, familial status, military or veteran status, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including recruitment, hiring, compensation, benefits, training, promotion, discipline, and termination.
If you require accommodation during the application or interview process due to a disability, please let us know and we will work with you to provide reasonable accommodation
The pay range for this role is:
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