Mechanical Engineer - Hardware Systems Job at Saferide in San Diego

Overview

At Saferide, we are solving one of the hardest and most meaningful challenges in the world: ending road deaths. Our plug-and-play vision compute platform retrofits the 200M+ vehicles already on the road with advanced driver assistance and safety features, bringing the future of mobility to every driver, not just those buying new cars. We are scaling from prototype to production and building the first real vision-based solution that can prevent crashes that kill more than a million people globally each year. This is your chance to join a small, fast-moving team at the exact moment when our product goes from concept to reality.

The Role

We are looking for a hands-on Mechanical Engineer who will own the end-to-end mechanical design and execution of our hardware systems. This role spans architecture, detailed CAD design, thermal and structural analysis, prototyping, validation, and readiness for manufacturing. You will work closely with electrical, firmware, and manufacturing partners to ensure our product is robust, manufacturable, and scalable from the lab bench to tens of thousands of vehicles.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the full mechanical design lifecycle: architecture, CAD, prototyping, validation, and production release.
• Design enclosures, mounts, and assemblies that balance performance, manufacturability, and cost.
• Drive thermal, structural, and vibration analysis to ensure reliability in real-world automotive environments.
• Oversee rapid prototyping and EVT/DVT/PVT builds, managing iterations quickly and effectively.
• Collaborate with electrical and software teams to integrate PCBs, connectors, harnesses, and sensors.
• Own vendor engagement for prototyping, tooling, and manufacturing scale-up.
• Ensure compliance with automotive and consumer electronics standards for safety, durability, and reliability.
• Establish design documentation, BOM management, and revision control best practices.

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of experience in end-to-end mechanical engineering for NPI, ideally spanning consumer electronics, automotive, and/or edge computing.
• Proven track record of designing and shipping mechanical systems from concept through production.
• Strong CAD expertise (SolidWorks, Creo, or similar).
• Deep experience with DFM/DFA and the ability to design products that scale efficiently into high-volume production.
• Experience with injection molding, die casting, machining, and other high-volume manufacturing methods.
• Background in thermal, vibration, and environmental testing for ruggedized or automotive-grade products.
• Comfort working in fast-paced, resource-constrained startup environments.
• Bonus: experience with IP-rated enclosures, safety-critical systems, or scaling production at contract manufacturers.

Why Join Us

The only reason to join a startup is to take on problems you would never get to solve anywhere else. At Saferide we are solving one of the hardest and most meaningful challenges in the world: ending road deaths. We have built the first true vision-based solution that can prevent the crashes that kill more than a million people globally each year, and the product you will help bring into production is designed to eliminate 80 to 90 percent of road deaths. This is your chance to join a small team at the exact moment when our product goes from prototype to reality, and to directly build the systems that scale Saferide from 2,000 units to 100,000 units.

Our team combines proven experience in scaling hardware and software products. Our CEO previously scaled his first consumer electronics company to over $100M in revenue while shipping millions of units. Our CTO created 5G at Intel after serving as a staff engineer at Qualcomm for more than a decade. The rest of our engineering team are experts in computer vision, ADAS, and hardware systems. Together, we are building the platform that will bring life-saving safety technology to every vehicle on the road.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $115,000 – $145,000 base, depending on experience and seniority (San Diego market band).
• Equity: Meaningful stock options. Your work directly builds company value, and we believe every engineer should share in that upside.
• Benefits: Full health, dental, and vision coverage.
• On-site role in our San Diego office with direct access to hardware, vehicles, and test environments.