Mechanical Engineering Experts
Mercor • Remote
Education
Master's
Type
Hourly
Pay Rate
$100–$120/hr
Listed
5d ago
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Apply Now → ⚡ Boost your chances - Optimize your resume with Rezi.aiAbout this role
From the Mercor listing
Mercor is seeking experienced Mechanical Engineers to support an advanced engineering and AI research initiative with a leading technology organisation. We are looking for deeply hands-on engineers who have designed, analysed, built, tested, validated, or troubleshot real-world mechanical and electromechanical systems in production environments.
Relevant backgrounds include:
Structural / Stress Engineering
Thermal Engineering
Mechanical Design Engineering
Dynamics & Controls Engineering
This role is particularly well suited for engineers who have worked directly on complex physical products and can bring practical engineering judgment to evaluating technical designs, analyses, testing workflows, failure modes, and real-world engineering problems.
Key Responsibilities
Apply hands-on mechanical engineering expertise to technically complex engineering 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 the technical correctness and practical feasibility of engineering solutions generated for real-world mechanical engineering problems.
Identify incorrect assumptions, unrealistic boundary conditions, design deficiencies, failure modes, and potential implementation or reliability risks.
Develop or review technically rigorous engineering problems, reference solutions, evaluation criteria, and supporting technical documentation.
Draw on practical experience with design, simulation, prototyping, hardware integration, test, validation, qualification, debugging, and manufacturing.
Provide clear technical feedback grounded in real-world engineering experience and established engineering principles.
You’re a Strong Fit If You Have
5+ years of professional mechanical engineering experience, including at least 3 years of recent, actively hands-on experience in hardware development, analysis, testing, validation, integration, bring-up, or troubleshooting—not solely program or people management.
Demonstrated experience as the responsible engineer for real hardware or physical systems, owning meaningful portions of the engineering lifecycle from requirements and analysis through design, prototype development, testing, validation, qualification, and manufacturing readiness.
Deep technical 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 practical command of materials, loads and boundary conditions, structural margins, fatigue, thermal constraints, tolerances/GD&T, component selection, reliability, manufacturability, system integration, and engineering failure-mode analysis.
Extensive hands-on experience analyzing, testing, debugging, and validating physical hardware, using relevant engineering tools such as CAD/CAE, FEA, CFD/thermal simulation, dynamic or controls simulation, test instrumentation, data acquisition, and structured root-cause analysis.
Proven experience developing hardware in real-world product or manufacturing environments, ideally across aerospace/defense, space, automotive/EV, semiconductors, consumer electronics, robotics/eVTOL, industrial/energy, or medical devices—e.g., Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Tesla, Rivian, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Apple, Google, Meta, Skydio, Shield AI, Joby, Boston Dynamics, Siemens, GE Aerospace, ABB, Medtronic, or Intuitive Surgical—with the ability to clearly explain technical decisions, design trade-offs, test results, and failure mechanisms.
Preferred Background
Experience working for a company that designs, builds, tests, and manufactures physical hardware products or systems is strongly preferred. Relevant organisations may include, but are not limited to:
Aerospace & Defense: Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, Boeing, General Atomics, L3Harris, BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Honeywell Aerospace, Textron
Space: Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Relativity Space, Firefly Aerospace, Sierra Space, Astranis, Planet, Maxar, Axiom Space
Automotive & EV: Tesla, Rivian, General Motors, Ford, Lucid, Waymo, Zoox, Aptiv, Bosch
Semiconductors: NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Intel, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Marvell, Micron, NXP, Infineon
Consumer Electronics & Computing: Apple, Google Hardware, Meta Reality Labs, Microsoft Devices, Amazon, Samsung, Garmin, Sonos
Drones, eVTOL & Robotics: Skydio, Shield AI, Zipline, Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation, Boston Dynamics, Figure, Agility Robotics, Wing
Industrial, Energy & Medical Devices: Siemens, GE Aerospace, GE Vernova, ABB, Schneider Electric, Rockwell Automation, Enphase, Medtronic, Intuitive Surgical
Candidates from comparable hardware-focused organisations are equally encouraged to apply.
Why Join
Apply your mechanical engineering expertise to technically challenging problems at the intersection of advanced hardware engineering and AI research.
Work on projects where practical, real-world engineering experience and first-principles technical judgment are highly valued.
Help improve how advanced AI systems reason about mechanical design, structural analysis, thermal systems, dynamics, controls, testing, and hardware troubleshooting.
Contribute remotely with flexible engagement structures alongside experienced engineers and researchers.
Work on problems that require genuine engineering judgment and hands-on industry expertise rather than purely theoretical knowledge.
Requirements
- Must be eligible to work in Remote
- Fluent proficiency in English (Written & Verbal)
- Reliable high-speed internet connection
- Master's's degree or equivalent professional experience
- Demonstrated expertise in STEM
How long hiring takes
Across the AI training platforms we refer candidates to, the median gap between referral and hire is about 30 days. It varies by platform and role, so treat it as a rough guide for this one.
Talent Pool members
Apply through this link and we can put you forward to Mercor when your profile is a strong match. Not every applicant is submitted. If you're not in the pool yet, set up your profile first.
Set up your profile →Why this role
- Apply your mechanical engineering expertise to technically challenging problems at the intersection of **advanced hardware engineering and AI research**. - Work on projects where practical, real-world engineering experience and first-principles technical judgment are highly valued.
Talent pool
We're light on STEM candidates
We've matched 65 people with a STEM background against 726 STEM listings we've tracked, so most go out without one. Set up a profile and we'll consider you for a role like this one.
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Common questions
Does Mercor's application require an on-camera interview?
Yes, every applicant records a video interview with an AI interviewer that asks questions about your resume. Clients review that recording to judge communication skills before matching, so there's no way to apply without going on camera.
Does it cost money to apply to Mercor?
No, applying and joining Mercor is free. Mercor's revenue comes from a fee it charges the client on top of your hourly rate, not from applicants. Treat any request for payment to join as a red flag.
What does the day-to-day workload look like for elite-expert AI training roles?
Slow and deep, not fast and repetitive. A single task can take 45-60 minutes of researching citations or verifying complex calculations. Quality is what's being measured here, not throughput.
Is AI training work the same as traditional consulting?
No. Instead of client deliverables, you're given complex scenarios to evaluate: grading the AI's logic, correcting its hallucinations, and supplying expert-level reasoning it doesn't have on its own. The job is closer to teaching than consulting.
What does STEM work look like for a Mechanical Engineering Experts?
Tasks here are scoped to STEM, not generic labeling. As a Mechanical Engineering Experts, expect to draw on real domain judgment (evaluating outputs, correcting errors, or providing expert reasoning specific to STEM) rather than following a one-size-fits-all rubric. If you don't have hands-on STEM background, this is likely not the right listing to start with.
What specific skills does this listing call for?
Coding and Expert are named directly in the listing. If you don't have hands-on experience with these, expect the screening process to test for them directly rather than accepting adjacent experience as a substitute.
How much does this specific role pay?
This listing is posted at $100–$120/hr, an hourly rate. The range reflects experience level and negotiated terms, not a placeholder, so where you land in it depends on your background and the assessment. Pay can change between when we last checked the listing and when you apply, so confirm the current number on the platform's own application page before committing time.
What happens when I click Apply on this listing?
You'll be taken to Mercor's external site to complete your application there. This listing links through a referral, but the process is identical to applying directly; the link just routes you correctly. Create an account on their site and follow their onboarding steps.
Do I need a Master's to qualify?
This role lists a master's degree as a requirement. In practice, the domain assessment is the real gate. If you can pass it, the degree is usually secondary. However, some platforms verify credentials formally, so list your actual qualifications accurately on your profile.
How soon will I start working after applying to Mercor?
Not immediately. Mercor is a talent marketplace, not a task queue, so applying puts you in a pool of candidates. You start working only once a specific client, like a major AI lab, selects your profile, and that matching process can take weeks.