The Role:We're hiring a Hardware Engineer to design, build, and improve Orchard's agricultural camera systems. Working closely with our Hardware Lead, you'll take ownership of mechanical CAD and design projects, handle electrical integration and troubleshooting, and help establish quality checks for the assemblies and subassemblies we build.
This is a broad, hands-on role within our Hardware team. On a given day, you might refine an enclosure in CAD, build a wiring harness, diagnose a power issue, or develop a test fixture. You'll take projects from a design concept to working hardware, then help make that hardware reliable and repeatable in production.
Our cameras operate on tractors and farm vehicles exposed to harsh vibration, impact, dust, water, and heat. You'll work across mechanical and electrical systems to solve those challenges, partnering with our Perception and Embedded Software teams on system requirements and interfaces while owning the physical hardware work within the Hardware team.
What You'll Own- Own mechanical design projects
- Build and integrate electrical systems
- Make repeatable testing processes
- Troubleshoot hardware
- Develop assembly and subassembly QA
- Design for real-world use
- Support production and manufacturing, while iteratively improving designs
What We Look For- 3+ years of professional hardware or mechanical engineering experience developing electromechanical products, with hands-on work across both.
- Strong mechanical design and 3D CAD skills, including complex assemblies, production drawings, tolerancing, materials, fasteners, and DFM.
- Experience designing machined, sheet-metal, and 3D-printed components and taking designs from concept to production hardware.
- Practical electrical skills: reading wiring schematics, selecting components, building harnesses, crimping and soldering, and troubleshooting power and connectivity.
- Experience building prototypes and developing hardware tests end-to-end.
- Ability to own projects independently while working closely with our Hardware Lead on priorities and design decisions.
- Clear documentation and communication, careful follow-through, and willingness to move between CAD, the workbench, and production troubleshooting.
Things that are a plus:- Experience with cameras, NVIDIA Jetson, Linux.
- Test fixtures, production QA, environmental testing, or rugged hardware.
- Sheet-metal enclosure design and PEM hardware
- PCB design and board-level debugging.
About the Opportunity- Full-time role, five days a week at our San Francisco office
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage with 100% of employee premiums covered.
- The opportunity to own hardware projects end to end.
- Our team is close-knit and highly driven. You'll work closely with our CEO, Hardware Lead, Operations team, and all of our engineers.
- We move fast, and sometimes this means staying late or working weekends.
- We're deeply motivated by the impact we're making - every system we build and deploy means less food that goes to waste, and more people who are fed.
