Mechanical Engineering Intern at Antora Energy in San Jose, CA

Summary: Antora is a company that builds and deploys thermal energy storage for industrial operations and data centers. They are seeking a Mechanical Design Engineering Intern to lead an AI-powered engineering workflow improvement project that enhances efficiency in engineering processes. Responsibilities: - Identify, validate, and scope a high-impact engineering workflow bottleneck within Module Design or Plant Design (e.g., drawing review and quality checks, Finite Element Analysis (FEA), ECO/ECR drafting, BOM management, P&ID consistency checks, standards compliance, commissioning checklist creation) - Design, prototype, test, and iterate on an AI-enabled tool or automated workflow that addresses the selected pain point, with clear before/after metrics (time saved, error reduction, or new capability enabled) - Partner closely with mechanical engineers and cross-functional stakeholders to ensure the solution fits real engineering constraints and integrates into existing tools and processes (e.g., CAD/PDM, BOM workflows, document control, vendor documentation) - Build the solution to be usable by other engineers (e.g., lightweight internal app, script, prompt library, or workflow integrated with existing systems such as Arena, SolidWorks PDM, Notion, or Google Sheets) - Create thorough documentation and a handoff package, including user instructions, example prompts/scripts, test cases, limitations, and recommended next steps - Drive team adoption by running walkthroughs, collecting feedback, and delivering a final demo and readout to stakeholders and leadership - Contribute to team discussions with curiosity, humility, and openness, and a willingness to learn quickly in a fast-moving hardware environment Required Qualifications: - Outstanding writing and communications skills: ability to communicate at different levels of depth and in a wide variety of written and visual formats - Organizational and systems thinking: ability to build structure where it doesn't exist yet, create processes others can follow, and manage multiple workstreams simultaneously - AI fluency: demonstrated experience building AI-assisted workflows or tools for complex projects and repeatable processes (experience using AI for design and content creation is a plus) - AI experimentation mindset: proactively explores and iterates on new AI approaches; thinks critically about where AI adds value versus where human judgment is needed - Currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in communications, journalism, marketing, design, business, engineering, or a related field (we care more about your output and instincts than your major) Preferred Qualifications: - Mechanical design fundamentals: strong grasp of CAD (SolidWorks preferred), GD&T, BOM structures, and engineering drawing interpretation; coursework or experience in structural and/or thermal analysis is a plus - AI fluency: demonstrated experience applying AI/ML tools (e.g., LLMs, computer vision, NLP) to real technical or engineering projects; able to clearly explain tool choice, what worked, and what didn't - AI experimentation mindset: comfortable with ambiguity; proactively explores new approaches, rapidly prototypes and iterates, and translates vague problems (“this process is too slow”) into a concrete AI solution - Strong problem-solving ability with a methodical approach to debugging, edge cases, and reliability (because nothing says “engineering” like a tool that breaks on the one drawing people actually use) - Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to document workflows so other engineers can maintain and extend them - Currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in mechanical engineering or a related field Required Skills: Mechanical design fundamentals, AI fluency, CAD (SolidWorks) Important Skills: Problem-solving ability Nice-to-Have Skills: AI experimentation mindset