Manufacturing Engineer at Scout AI in Sunnyvale, CA

The future of defense will be decided by those who field intelligent machines at scale. At Scout AI, we're developing Fury, the first robotic foundation model for defense, to give U.S. forces overwhelming, adaptable, and autonomous power across every domain. Fury enables human operators to command fleets of robots through natural language, and empowers those machines to sense, decide, and act together as one. This mission will ask everything of us: urgency, precision, and relentless work.

The Role

The Hardware Team at Scout bridges the gap between traditional machinery and cutting-edge autonomy. We take base vehicles with zero autonomous capability or actuation and turn them into fully functional, validated, production-ready, intelligent platforms. Owning the full hardware lifecycle from concept and prototyping through final product validation.

We are hiring our first Manufacturing Engineer, you will be standing up the manufacturing process from scratch and owning it as we move into low-rate initial production (LRIP) across our fleet.

This isn't a high-rate production environment yet, and it isn't a role with an existing playbook to follow. This role requires someone who has done manufacturing work before and knows what good execution looks like, paired with the get-it-done attitude to build the function themselves.

Responsibilities

• Leverage expertise in New Product Introduction (NPI) to seamlessly transition products from prototype to high-volume production, optimizing manufacturability and supply chain scalability
• Manage BOMs, interface with suppliers to resolve issues and ensure component manufacturability and quality
• Drive build plans while writing and maintaining work instructions for technicians
• Help manage inventory
• Inform MES system design
• Design the assembly frameworks that enable consistent execution across multiple products
• Schedule, forecast, and manage technicians on the line
• Keep manufacturing processes and products compliant with industry standards, regulatory requirements, and internal quality systems at all times.

Qualifications

• Degree in Mechanical Engineering or related technical field, ideally with hands-on design experience before moving into manufacturing
• 3-8 years of experience in a relevant field
• Experience owning an LRIP production line end to end
• Comfortable being the first person in a function; building process, tooling, and documentation where none exists yet
• Experience in CAD and light Design
• High ownership mentality and attention to detail
• Practical understanding of BOM management, work instructions, and inventory control
• Ability to work directly with mechanical engineering to translate designs into buildable, efficient assembly processes
• Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export controlled information or facilities
• Passion about defense of the United States and its allies
• May be expected to obtain and hold a U.S. Top Secret security clearance

Why Join Scout

• Work on the world’s most important frontier, ensuring U.S. and allied dominance in the age of intelligent machines
• Be a core part of a team building the first defense-specific robotic foundation model
• Collaborate with some of the top engineers in autonomy, AI, and national security
• See your work deployed on real systems
• Help define the future of intelligent defense systems
• Backed by Draper Associates, Booz Allen Ventures, and other top investors
• Benefits

Benefits

• Competitive base salary and bonus
• Meaningful equity
• Premium medical, dental, and vision plans with $0 paycheck contribution
• Competitive PTO and company holiday calendar
• Unlimited AI tokens
• Catered lunch daily and fully stocked kitchen
• EV charging
• Relocation assistance (depending on role eligibility)