Staff Mechanical Design Engineer, Grow Space Integration

At Plenty, we’re on a mission to give people in local communities everywhere access to the freshest, most amazing tasting produce possible. And to do so in a way that’s better for the planet.

About Role

The engineering team at Plenty is on a mission to completely redesign the way humanity grows food in order to satisfy the nutritional needs of the world by making the highest quality produce available to everyone. Doing so requires us to reimagine farms as highly integrated and aggressively optimized engineered systems and to draw upon experience and strategies from high volume product design (cars, consumer devices, etc). To that end, we are seeking a Senior / Staff Mechanical Design Engineer to lead the conceptualization, design, integration, and deployment of mechanical components and assemblies in our Grow Spaces. You will play a lead role in our broad and vertically integrated engineering team, closely collaborating with structural, thermal, electrical, controls, automation and software teams. In this role, you will apply your skills, experience, and creativity to accelerate humanity’s progression toward a perpetual food system scaled to meet the needs of our growing and changing world.

Type of Role

Full Time

What You’ll Do

• Lead full product cycle, from initial concept through to successful product launch
• Lead design of complex sub-systems and cross-functional teams with exposure to structure, devices and lighting, conveyance, air handling, and irrigation
• Drive system level analysis to consider trade-offs between function, deployment time, operational costs, and capital investment
• Emphasis on designing for offsite fabrication and assembly rather than onsite construction.
• Use CATIA V6 to develop designs and drawings
• Perform mechanical design, analysis, and validation of components and systems
• Prototype designs and design concepts and iterate based on findings
• Work with suppliers and internal collaborators to define manufacturing process for components and subsystems
• Perform root cause analysis of test failures, field failures, or production issues in order to establish containments and countermeasures

What We’re Looking For

• BS / MS in Mechanical Engineering (or equivalent)
• 7+ years of relevant experience
• Must be willing to travel and/or relocate short-term to Los Angeles for farm commissioning activities
• Significant experience in design-for-manufacturing and lean manufacturing principles
• Outstanding analytical and creative problem solving mindset, with strong drive to harmonize various functions into a product
• Significant experience designing with metals and plastics, including manufacturing processes and limitations associated with each
• Demonstrated knowledge and ability to integrate state-of-the-art design and manufacturing methods into product concepts and designs
• Significant experience owning projects, including working independently, managing projects with tight timing constraints, leading and completing multiple design engineering projects
• Demonstrated success in multiple industries, across multiple products types, and multiple product life cycles, bringing products to life from concept through production
• Strong hands-on experience in solid modeling. CATIA V6 preferred.
• Strong understanding of GD&T, assembly and dimensional engineering principles in design
• Experience in Construction and large assembly handling and rigging is a plus
• Experience with plumbing, electrical, ducting, and structural steel is a plus

About Plenty

Plenty is here to change the way people eat, making extraordinary flavor and nutrition more available in a way that’s better for people and the planet. We build farms that can put craveable flavor first while delivering exceptional yields. And our produce is always pesticide-free and grown using less than 1% of the land and 5% of the water of outdoor farming.