Mechanical Engineer

$100-140K
Meaningful Equity
Full-Time
Hudson, NH
On-site
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About p!ng

p!ng is building the fastest autonomous coffee drive-thru in the galaxy — combining robotics, AI, and radically better customer experience into a new kind of micro-retail platform. p!ng’s compact pod is designed to eliminate waiting in line. Customers order ahead, drive up, and receive custom, delicious beverages in under a minute. No scanning, no tipping, no hassle.

We’re reinventing the pick up experience from the ground up, using robotics and a first-principles approach to deliver quality, consistency, and speed at a scale no human-run chain could match. Our first autonomous site is live in Hudson, NH. Customer testing is underway with a full launch later this year. We're in our early stages, deploying pods and refining operations with the obsessiveness of a startup and the ambition of a category-defining company. This isn't a seat at an established table. It's a chance to build the table as we take on one of the biggest habits in America.

Our tech is cool, and we’ve been recognized by The Robot Report as one of the top 100 robotic startups in the world to watch. But the tech is the means, not the end. Everything we build exists in service of one thing: making the everyday lives of our customers better and more convenient. That’s the mission.

The Role

You'll be our first mechanical engineer. We've built a working v1, a robotic system that makes real customized beverages today, and now we want to take it to the next level. Faster, more reliable, cheaper to build, and ready to scale beyond one location. You'll own that transformation from the drink-making robotics to height-adjusting presentation windows.

Some of it you'll redesign from scratch; some of it you'll harden and refine. Either way, you'll own projects end to end: problem → CAD → prototype → test → iterate → production-ready hardware in the field. When something breaks at 7am during the morning rush, you'll be the person who figures out why and makes sure it never breaks that way again.

What You'll Do

• Own the core mechanical systems of our robotic coffee platform: motion systems, fluid handling, dispensing, thermal management, enclosures and level them up for speed, reliability, and manufacturability

• Reliability and throughput: identify failure modes, design tests, analyze root causes, and improve cycle time and uptime.

• Rapid development: translate imperfect information into CAD, prototypes, experiments, and decisions… we track work in days, not months.

• Production readiness: select components, create drawings and tolerances, design for manufacturing and assembly, and reduce cost and complexity, working with vendors and fabrication partners.

• Field performance: support the live system, diagnose failures quickly, and turn one-off fixes into durable design improvements.

• Cross-functional integration: work closely with software and electrical engineering so sensors, actuators, controls, and mechanical systems operate as one machine.

• Mechanical engineering foundations: establish practical processes, documentation, testing, design-review, and release standards for the team that follows you.

You may be a strong fit if you:

• Have strong fundamentals in mechanical design, mechanisms, materials, tolerancing, and design for manufacturing.

• Have taken real hardware from concept or rough prototype through testing, iteration, and use by customers or operators.

• Know the difference between a compelling demo and a machine that must run hundreds or thousands of cycles with minimal intervention.

• Are comfortable building and debugging with your hands (not only designing at a desk) and can use prototyping and shop tools safely.

• Make sound tradeoffs with incomplete information, communicate them clearly, and finish what you start.

• Prefer simple, serviceable solutions and know when a low-cost experiment can answer a question faster than a large redesign.

• Want broad ownership on a small team and are willing to help wherever the product and customer need you most.

Especially relevant experience

Robotics or automation; electromechanical integration; motors, actuators, and sensors; food or beverage equipment; pumps, valves, tubing, or fluid systems; thermal systems; outdoor or harsh-environment products; vendor and fabrication management; and early-stage hardware teams.

Why join p!ng

• Impact. Your choices will shape the product architecture, engineering practices, and future team.

• See your work in the wild and get instant feedback. You can test your work in a live customer environment—not just in a lab or a slide deck.

• Speed and ownership. Good ideas can move from conversation to prototype quickly, with the person closest to the problem empowered to act.

• A team that moves. Small, ambitious, and allergic to "that's how it's always been done."

• Because it’s wicked cool. We want people that are as excited as we are about p!ng.

how to apply

Please send your resume and complete the short prompt below. Keep it concise; we expect this to take about 10–15 minutes.

Application prompt

Show us one physical product, mechanism, or system you personally helped build. In no more than 200 words, tell us: (1) what you owned, (2) the hardest failure or tradeoff you encountered, and (3) how you tested or resolved it. Include one photo, sketch, CAD screenshot, or link if it is non-confidential. Then add one sentence on why p!ng’s problem interests you. Please email this to rory@pingthru.com.

Please do not share confidential information or create a new design for p!ng. We are interested in how you think about work you have already done.

Sound like you? Send us your resume and, more importantly, something you've built. We'd love to see it.

p!ng is an equal opportunity employer. We are a proud veteran-, woman-, and minority-owned business. We are committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve — and we strongly encourage applications from veterans, women, people of color, and folks from underrepresented backgrounds in operations and food service.