Senior Mechanical Engineer

About Topanga

At Topanga, we’re transforming kitchen operations with AI-powered solutions that help leading commercial kitchens waste less and save more. Our products, including the award-winning ReusePass program and StreamLine, a food waste mitigation and workflow automation tool, are used by industry leaders to drive measurable impact and cost savings. Win. Win.

We’re an early-stage technology company with product-market fit, entering our next phase of explosive growth. We have a strong sense of mission and direction, accompanied by constant testing and iteration.

Our team is a passionate mix of technologists, foodies, designers, and problem solvers who believe that building efficient systems can create a future of abundance. We’re passionate about solving hard problems—through questioning, debate, and ultimately committing to a shared direction, we create solutions that matter.

What to Expect

Today, we're a remote-first team with a main office hub in LA, where the team goes in 2-3 days per week. The rest of our team is distributed across the U.S., with a growing presence in NYC. We strive to compensate and offer benefits that are above market for the given role and stage of the company. Pay may be a combination of salary, commission, and/or equity depending on role and seniority. Full time employees are eligible for health benefits and 401k enrollment.

You should expect an self-regulated PTO policy and a culture that promotes using at least three continuous weeks every year. (Yes, 12 days of camping with no cell service is encouraged—fresh air is good for us). We sign off at 2:30 p.m. on Fridays, observe long weekends, and respect that some days, you wake up and your head just ain’t in it.

We encourage each other's pursuit of hobbies, passions, and experiences outside of work. We acknowledge that careers tend to be zig-zags, not straight lines. This is great as long as the time spent working is fulfilling. Basically, our jobs do not define us, but they can add purpose.

Who you are

You are an experienced mechanical design and engineering generalist that can independently develop concepts and put to use a variety of skills in order to make those concepts real, whether it’s for a prototype or small-batch production. You also love to go hands-on in order to test your concepts rapidly, demonstrate your concepts to others, and help out with production.

To accomplish this work, you:

-Draw on both your past experience and creative mindset to come up with out-of-the-box ideas

-Have experience brainstorming, sketching, and presenting concepts to peers

-Are an expert in one (or several) parametric 3D CAD modeling package(s)

-Have experience with rapid prototyping methods like 3D printing, silicone molding, frame building with extruded metal profiles, etc.

-Have experience with small- or large-batch production and fabrication methods like injection molding, several types of metal forming and finishing, SLS 3D printing, welding, etc.

-Are proficient and safe in the use of hand- and power-tools

-Are comfortable integrating and working with sensitive electronics in your assemblies

-Have used a variety of vendors to get things done quickly

Being a senior resource, you’ll be expected to work within a cross-disciplinary team of company leaders, engineers, UI/UX designers and others to come up with designs that satisfy the needs of our users. You may also need to delegate to and guide other mechanical engineers in order parallelize and accelerate the work. You’ll be expected to be properly sort your tasks by team and company priorities, be organized in your workflow, and be effective with your time with minimal oversight. Senior engineers know how to plot their own course and get things done.

As the company grows, there will be opportunity to migrate your role toward taking on team management responsibilities, like team member recruiting, mentorship and growth, if desired. In general, you will be joining the hardware team very early and can have an outsize impact on the direction we go.

What to expect from the role

Currently, much of Topanga staff works remotely and lives across the US. This works well for our current major product offerings, since they are largely software and web-based, with all off-the-shelf devices used. However, we are targeting this hardware team to be relatively local to the Los Angeles area, in order to satisfy the needs of a well-functioning hardware development and production process. Therefore, people joining the hardware team will often work in an on-site or hybrid capacity. Team members are expected to come in to the shop when you need to be hands-on, whether you’re on your own or with other team members. When the work to be done is largely digital and interactions between team members can be handled virtually, working from home is acceptable. People in different roles will likely settle on different blends of being on-site versus remote. This may feel foreign to those used to working with an all on-site team, and while there is certainly some challenges associated with a hybrid team, we believe the benefits are far greater.

Topanga’s clients are located all around the country, and there are times when they need in-person support for their hardware devices. You should expect to do some traveling to support these clients. While we can’t predict the future, we expect travel time to be 10% at maximum for this role, and probably less in the long run.

The Senior Mechanical Engineer role reports to the Head of Hardware.