Mechanical Engineer, Rig Design & Fabrication

About Lucid Bots

Lucid Bots is an AI robotics company building the world’s most productive and responsible robots. Our mission is simple: extend human reach. We design intelligent machines that take on dangerous, demanding, and repetitive work—so people don’t have to.

Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, we design, engineer, manufacture, and support our products in the United States. Our production-ready robots are deployed by customers around the world to improve safety, increase productivity, and elevate operational standards.

We are one of the fastest-growing manufacturing companies in the United States, recently ranked fourth nationally. Backed by leading investors including Y Combinator (S19), Cubit Capital, Idea Fund Partners, Danu Ventures, and others, we are scaling quickly at the intersection of AI, hardware, and real-world impact.

We’re building more than robots—we’re building the future of physical AI.

Our Core Values and How We Work Together

At Lucid Bots, we’re building something extraordinary - and how we work matters just as much as what we build. These values guide how we hire, grow, and show up for one another.

• Expedition Behavior - We climb as one. No silos, no “that’s not my job.” We protect the team and share the load.

• Grow with Humility - We’re relentless learners. We seek feedback, own mistakes, and get better every day.

• Lift People Up - Humans come first. We care fiercely, speak honestly, and design for real people in real conditions.

• Build the Extraordinary - We take ownership, reject the ordinary, and run toward hard problems.

We live Above the Line: we take responsibility, create solutions, and shape the future.
If these values energize you, you’ll thrive here. If they feel like too much, this may not be the right climb - and that’s okay.

The Role

Lucid Bots is investing in an in-house capability to design, prototype, and build specialized softwash and pressure washing rigs. We are looking for a mechanical engineer who loves to build with their own hands.

This is not a desk role and it is not a pure welding role. It is for someone who can design a cleaning rig, build it, weld it together, test it, and then improve their own design the next day. You will own our cleaning rigs. Over time you become the subject matter expert, the person we point to when customers say Lucid Bots makes the best cleaning rig on the market.

The welding involved is straightforward. We are not hiring a master welder who dabbles in design. We want a hands-on engineer who happens to weld well, thinks through the full build, and obsesses over making the product better.

The Rare Combination We're Hiring For

Most people love one of these. The right person for this role loves all three.

• The Engineer: You love design. You think in CAD, tolerances, and how parts fit together. You enjoy solving the mechanical puzzle and making the drawing right.

• The Builder: You love making things real. You would rather be welding, cutting, and assembling than talking about it. The shop is where you're happiest.

• The Product Owner: You love owning the outcome. You obsess over every detail and make it a little better every single week.

The magic is in the loop: you design it, you build it, you live with the result, and because you own all three you can improve the product faster than any team that splits these roles across different people.

What You’ll Do

• Design softwash and pressure washing rigs: frames, mounts, plumbing layouts, and component selection. Our team already has the requirements for what customers need.
• Build and weld the rigs yourself, from prototype through early production.
• Iterate fast. Spot a better design while building it and implement the change the same week. No committees, no waiting for permission.
• Document it so it's repeatable: technical drawings, CAD models, and clear build instructions.
• Stand up the shop. Recommend the equipment, tooling, fixtures, and layout we need to build well.
• Build custom and prototype rigs in-house and develop repeatable processes for the designs we choose to produce ourselves.
• Work with our suppliers and partners to spec the right components and keep improving the product.
• Set the standard. Define quality checkpoints and instructions so others can assist with assembly as we grow.

Who You Are

• You love to design. You are a mechanical engineer at heart who enjoys the puzzle of making parts fit, work, and last.
• You love to build. You are the person who built their own golf cart or rebuilt a car on the weekend because you love it. You'd rather be in the shop than reviewing someone else's drawing.
• You love to own and improve. You treat the rig as your product. You see a problem, you solve it, and you don't wait for permission to make it better.
• You move fast as one person. You can design, build, weld, and document yourself, which is exactly why you'll outpace teams that split this work across three people.
• You like to get your hands dirty. You may come from a hands-on, trades, or shop-floor background. Grease, sparks, and hard physical work don't scare you, you take pride in them.
• You're a hustler. You think on your feet, find a way through, and create real impact fast.
• You're comfortable in ambiguity. The process doesn't fully exist yet, and you are excited to be the one who defines it.

What Actually Matters

A mechanical engineering degree is cool, but it is not required. We care far more about proof of work than where, or whether, you studied. It doesn't matter where you went to school. It matters what you've built, how good you are at building it, and how fast you move.

• Proof of work. You've built real, sophisticated mechanical and electrical systems, and you can show them to us.
• You can weld. MIG required, TIG a plus. Certification is welcome but not required if your skill is obvious.
• You know fabrication. Cutting, grinding, drilling, fitting, and fixturing, in steel and aluminum.
• You know your way around plumbing and how mechanical, electrical, and fluid systems come together in a real build.
• You can design what you build, turning an idea into a working assembly and clear drawings or CAD when needed.
• You move fast and solve problems on your feet, with a relentless bias toward action.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building skids, frames, trailers, pressure washing equipment, softwash systems, or similar assemblies.
• Familiarity with pumps, tanks, hose reels, manifolds, proportioning valves, and chemical-resistant plumbing.
• Experience setting up or improving a small fabrication shop or production area.
• Experience designing weld fixtures and assembly jigs.
• Familiarity with lean manufacturing, 5S, or production process improvement.
• Forklift, overhead crane, or material handling experience.

Why Join Lucid Bots?

• Work directly with the founder of a fast-growing, venture-backed robotics startup.
• Be part of a team solving real-world problems with frontier technology.
• Get a front-row seat to fundraising, company building, and startup strategy at scale.
• Learn more in one year than most people do in five—this is a career accelerant.
• Help support the culture, pace, and systems of a company scaling fast and building things that matter.

Benefits:

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• 3% retirement match
• 15 days of paid time off (PTO)
• 3 sick days
• 11 paid holidays, with 3 of those being floating holidays
• Employee stock option plan

We’d Love to Hear from You!

1. Show us something you built. Photos, a video, a sketch, a garage project, a rig, a golf cart, anything. We care more about what you've made with your hands than about a perfectly formatted resume. Tell us what it is, why you built it, and what you'd do differently next time.
2. Why you? What is the one thing about you that a resume can’t capture?