Mechanical Engineer - New Grad (December 2026)

Applied Intuition, Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion, the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure, operating systems, and autonomy. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers, as well as the United States military and its allies, trust the company’s solutions to deliver physical intelligence. Applied Intuition is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices in Washington, D.C.; San Diego; Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; Ann Arbor, Michigan; London; Stuttgart; Munich; Stockholm; Bangalore; Seoul; and Tokyo. Learn more at applied.co .

We are an in-office company, and our expectation is that full-time employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However, we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work, starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office, or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments. This in-office expectation does not apply to contractor positions

ABOUT THE ROLE

As a new grad Mechanical Engineer at Applied, you will be an integral part of the entire product design lifecycle. Your technical contributions will directly impact the requirements, design, integration, and validation/verification of our self-driving vehicles. You will support the testing and evaluation of sensors such as cameras, radars, and lidars, and you will develop hardware built to survive the harsh environments our vehicles operate in.

This role is open to candidates who graduated in summer 2026 or will graduate by the end of 2026.

AT APPLIED INTUITION, YOU WILL:

• Support the mechanical engineering development of Applied Vehicles

• Contribute to the mechanical design of the external sensor suite, compute assembly, and vehicle interior

• Perform structural and thermal analysis of mechanical designs

• Support the design, analysis, and validation of systems at the component, assembly, and fully integrated vehicle level

• Design with a focus on scalability and manufacturability

• Work directly with engineers to design, fabricate, and assemble custom test fixtures

• Perform incoming quality control on design hardware, including visual inspection, pressure testing, and firmware flashing

• Set up devices under test and execute test scripts provided by test engineers

• Produce detailed documentation for test, maintenance, safety, and team processes

• Work cross-functionally to ensure requirements and mechanical designs meet the needs of teams across the organization

WE'RE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS:

• BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering or an equivalent program, completed by December 2026

• Formula SAE, Baja, solar car, rocketry, robotics, or similar hands-on build team experience

• Coursework, internship, research, or project experience designing and building physical hardware

• Familiarity using CAD to navigate, design, or modify 3D models (SolidWorks preferred)

• Exposure to FEA/CAE through coursework or projects

• Strong hands-on shop skills and a willingness to work in a lab and vehicle garage environment

• Ability to write clear technical documentation

NICE TO HAVE:

• Hands-on machining, CNC, metalworking, or welding experience

• Experience with hardware reliability and testing

• Automotive repair and maintenance experience

• Exposure to AV components — lidar, radar, cameras

• Experience designing, drawing, or prototyping custom harness cable

• NVH experience

• Basic scripting (Python) for test execution and data capture

Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.