Mechanical Engineer

About us

At the forefront of farming and food, UPSIDE Foods is innovating new ways to produce real meat, without the need to breed, feed and slaughter animals. Our process begins with an animal cell, which is cultivated and harvested as meat. The founding company of the industry, UPSIDE Foods is a mission-driven organization focused on bringing to meat lovers an authentic product that is truly humane, sustainably produced, nutritious and delicious! We are now expanding our team of dedicated professionals across disciplines to make better meat for a better world.

About this job

UPSIDE Foods is building novel cultivation systems to enable massive scalability of cultivated meat production. We are seeking an experienced mechanical engineer with both technical depth and creative vision to collaborate in the rapid ideation, design, fabrication, and testing of manufacturing prototypes and equipment. The mechanical engineering team works with the bioprocess development teams to define the system requirements and evaluate the performance of novel prototypes, all within the context of the overall company's near- and long-term goals. You should be comfortable designing custom components and systems, running analyses to assess design criteria, and working with low and medium volume fabricators. There is a massive white space of engineering design ahead in this emerging field, and we are seeking a mechanical engineer who will play an important role by designing cultivator prototypes at various scales, assembly fixtures, thermal chambers, supporting system architecture, and other auxiliary parts. We are looking for a creative and enthusiastic engineer who enjoys hands-on work to be a key addition to our growing team.

Responsibilities include… 

• Design of parts and assemblies in CAD (SolidWorks) to solve biological and mechanical problems for our internal science teams
• Analysis (thermal, fluidic, and structural), assembly, validation, and delivery of systems that you design
• Fabrication and modification of parts as needed using in-house equipment (3D printer, laser cutter, water jet, mill, lathe, etc.)
• Close collaboration with vendors to produce high-quality custom parts & source effective off-the-shelf components

About you…

• BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering with 2+ years of relevant work experience, including designing, prototyping, manufacturing, and testing of novel equipment
• Proficient with CAD (SolidWorks preferred)
• Experience working with outside vendors and contractors
• Hands-on prototyping experience (this is a hands-on role!)
• Experience self-managing, estimating upcoming work, and coordinating schedule dependencies for individual projects

Nice to have…

• Experience with fluidic systems and plumbing design
• Experience working with cell culture
• Experience with computational fluid dynamics, finite element analysis, and thermal analysis software(s)
• Experience designing systems to meet ASME BPE or 3-A SSI standards

Who you’ll work with…

• The mechanical engineering team participates in most technical functions at the company, working with everyone from early-stage science teams to manufacturing teams at our production facility.
• This role will most frequently interact with our process scale-up teams and is a great opportunity to help scale technologies from benchtop to production.

Key Contributions in First Year…

• Design, fabricate, and assemble custom components for small-scale teams, either independently or collaboratively with our other mechanical engineers.
• Work with internal customers to identify testing and process improvements through assembly/test fixtures, intuitive component design, etc.

UPSIDE Benefits!

• Stock options for all full-time incoming team members!
• 90-100% employer-paid healthcare premiums for team members (medical [including HSA and FSA], dental, and vision)
• Pet insurance for your furry family members!
• Unlimited PTO
• DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) Council and People Engagement Programs
• Company-sponsored learning & development opportunities

UPSIDE Foods is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Our company-wide mission is to create a product for everyone, so we are deeply committed to having teams and leaders that reflect this mission.