Director of Mechanical Engineering
About the role
Torus is seeking a Director of Mechanical Engineering to lead the mechanical engineering team. The ideal candidate will build and scale a high-performing team while maintaining technical credibility to guide hard decisions.
Responsibilities
People Leadership and Organizational Development (35%): Build a hiring plan tied to the product and capability roadmap, develop managers and leads, mentor engineers, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
Technical Leadership and Design Quality (30%): Set and hold the bar on design quality, guide analysis, and make critical design decisions on materials, manufacturing processes, structural approaches, and integration strategies.
Engineering Strategy and Decision-Making (20%): Own the mechanical engineering technical strategy, make high-leverage decisions, and allocate engineering resources across projects.
Cross-Functional Leadership (15%): Partner with product management, electrical engineering, embedded controls, field operations, and manufacturing engineering to ensure mechanical design meets product requirements and serviceability needs.
Required Experience
Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering (Master's preferred in dynamics, structures, or thermal systems)
8+ years of mechanical engineering experience with 3+ years leading and growing engineering teams
Deep mechanical expertise in at least two of: rotating machinery, structural design, thermal management, battery systems integration, precision mechanical systems, high-volume manufacturing, or electromechanical integration
Product development experience from concept through production ramp
Leadership through technical judgment: able to set direction, make and own hard calls, hold the design-quality bar, and build team capability without being the team’s primary individual contributor
Manufacturing mindset: design for high-volume production, optimize assembly processes, drive cost reduction at scale
Strong communication skills: able to explain mechanical design rationale to non-mechanical audiences and give direct, useful feedback to engineers at all levels
Preferred Experience
Rotating machinery experience: high-speed rotors, flywheels, motors, or turbomachinery
Vibration and dynamics expertise: modal analysis, rotor dynamics, vibration isolation
Precision mechanical systems: tight tolerances, alignment, bearing selection
Thermal management for power electronics or battery systems
Environmental qualification: outdoor installations, seismic loads, temperature extremes
Cost engineering: should-cost modeling, value engineering, design-to-cost
Experience building a mechanical engineering team from an early stage and scaling it through a period of rapid growth