Mechanical Operations Lab Lead

About the role

Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference.

Key Responsibilities

• Lab Operations & Machine Maintenance

  • Machine Shop Ownership: Supervise and maintain machine shop equipment, including manual/CNC mills, lathes, drill presses, band saws, chop saws, sheet metal brakes, and associated tooling. Ensure all machines are clean, lubricated, and safe for use.

  • 3D Printer Farm & Clean Lab Management: Oversee a high-throughput additive manufacturing suite, including an FDM printer farm, SLA systems, and Nylon SLS/FDM printers. Manage post-processing infrastructure, including bead blasters, compressors, fume hoods, and specialized ventilation equipment.

  • Equipment Commissioning & Calibration: Receive, position, and stand up incoming lab machinery. Maintain strict calibration and preventative maintenance schedules for precision instruments, including an Instron universal testing machine, microscopes, and granite surface inspection tables.

  • Vendor & Contractor Relations: Serve as the primary point of contact for equipment manufacturers, tooling suppliers, and external maintenance technicians.

• Safety, EH&S, & Environment Control

  • Enforce Shop Safety: Establish and enforce strict lab safety protocols, including machine guarding, personal protective equipment (PPE) compliance, and proper tool-use certifications for engineering staff.

  • Hazardous Materials & Ventilation: Manage chemical, resin, and consumable inventories; ensure proper storage, safety data sheet (SDS) logging, and compliant hazardous waste disposal (resins, solvents, nylon powders).

  • Facilities Coordination: Partner with site services to manage lab infrastructure needs, including dedicated electrical drops, compressed air lines, exhaust systems, and facility chillers/PSUs.

• Inventory, Logistics, & Space Management

  • Inventory System Ownership: Keep real-time counts of raw stock (aluminum, plastics), fasteners, structural components, cables, hoses, and project-specific storage.

  • Rack Build & Assembly Logistics: Optimize the workflow of a dedicated Rack Build Area. Coordinate the intake of heavy infrastructure components and ensure staging areas are clear and organized for active engineering builds.

  • Procurement Workflows: Proactively flag low-stock items and manage end-to-end procurement for lab shop consumables (endmills, blades, 3D printer filaments/resins, hardware).

• Workflow Triage & Engineering Support

  • Request Triage & Engineering Support: Define and run an intake process for engineering fabrication, 3D printing, and assembly requests, ensuring clear prioritization across multiple parallel projects.

  • Layout Optimization: Continuously evaluate the physical workflow of the lab - refining the footprint of workbenches, tool chests, and storage racks to eliminate bottlenecks and optimize throughput.

Qualifications

• Experience: 5+ years of experience managing a mechanical lab, machine shop, prototyping facility, or hardware R&D space.

• Machine Proficiency: Hands-on operational familiarity with manual machine shop tools (mills, lathes, saws, brakes) and safety requirements.

• Additive Manufacturing Depth: Practical experience operating and maintaining a fleet of modern 3D printers (FDM, SLA, and Nylon/SLS processes) and post-processing equipment.

• Operational Rigor: Proven ability to build and scale organization systems - such as inventory asset management software, 5S cleanliness methodologies, or request tracking queues - from the ground up.

• Safety Leadership: Deep working knowledge of OSHA standards, shop safety procedures, PPE enforcement, and EH&S compliance regarding chemicals and particulate filtration.

• Physical Capability: Ability to operate in a standing shop environment, handle physical tools, and lift/move heavy lab inventory or equipment setups when necessary.

Nice-to-have Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Technology, or a related technical field (equivalent deep hands-on shop experience is highly valued).

• Advanced Machining: Experience with CNC programming (CAM), precision laser cutter operation, or custom fixture fabrication.

• Thermal/Fluid Systems: Familiarity with heavy hardware infrastructure support, including liquid cooling loops, facility chillers, manifold systems, and power distribution units (PSUs).

• Startup Agility: Past experience at a fast-paced hardware startup where lab spaces and operational processes had to be built out dynamically.

• Software Familiarity: Experience using project management tools (Jira, spreadsheets) and basic CAD/slicing software to review engineering files for fabricability.

How We’re Different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system, betting early on transformer and transformer-like architectures and on increasing model sizes. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors. We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.