Mechanical Engineer, Terafab

About the role

• Mechanical Engineer, Terafab | Tesla (Terafab)
• Location: Austin, Texas | Req ID: 276418 | Job Type: Full-time
• What to Expect

We are building Terafab, a vertically integrated semiconductor factory at an unprecedented scale. The facility houses logic, memory, packaging, test, and lithography mask production under one roof, optimized for rapid iteration and maximum compute density per square foot.

Join Terafab's core engineering team to design the fab as a high-volume manufacturing line. You'll own mechanical design across custom machinery, tooling, fixtures, and process equipment — solving problems where no vendor solution exists. You'll be the interdisciplinary owner for complex systems where mechanical, thermal, and process constraints collide. Design it, build it, commission it, and solve the hard problems that emerge when hardware meets reality at scale.

What You'll Do

• Own mechanical design across the fab – custom tooling, material handling systems, equipment supports, process machinery, and manufacturing systems
• Work from first principles – evaluate trade-offs (why 5-point vs 3-point support?), select materials against thermal, mechanical, and cost constraints, and defend the design with physics rather than heuristics
• Act as the interdisciplinary system owner – integrate mechanical, thermal, electrical, and process requirements, and balance competing constraints across domains
• Lead hardware end-to-end – from concept through production ramp, including qualification, documentation, and handoff to operations
• Simplify through design – eliminate parts, reduce assembly steps, and design for the build sequence and for serviceability
• Work hands-on on the fab floor – commission systems, measure reality against CAD, and debug the multi-variable failures that only surface at scale (tolerance stack-ups, thermal growth, dynamic loads)

What You'll Bring

• Degree in Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent experience
• 5+ years of mechanical design experience in high-volume manufacturing – full lifecycle from concept through production and continuous improvement
• Exceptional first-principles ability – derive solutions from statics, dynamics, heat transfer, and materials science
• Cross-disciplinary fluency – work across mechanical, thermal, electrical, and process domains to drive system-level decisions
• Expert CAD (CATIA, SolidWorks, or similar) with fluency in GD&T, tolerance analysis, DFM/DFA, and FEA/CFD for design validation
• Deep knowledge of machines and manufacturing – motors, bearings, actuators, sensors, robotics, and how parts are made at scale (machining, sheet metal, casting, welding)
• Proven commissioning and troubleshooting experience – hands-on assembly, debug, and ramp of physical systems; bridges the gap between "works in CAD" and "works in production"