Mechanical Engineer (Maritime Structures & Mechanisms)
Infrastructure for the Autonomous Era · First in. First up.
On-site · Austin, TX
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Our deployable dock folds into a shipping container and stands up in hours, in salt water, under load. You own the structure and the mechanisms that make that possible. This is a founding mechanical seat: architecture to deployed hardware, with your hands on it the day it goes in the water.
First Order Effects (FOE) is building America's Infrastructure Prime for the robotic era. Autonomous ships, drones, and robots are rewriting how the world moves, fights, and builds - but none of them work without infrastructure to power them, connect them, and launch and recover them. That's what we build.
Our team comes from SpaceX, Anduril, Saronic, Lockheed Skunk Works, Forterra, and Fuse Energy. Before founding FOE, we built satellite ground stations that closed a national comms gap in days, deployed multi-megawatt power systems at commercial speed, and shipped autonomous surface vessels into Navy fleet production. We've built infrastructure at lightspeed before - now we're applying that playbook to an entire company.
Own the deployable dock from architecture to deployed hardware: container-packaged structure, load paths, and rapid-deploy mechanisms.
Size and analyze structures for maritime loads, sea states, and handling, and design against corrosion and fatigue.
Design the mechanisms that turn a container into a working dock: hinges, latches, actuation, and the deployment sequence.
Drive fabrication with vendors and in-house, and be there when it deploys.
Trade weight, cost, and schedule to hit a delivery date without flinching.
What You'll Do
Design, build, and see mechanical hardware work, the way it goes in maritime, marine, offshore, or naval structures.
Apply structures and mechanisms fundamentals: FEA, fatigue, weldments, and mechanism design.
Work in steel and aluminum, weldments, and marine-grade materials and coatings.
Get hands-on with fabrication and own the vendor relationships.
Experience with deployable, foldable, or transportable structures.
A background in hydraulics, winches, or actuation.
Exposure to naval architecture, ABS or class rules, or offshore experience.
$100,000–$250,000 base + founding-team equity sized for the role + benefits. If you're an outlier, we'll pay like it.
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations (ITAR/EAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). Candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance; active clearance not required.
FOE is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with FOE is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Sovereignty is built, not declared — come build it with us.
Skills Required
- Experience with deployable, foldable, or transportable structures
- Background in hydraulics, winches, or actuation
- Exposure to naval architecture, ABS or class rules, or offshore experience
- Ability to size and analyze structures for maritime loads, sea states, corrosion, and fatigue
- Experience with FEA, fatigue analysis, weldments, and mechanism design
- Experience working in steel and aluminum, marine-grade materials and coatings
- Hands-on fabrication experience and ability to manage vendor and in-house fabrication
- U.S. person status (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual) and eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance
What We Do
First Order Effects (FOE) is building infrastructure for the autonomous era, serving the United States and its allies. The company develops and deploys physical systems that power, connect, launch, and recover autonomous ships, drones, and robots. Its work includes MESH Box and SURGE systems and draws on experience in satellite ground stations, power systems, autonomous surface vessels, and defense-oriented engineering.
