---
title: 'Lead Manufacturing Engineer at Zoo'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lead-manufacturing-engineer-zoo-los-angeles-california-mqj1mqc5y9vj'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Lead Manufacturing Engineer at Zoo

- **Company:** Zoo
- **Location:** Los Angeles California, United States
- **Compensation:** $145k–$195k
- **Posted:** 2026-05-19
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://zoo.dev/jobs/4697231005?gh_jid=4697231005

## Job description

## About Us

Zoo is building the next generation of hardware design tools redefining how hardware products are designed, developed, and built. Our platform combines a modern, cloud-native CAD environment with AI-powered engineering workflows, helping teams design, iterate, and manufacture products faster than ever before. We are headquartered in Los Angeles, CA with both a local and remote team. We were founded and incubated by Embedded Ventures in 2021.

## About You

We’re looking for curious, innovative, and ambitious self-starters to join our growing team to help us bring our mission to life. We think you’ll thrive on our team if you’re:

- Curious at your core, with an eagerness to learn and do things differently
- Customer-focused, always thinking about ways to improve the user experience
- Able to operate autonomously and work asynchronously, while also being an effective team player

## About The Role

As a Lead Manufacturing Engineer at Zoo, you will lead the development and operation of our manufacturing systems, machine shop, and hardware production workflows that power the future of engineering design. You will serve as a technical leader across machining, fabrication, process development, tooling, prototyping, and production operations, helping bridge advanced digital engineering with real-world manufacturing execution.

This is a highly hands-on role for someone who thrives at the intersection of manufacturing engineering, machining, process optimization, and operational leadership. You will work across CNC machining, fixture design, manufacturing process development, production scaling, and shop operations while helping establish the systems, standards, and workflows that enable rapid hardware innovation. You will play a critical role in building scalable manufacturing capabilities, improving production efficiency, and helping shape the future of Zoo’s hardware development and manufacturing infrastructure.

## What You’ll Do

- Lead day-to-day manufacturing and machine shop operations, including scheduling, workflow management, equipment readiness, and production prioritization
- Develop and optimize manufacturing processes for prototypes, fixtures, production hardware, and internal tooling
- Program, set up, and operate CNC mills, CNC lathes, manual machines, and fabrication equipment to manufacture precision components
- Partner closely with engineering teams to evaluate manufacturability, tolerances, materials, assembly considerations, and production readiness
- Translate CAD models, engineering drawings, and GD&T requirements into robust and repeatable manufacturing processes
- Develop tooling, fixturing, workholding solutions, and process documentation to improve throughput, repeatability, and quality
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives across cycle time reduction, process optimization, scrap reduction, uptime, and manufacturing scalability
- Establish manufacturing standards, shop procedures, quality controls, and operational best practices
- Support new product introduction (NPI) efforts from prototype through early production builds
- Inspect and validate finished components using calipers, micrometers, indicators, CMM tools, and other metrology equipment
- Troubleshoot machining issues, dimensional nonconformities, tooling wear, machine performance problems, and manufacturing bottlenecks
- Help design and build out future manufacturing facilities, shop layouts, workflows, and production infrastructure
- Manage tooling, consumables, raw materials, spare components, and manufacturing equipment readiness
- Coordinate with external vendors, fabrication houses, and manufacturing partners when overflow or specialized production support is required
- Support hiring, training, mentorship, and development of machinists, technicians, and future manufacturing team members
- Maintain a safe, clean, organized, and operationally disciplined manufacturing environment

## What You’ll Need

- 8+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, machining, precision manufacturing, or hardware production environments
- Strong hands-on experience with CNC machining, including mills, lathes, setups, tooling, feeds, speeds, offsets, and process optimization
- Experience programming using CAM software and editing machine code at the controller
- Experience developing and improving manufacturing processes for prototypes and/or production hardware
- Strong understanding of machining principles, materials, tolerances, GD&T, and manufacturing methods
- Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, CAD models, and technical specifications
- Experience building and scaling manufacturing teams
- Strong troubleshooting and root-cause analysis skills across machining, tooling, fixtures, and manufacturing workflows
- Strong operational mindset with the ability to balance prototype urgency, production quality, and manufacturing scalability
- Excellent organizational, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills
- High attention to detail, craftsmanship, and pride in building high-quality hardware systems

The salary range for this role is provided below. The final offer will depend on multiple factors including candidate experience, skills, expertise, and market data. Compensation may vary by geography. In addition to salary, we offer competitive equity as well as a full benefits package which may vary by geography as well.

Salary Range $145,000—$195,000 USD

Zoo is an equal-opportunity employer committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. The Zoo team is made up of incredibly talented and unique individuals from across the globe. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, Veteran status, age, or any other trait that unfairly targets a group of people. We encourage everyone interested in our mission to apply!

## About Zoo

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Zoo develops modern, AI-native CAD software for hardware design, including a full-featured platform enhanced with a conversational design agent.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed Stage)
- **Headquarters**: Inglewood, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Jessie Frazelle (Co-Founder & CEO), Jordan Noone (Co-Founder & Executive Chairman), Jenna Bryant (Co-Founder & Investor)

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Software Development / Computer-Aided Design (CAD) / Hardware Design
- **Target Customers**: Hardware engineers, product designers, and manufacturing teams (B2B, Enterprise)
- **Mission**: To empower the hardware design industry with better, modern tools and build the tools the founders wish they had, transforming how physical products are conceived and developed.

## Products & Services
- **Zoo Design Studio**: The flagship product—a full-stack, AI-native CAD platform. It serves as the central hub for hardware design, combining traditional point-and-click modeling, a coding interface, and AI-driven design capabilities. Built on Zoo's proprietary, GPU-based, cloud-implemented geometry engine.
- **Zookeeper**: A conversational CAD agent integrated into Zoo Design Studio. It captures design intent through natural language prompts, researches and reasons through design problems, plans constraints, and generates fully editable, manufacturing-aware CAD models.
- **Text-to-CAD**: An ML-enhanced tool that allows users to generate CAD models from text descriptions.
- **Enterprise CAD APIs**: A suite of APIs for developers to integrate Zoo's geometry engine and capabilities into their own workflows.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available
- **Total Funding**: $5.0M (Seed Round led by Venrex, October 2023)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Venrex (lead investor), Embedded Ventures, and 11 other investors across multiple rounds. Key talent sources include Oxide Computer Company, Scale AI, Pixar Animation Studios, Cloudflare, and Arm.
- **Growth Signals**: 
    - **Headcount**: 45 employees, with a **95.3% year-over-year growth** rate.
    - **Global Reach**: Operates in 13 countries (US, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Poland, India, UK, and more).
    - **Security Milestones**: Achieved SOC 2 Type II audit and ITAR compliance; recently completed a security audit by Trail of Bits (June 2026).
    - **Product Velocity**: Launched Zookeeper, redesigned sketch mode, and continues to release blog posts and updates frequently.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Proprietary Geometry Engine**: The first CAD engine to be GPU-based, cloud-implemented, API-accessible, and dynamically scalable. This acts as a digital bridge between hardware development and machine learning, creating a significant technical moat.
- **Conversational CAD (Zookeeper)**: A first-of-its-kind agent that reasons and designs around user intent, moving beyond simple automation to true AI-assisted design.
- **Hybrid Workflow**: Uniquely allows users to seamlessly switch between point-and-click, code, and conversational AI within a single environment, catering to different engineering preferences.
- **Enterprise-Grade Security**: ITAR-compliant and SOC 2 Type II certified, making it viable for defense and aerospace customers.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI-First Design**: Deepening the integration of AI (Zookeeper) to automate research, reasoning, and constraint generation, moving CAD from a drafting tool to a collaborative design partner.
- **Ecosystem Expansion**: Building out the broader CAD ecosystem with APIs and developer tools to become the standard platform for hardware design.
- **Performance & Scale**: Continuing to leverage its cloud-native, GPU-accelerated engine to handle complex, large-scale designs that traditional CAD tools struggle with.
- **Talent Acquisition**: Actively hiring senior engineers (Graphics, Cloud, Frontend, Language Development) to accelerate product development and scale the platform.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven**: The opportunity to fundamentally reshape the $10B+ CAD industry and solve the "boring" problems that have plagued hardware engineers for decades.
- **High Autonomy & Ownership**: Culture emphasizes operating with a high degree of autonomy and ownership, with a flat structure and a "solutions-oriented" mindset.
- **Technically Curious Team**: The company values continuous learning and innovation. The team includes talent from Pixar, Cloudflare, and SpaceX-level startups, creating a high-caliber peer group.
- **Global & Flexible**: Headquartered in Inglewood, CA, with a globally distributed team. Roles are listed as "In-Office or Remote," offering flexibility.
- **Transparency**: The company values radical transparency, even making its full SOC 2 report publicly available without friction.

## Sources
1. [zoo.dev](https://zoo.dev/)
2. [zoo.dev/careers](https://zoo.dev/careers)
3. [linkedin.com/company/zoodotdev](https://www.linkedin.com/company/zoodotdev)
4. [builtin.com/company/zoo-zoodev](https://builtin.com/company/zoo-zoodev)
5. [builtin.com/company/zoo-zoodev/jobs](https://builtin.com/company/zoo-zoodev/jobs)

## Other roles at Zoo

- [Senior Software Engineer, CAD Interoperability](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-cad-interoperability-zoo-los-angeles-california-hqxv8esxds56) — Los Angeles California, United States / -, United States
- [Technical Customer Support Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-customer-support-specialist-zoo-los-angeles-california-jrb8j6fjchba) — Los Angeles California, United States
- [Lead Machinist](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-machinist-zoo-los-angeles-california-ajqz1spaeg6d) — Los Angeles California, United States
- [Senior Systems Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-systems-software-engineer-zoo-los-angeles-california-3zebasfnak5j) — Los Angeles California, United States
- [Senior Software Engineer, Frontend](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-frontend-zoo-los-angeles-california-n3xgsyye0m0f) — Los Angeles California, United States
- [Senior Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-cloud-infrastructure-zoo-los-angeles-california-s7zr8w499vzk) — Los Angeles California, United States
- [CAD Graphics Engine Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/cad-graphics-engine-software-engineer-zoo-los-angeles-california-qjhp96tdk8as) — Los Angeles California, United States
- [General Application](https://feeny.ai/job/general-application-zoo-los-angeles-california-5vw5ykdjn388) — Los Angeles California, United States
- [Lead Manufacturing Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-manufacturing-engineer-loft-orbital-solutions-golden-rgefgerh0sp6) — Golden, CO
- [Lead Manufacturing Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-manufacturing-engineer-loft-orbital-solutions-abu-dhabi-3x459n8yk6r3) — Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates