---
title: 'Mechanical Engineer at Chariot Defense'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-chariot-defense-san-bruno-california-8f1f6h7gmbrr'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Mechanical Engineer at Chariot Defense

- **Company:** Chariot Defense
- **Location:** San Bruno California, United States
- **Posted:** 2026-04-08
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/chariotdefense/jobs/5181624008

## Job description

## About Us

Chariot Defense is a defense technology company that designs and manufactures a family of power products for the U.S. military and its allies. We believe that credible deterrence of armed conflict and winning if deterrence fails, requires more than just the best drones, sensors, weapons, electronic warfare systems, and command & control capabilities. Those critical components will require sustained electric power in austere and resource-constrained environments. Moreover, military units must be able to turn off the trucks and generators that generate this power to hide and survive. In other words, power generation must be decoupled from power consumption. Chariot Defense’s products enable exactly this capability, allowing U.S. and allied militaries to be more lethal and survivable. We hope you will join us on this mission.

## About the Role

Chariot Defense is seeking a highly motivated and skilled Mechanical Engineer to join our engineering team, reporting to the Powertrain Lead Engineer. In this role, you will conceptualize, design, develop, and test advanced mechanical and power electronic systems, including fully integrated vehicle platforms. You will work across multidisciplinary engineering and design teams to ensure our systems meet stringent MIL-STD performance, endurance and reliability, and security requirements for deployment in demanding environments, performing critical missions.

## Key Responsibilities

- Design Ownership: Own hardware design from initial requirements to concept and prototyping to series production, and beyond, in service and field deployment, as an end-to-end owner of subsystems.
- Integrated Systems: Develop mechanical designs that involve the complex and multivariable mechanical integration of next-gen energy storage, advanced material types, complex thermal solutions, power electronic hardware, dense PCBAs, and efficient harnessing for the tightest packaged, most efficient, and highest performing end-product.
- Rapid Iteration: Prototype rapidly to find issues fast, debug, iterate, and develop a final, field-deployable product on compressed timelines, closely managing risk vs. reward, effort vs. return, and balancing schedules and budget with capability and performance.
- Design for Mass Manufacturing: Design mechanical, thermal, electro-mechanical components and assemblies, and integrated power systems, for volume manufacturing from the get-go.
- Direct Customer Engagement: Support critical customer-facing hardware demonstrations, from time to time, and use these interactions to better understand the customers’ requirements and application needs.

What We’re Looking For

- Top-notch engineering intuition and first principles thinking toward designing complex products that function seamlessly for your customer, taking both an engineering/ technical, and product/ customer approach, to strike the optimal balance.
- Able to independently identify critical information or priority gaps and apply effort toward closing those gaps.
- Undaunted by imperfect, incomplete or absent datasets or information, and capable of making sound, comprehensive, and swift first-principled decisions to achieve a product end-state that meets and/or exceeds the need of the hour.
- Not satisfied by superficial explanations of a problem or “band-aid engineering”; seeks persistently to find the specific root cause through data-driven methods, and resolve failures or recurring issues, so they can be mitigated to prevent future such instances.
- Gratified by helping your peers succeed, building a robust team culture, and propagation deep camaraderie amongst your peers; seeks to break down information silos by collaborating rigorously with others to solve problems, share knowledge, and provide input.

## Qualifications

Required:

- BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent work experience.
- Experience in an immersive system design project or research study/ thesis, in collegiate project teams (e.g.: SAE, FSAE, BAJA, others), other extracurricular participation, or professional settings.
- A minimum of 2+ years of experience in a technical engineering, design, or product role in a professional setting.
- Proven 3D CAD skills (any platform, but SOLIDWORKS preferred), as well as CAE/ FEA experience, and the ability to produce high-quality engineering 2D drawings that comply with common industry standards (e.g.: GD&T, ASME standards etc.)
- Strong understanding of engineering fundamentals in structures, materials, fluids and aero, thermal, controls, mechanics/ dynamics, system modeling, and fundamentals of physics.
- Manufacturing knowledge & experience with machine shops (sheet metal, CNC, lathe, sand casting, forging, die-casting etc.).
- Rapid prototyping background (structures/electronics/software) & 3D printing knowledge.
- Proficient in hands-on prototyping (machining, shop tools, welding, soldering), and demonstrated hands-on fabrication skills.
- Familiarity with MIL-STD, DO-160, or other automotive, defense, and aerospace standards.

Preferred:

- Experience designing and working directly with low and high voltage systems, high current/ high voltage power distribution, high voltage safety, and thermal management of lithium-ion batteries (or other energy storage) and voltage regulating power electronics.
- Experience in industries/ applications requiring high-reliability embedded power electronics operated in austere environments, and testing exposure for lifecycle, abuse, and endurance tests.
- MATLAB/ SIMULINK/ SIMSCAPE experience, as well as experience with any or several CAE/ FEA tools such as ANSYS, Fluent, Star CCM+, Abaqus, Comsol Multiphysics, Hyperworks etc.
- Experience with any or several instrumentation, scripting, communication and measurement tools such as LabVIEW, DIAdem, DAQs, PEAK (PCAN), Vector (CANape, CANoe etc.), Python.
- Experience with any or several data, content, and product lifecycle management systems like Confluence, JIRA, Polarion, Tableau, Teamcenter etc.
- Experience with any or several common sensors and sensing methods (such as thermocouples, force/ load sensors, flow sensors, voltage probes, current clamps etc.), sensor integration, and sensor data post processing/ filtering.
- Advanced designing skills for CNC machining, composites/ CFRPs, sheet metal, injection molding, PCBA integration.

## Role Requirements

- This position is an onsite role based in Chariot Defense’s San Bruno, CA, office.
- Willingness to support 10% travel, domestically and internationally, as well as work extended and weekend hours, when necessary
- Able to work on your feet for extended periods in a shop setting.
- Able to lift and carry 50lbs.

A reasonable estimate of the current salary range is $130,000-$180,000 annually. Compensation packages also include early-stage equity and access to company-sponsored benefit plans.

Individual compensation packages are based on geographic location, scope of the role, relevant experience, and the ability to deal with complexity and problem solve within our organization, among other factors.

All employees are required to provide proof of authorization to work in the U.S. within their first 3 days of work. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Any unsolicited resumes/candidate profiles submitted through our website or to personal email accounts of employees of Chariot Defense are considered property of Chariot Defense and are not subject to payment of agency fees.

## About Chariot Defense

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Chariot Defense builds software-defined, modular power distribution and storage systems for tactical and expeditionary military operations.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Adam Warmoth

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Defense technology – advanced power systems
- **Target customers**: U.S. military (Army, DIU), allied forces, and commercial customers requiring resilient battlefield power
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Ensure power is never the limiting factor in modern warfare” – enabling warfighters to operate with greater freedom by intelligently controlling and distributing power at the edge.

## Products & Services
- **Amphora Platform**: A family of transportable, modular hybrid power systems (Amphora 400, Amphora Edge Power, A24, A400) that integrate energy storage, conversion, and distribution. Supports voltages from 24 VDC to 400 VDC and power from 5 kW to 35 kW+. Designed for low signature (silent watch), fuel consumption reduction (up to 45%), and plug-and-play interoperability with MIL and non-MIL sources. Used for electronic warfare, directed energy, command & control, unmanned aerial systems, additive manufacturing, and medical applications.
- **Vanguard**: A compact, mobile power system for distributed sensing and persistent unattended operation, integrating with edge energy capture (solar, wind).
- **Software-defined power layer**: Real-time sensing, prioritization, and routing of power across mission-critical systems.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding raised – **$42 million** across 2 rounds (Seed + Series A)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**:
  - Lead Series A investor: **Andreessen Horowitz**
  - Other investors: DCVC, LMNT, Marlinspike, Overmatch, Shield Capital, Ensemble, Trenches Capital, General Catalyst, XYZ Venture Capital
  - Customers: U.S. Army, DIU Project GI, commercial customers
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Revenue generated within 12 months of founding
  - Headcount growth to 29 employees (as of May 2026)
  - Active hiring for electrical, mechanical, and software engineers
  - Products directly sold after force-on-force exercises

## Competitive Advantages
- **Software-defined power control**: Real-time, bi-directional power routing that mediates between multiple sources and loads, reducing fuel dependency.
- **Modular, low-signature design**: Enables silent watch, concealed operations, and rapid reconfiguration for diverse missions (EW, directed energy, C2, medical, additive manufacturing).
- **Interoperability**: Draws from tactical generators, idling vehicles, wall sockets, or environmental sources (solar, wind) and integrates with MIL-STD and non-MIL-STD equipment.
- **Proven traction**: Deployed in U.S. Army exercises and DIU programs within months of founding; customers include both defense and commercial entities.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale production** of Amphora systems to meet urgent demand
- **Develop an operating system** for command, control, and distribution of electric power on the battlefield
- **Expand engineering team** (mechanical, electrical, software) to accelerate product development and deployment
- **Win additional contracts** with U.S. military branches and allied forces

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Fast-paced defense tech startup with a team drawn from Tesla, Apple, Anduril, Uber, and Archer – high-tempo, mission-driven environment
- **Work style**: Likely on-site at San Bruno, CA (manufacturing and engineering roles listed on careers page)
- **Growth opportunity**: Small headcount (~29) means high impact and ownership; company is scaling rapidly with strong financial backing (a16z, General Catalyst)
- **Notable perks**: Not explicitly listed, but the chance to build “the power infrastructure that will define modern military operations” and work directly with end-users in the field

## Sources
1. [chariotdefense.com](https://www.chariotdefense.com/) – Product descriptions, use cases, team
2. [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/chariotdefense) – Careers page (3 open positions)
3. [prnewswire.com](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chariot-defense-announces-34m-series-a-led-by-andreessen-horowitz-to-scale-command-of-power-on-the-battlefield-302696144.html) – Series A announcement ($34M, Feb 2026)
4. [tracxn.com](https://tracxn.com/d/companies/chariot-defense/___q2qgGGTYPWKwsxYegFD3B0uGWn5fXf62hkFrAaqzrU) – Company profile, funding, headcount, investors
5. [theorg.com](https://theorg.com/org/chariot-defense) – Key team members (Founder & CEO, Head of Manufacturing, Head of Software)

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