---
title: 'Mechanical Engineer at Distributed Spectrum'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-distributed-spectrum-new-york-vtmcyxe5gdrn'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-05'
---

# Mechanical Engineer at Distributed Spectrum

- **Company:** Distributed Spectrum
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2025-03-18
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/distributed-spectrum/am9icG9zdDqBI6ES0-TDSUeupL6myx31

## Job description

We’re hiring a Mechanical Engineer to design, build, and refine the hardware that houses and protects our sensors. You’ll be responsible for everything from sensor form-factor design to improving system performance and streamlining assembly processes. This role is hands-on—you won’t just design; you’ll be assembling sensors, taking in feedback from the field, and continuously improving how we manufacture at scale.

We move fast and iterate constantly. We’re looking for someone who’s talented, resourceful, and eager to learn—someone who can take ownership of mechanical design challenges but isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty figuring out how to make things work in the real world.

What you’ll do:

- Design and optimize payload enclosures across airborne, maritime, and ground domains.
- Improve the form factor, durability, and assembly process for existing sensors.
- Assemble sensors, test them in the field, and integrate feedback to refine our designs.
- Continuously improve manufacturing processes to increase efficiency and reliability.
- Operate in a fast-paced, high-iteration environment.
- Grow fast with real opportunities – We’ll keep expanding your scope and giving you bigger challenges to help you reach your goals. If you don’t know exactly what role you want to grow into, you’ll have the freedom to take on different responsibilities and find the right path. Who we’re looking for (every role):
- Fast learners over specific backgrounds – We care more about how quickly you can pick up new skills than where you’ve worked before.
- Intellectual honesty – The right answer matters more than being right. You challenge assumptions, test ideas, and pivot when needed.
- Adaptability – We’re organized, but sometimes things change quickly. You find a way to make it work and balance short term deliverables with long term goals.
- Ownership of outcomes – You optimize your own time, focus on what matters to deliver quickly, and cut out inefficiencies.
- Not building in a vacuum – You stay connected to the rest of our teams and our customers to make sure all the pieces fit together. Who we’re looking for (this role):
- A strong mechanical engineer who may be early in their career but has serious talent and potential.
- Someone scrappy and adaptable—you figure things out and aren’t afraid to take on new challenges.
- Excited to learn quickly and take on increasing responsibility.
- Experience with thermal analysis, mechanical design, manufacturing processes, and assembly—you understand the fundamentals but are eager to push beyond them. What We Offer:
- Above-market salary, equity, and benefits package. In accordance with NY regulations, the salary range for this position is $100,000-$300,000 to cover a broad range of candidate experience.
- Excellent health, dental, and vision coverage
- 401(k) match - 100% up to 4% of salary
- Unlimited PTO
- Daily office lunches in NYC

## About Distributed Spectrum

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Distributed Spectrum builds AI-powered software and sensors that use commodity hardware to detect, identify, and track radio signals for defense and security missions.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Venture-backed; Series A)
- **Headquarters**: New York, New York, United States
- **Founded**: 2020
- **Founders**: Alex Wulff (CEO), Ben Harpe (COO), Isaac Struhl (CTO)

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Defense technology, signal processing, electronic warfare, artificial intelligence
- Target customers: U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community (IC), and other government/security stakeholders (B2G)
- Mission or purpose statement: To let anyone understand critical radio signals in any mission, bridging the gap between $100 off-the-shelf hardware and existing $1M+ legacy systems.

## Products & Services
- **Distributed Spectrum Platform**: An AI-enabled software platform that processes radio frequency data locally on edge devices. It identifies and tracks threats (carried, driven, or left behind) and provides real-time alerts and autonomous threat mapping without requiring expensive hardware or trained experts. Type: SaaS + Hardware (sensors).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$25.2M** (Series A of $25M led by Shield Capital and Conviction in April 2025; prior funding includes a $231,904 NSF Grant in 2021)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Shield Capital, Conviction (Sarah Guo), Nat Friedman (NFDG), National Science Foundation
- **Growth Signals**: Secured $7M in contracts across DoD and IC within 60 days prior to their Series A. Headcount grew 111% YoY (from ~12 to 32 employees as of mid-2025). The company has filed 6 patents, with one granted in August 2025 for "Radio-frequency signal processing systems and methods."

## Competitive Advantages
- **Software-Defined Disruption**: Shifts focus from expensive, bespoke hardware to modular, flexible software that works with commodity hardware, disrupting entrenched players with $1M+ systems.
- **Edge AI & Autonomy**: Processes data locally on the sensor to map threats autonomously, reducing latency and the need for human experts in the field.
- **Deep Technical Moat**: Combines expertise in machine learning, signal processing, and embedded systems—a "net-new, technically hard problem" with no existing blueprint.
- **Founding Team**: Founders have deep domain experience at Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Google, and Bridgewater.

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling the engineering and AI/ML teams to meet oversubscribed demand from DoD and IC.
- Developing "RF Foundation Models" to advance machine learning for radio frequency analysis.
- Expanding from a team of 7 engineers to a larger, multi-disciplinary organization while maintaining high ownership and in-person collaboration.

## Why Work Here
- **Impact**: Solve a net-new, technically hard problem at the intersection of machine learning, embedded systems, and national security. "Too oversubscribed with demand to work on anything that's not mission critical."
- **Culture**: High growth, high ownership, and "trust by default." The team values scientific and mathematical fundamentals over cargo-culting solutions from other fields.
- **Work Environment**: **In-person, 5 days per week** in New York City (99 Madison Ave, 4th Floor). The company believes in solving problems side-by-side with talented thought partners.
- **Team**: Currently ~32 people, growing fast. Backed by world-class investors including Sarah Guo (Conviction) and Nat Friedman.
- **Open Roles**: Engineering (Embedded, RF, Systems Integration), AI/ML (RF Foundation Models), Growth (Mission Operations), and Operations.

## Sources
1. [distributedspectrum.com](https://www.distributedspectrum.com/)
2. [distributedspectrum.com/about](https://www.distributedspectrum.com/about)
3. [linkedin.com/company/distributed-spectrum](https://www.linkedin.com/company/distributed-spectrum)
4. [cbinsights.com/company/distributed-spectrum](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/distributed-spectrum)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/distributed-spectrum](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/distributed-spectrum)

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