---
title: 'Mechanical Engineer at Scout AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-scout-ai-sunnyvale-y9xbcktdjer7'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Mechanical Engineer at Scout AI

- **Company:** Scout AI
- **Location:** Sunnyvale, CA
- **Compensation:** $110k–$205k
- **Posted:** 2026-08-12
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/scoutai/jobs/5387662008

## Job description

The future of defense will be decided by those who field intelligent machines at scale. At Scout, we’re developing Fury, the first robotic foundation model for defense, to give U.S. forces overwhelming, adaptable, and autonomous power across every domain. Fury enables human operators to command fleets of robots through natural language, and empowers those machines to sense, decide, and act together as one. This mission will ask everything of us: urgency, precision, and relentless work.

## The Role

As a mechanical engineer you will take full ownership of the hardware development across Scout’s robotic platforms. You'll design, build, and validate everything from vehicle testbeds to ruggedized compute enclosures and field-ready payload integrations. You'll help define requirements.

This role means rapidly iterating on real-world systems, designing for environmental resilience. You’ll work across disciplines and domains, collaborating tightly with our software engineers, mission operations team, and external partners to ensure our systems deliver dominance in the field. You’ll be moving fast, context-switching daily, and helping define the culture and process as we go. This is a rare opportunity to come in early and architect the hardware foundation for the AGI-powered future of defense.

## Responsibilities

- Lead the design, build, and deployment of mechanical and electromechanical systems across ground, maritime, and aerial platforms
- Architect autonomy systems, including component selection for compute modules, communication devices, networking components, and sensors
- Design rugged enclosures to house custom electronics - own the process from napkin sketch through prototyping and environmental qualification
- Own all mechanical roles related to testing: fixture design, hardware selection, wiring, environmental sealing, and system validation
- Integrate hardware with electrical and software systems in field-ready robotic platforms
- Collaborate closely with mission operations and software/autonomy teams to ensure real-world readiness and performance
- Troubleshoot hardware in the shop and in the field
- Develop scalable, rugged, and modular hardware architectures that can evolve across mission types and environments
- Author documentation for test plans, validation results, integration procedures, and hardware specs
- Contribute to a rapid, iterative development loop between R&D and mission deployment

## Qualifications

- 3+ years of experience in mechanical, electrical, mechatronics, or hardware test engineering, preferably in robotics, aerospace, automotive, or defense
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering
- Strong 3D CAD skills to design fixtures, enclosures, and electromechanical systems
- Experience architecting systems and selecting sensors, communications, and compute
- Hands-on experience with ruggedized electronics design and qualification
- Comfortable working with electrical engineers to define PCBA outlines and mechanical interfaces, including thermal management and connector selection
- Broad test and analysis skills in the areas of thermal, structural, fluid, shock & vibe and environmental
- Strong communication, documentation, and cross-disciplinary collaboration skills
- Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export controlled information or facilities
- Passion about defense of the United States and its allies
- May be expected to obtain and hold a U.S. Top Secret security clearance

## Why Join Scout

- Work on the world’s most important frontier, ensuring U.S. and allied dominance in the age of intelligent machines
- Be a core part of a team building the first defense-specific robotic foundation model
- Collaborate with some of the top engineers in autonomy, AI, and national security
- See your work deployed on real systems
- Backed by investors including Draper Associates and Booz Allen Ventures

## Benefits

- Competitive compensation package including base salary and bonus
- Meaningful equity
- Premium medical, dental, and vision plans with $0 paycheck contribution
- Competitive PTO and company holiday calendar
- Catered lunch daily and fully stocked kitchen
- EV charging
- Relocation assistance (depending on role eligibility)

The stated salary range below represents an estimated base pay only and reflects consideration of multiple compensation factors. Final salary offers may differ depending on factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience or training background, specialized skills, and business needs. Most full-time positions also include highly competitive equity awards, which form part of Scout AI's overall compensation package. In addition, Scout AI provides comprehensive, top-tier benefits to full-time employees.

US Salary Range $110,000—$205,000 USD

## About Scout AI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Scout AI builds Fury, the first foundation model for defense robotics, enabling intelligent, autonomous unmanned systems for the U.S. military and its allies.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Funding: Series A at $100M)
- **Headquarters**: Sunnyvale, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Colby Adcock (CEO) and Collin Otis (CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Defense and Space Manufacturing
- **Target customers**: U.S. Department of Defense, allied forces, defense contractors (B2G / B2B)
- **Mission**: “Enable the largest robot army in the world for the good guys” – a Silicon Valley values-driven approach to AI for national security.

## Products & Services
- **[Fury](https://scoutco.ai/)**: A multimodal Vision-Language-Action foundation model that turns any uncrewed platform (ground, air, sea, space) into an intelligent, collaborative teammate. Key capabilities:
  - Operates in real time in GPS-denied and communications-denied environments with no cloud dependency.
  - Uses only passive sensors (RGB or thermal camera); no LIDAR or radar required.
  - Supports natural language commands (voice, text, map inputs) and robot-to-robot communication for swarm coordination.
  - Built entirely on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware for low-cost, high-rate manufacturing.
  - Self-improving at the tactical edge through imitation learning and simulation.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of **$115M** – Seed round ($15M, April 2025) and Series A ($100M, April 2026) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/scout-ai-official).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Booz Allen Ventures, Align Ventures, **Draper Associates** (Series A lead), Perot Jain. Growing network of defense ecosystem partners [scoutco.ai/company](https://scoutco.ai/company).
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew **192.9% YoY** to 30 employees (as of mid-2026). 23 active job postings across AI, robotics, mission operations, and business development. Strong talent inflow from Anduril, Google, Kodiak, and U.S. Army [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/scout-ai-official) | [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/scoutai).

## Competitive Advantages
- **First‑of‑its‑kind foundation model for defense robotics (Fury)** – not a narrow autonomy stack but a generalizable, multi-domain AI brain.
- **Hardware‑agnostic** – works with existing platforms and COTS components, enabling rapid integration without proprietary hardware lock-in.
- **Low‑power, passive sensing** – requires only a single camera stream, minimizing cost, weight, and electronic signature.
- **Natural language swarm coordination** – one operator can command fleets of heterogeneous robots, turning the current 1:1 operator‑robot ratio into a 1:many force multiplier.
- **Edge‑native design** – fully autonomous operation without connectivity, cloud, or GPS.

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling Fury across all domains (ground, air, sea, space) and expanding partnerships with defense primes.
- Building out high‑rate, low‑cost manufacturing pipelines using COTS hardware.
- Aggressively hiring AI researchers, robotics engineers, and mission operators to maintain technology leadership.
- Positioning the U.S. and its allies to outpace adversaries (e.g., China) in robotic autonomy.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission‑driven**: Work on “the world’s most important frontier” – AI for national defense, with a stated commitment to democratic values.
- **Early‑stage rocket ship**: 192% YoY headcount growth; employees have direct impact on a small, lean team (30 people).
- **Culture**: Engineering‑heavy (32% technical headcount), with talent from top defense tech (Anduril, Kodiak), big tech (Google), and the military.
- **Work model**: On‑site in Sunnyvale, CA (HQ) and Paso Robles, CA (test & operations). Hybrid/remote limited – most roles are location‑specific.
- **Hot roles**: AI Engineers, AI Researchers, Robotics Software Engineers, Mission Operators (drone/ground systems), and Business Development for air dominance [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/scoutai).

## Sources
1. [scoutco.ai](https://scoutco.ai/) – company homepage, technology overview
2. [scoutco.ai/company](https://scoutco.ai/company) – mission, leadership, funding, partners
3. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/scout-ai-official) – headcount, growth, financials, talent sources
4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/scout-ai-scoutcoai) – company culture, perks, job listings
5. [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/scoutai) – active job postings (23 roles)

## Other roles at Scout AI

- [Senior Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-mechanical-engineer-scout-ai-sunnyvale-be8f8aqbcec4) — Sunnyvale, CA
- [Drone Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/drone-technician-scout-ai-sunnyvale-a2t93vt0b5qk) — Sunnyvale, CA
- [Manufacturing Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineer-scout-ai-sunnyvale-n6es17h6swqx) — Sunnyvale, CA
- [Senior Embedded Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-embedded-software-engineer-scout-ai-sunnyvale-6mzt9hkp6k76) — Sunnyvale, CA
- [Mission Operator - UAV](https://feeny.ai/job/mission-operator-uav-scout-ai-paso-robles-3nfpevdqc4m9) — Paso Robles, CA
- [GTM Senior Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/gtm-senior-program-manager-scout-ai-sunnyvale-california-7es52hv9gwga) — Sunnyvale California, United States
- [Staff Software Engineer, Agent Harnessing](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-agent-harnessing-scout-ai-us-sunnyvale-xpeb1agamx5m) — US Sunnyvale, CA
- [Senior IT Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-it-systems-engineer-scout-ai-sunnyvale-8bedy1s9fyv8) — Sunnyvale, CA
- [Vehicle Integration Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/vehicle-integration-technician-scout-ai-sunnyvale-california-ydhss2kymh0x) — Sunnyvale California, United States
- [Senior AI Researcher](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-ai-researcher-scout-ai-us-sunnyvale-zqbb607t3a7q) — US Sunnyvale, CA