Manufacturing Engineer

Job description

About Vital Lyfe Vital Lyfe is a tech company redefining water autonomy through innovation — creating a new category of personal water-making technology built to scale where infrastructure can’t. What You'll Do - Design, develop and optimize manufacturing processes and production lines for our desalination systems—from first builds through high-rate production. - Lead DFM/DFA initiatives: tooling, fixtures, robot end-effectors, conveyors, automation programming, control systems. - Work cross-functionally to select equipment, define cycle-times, yield targets, cost-per-unit, quality metrics. - Develop work instructions, process flows, layout designs; implement and validate manufacturing methods for new systems. - Own continuous-improvement efforts: reduce cost, increase throughput, improve reliability and uptime in a fast-moving hardware startup environment. - Collaborate with procurement, quality, test, integration teams and external vendors/suppliers to ensure smooth scale-up & ramp-out of manufacturing. What We’re Looking For Required: - Bachelor’s in Engineering (Mechanical, Manufacturing, Industrial or equivalent). - 2+ years professional experience in manufacturing engineering, process development or production optimization (including internships). - Strong CAD (SolidWorks / other) experience and familiarity with manufacturing automation, tooling & fixture design. - Hands-on mindset: comfortable designing the process and also working with operators & equipment to validate and refine. - Strong problem-solving skills, ability to operate in ambiguous/higher-growth environment, clear communicator across teams. Preferred: - Experience in consumer hardware production, or systems with high-volume manufacturing. - Knowledge of pumps, valves, pressure vessels, fluid systems or broadly mechanical-hardware manufacturing. - Experience with automation programming, conveyors, robotics, fluid/pressure equipment. - Familiarity with Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, statistical process control (SPC). - Experience in a hardware startup or mission-driven organization. Physical Job Requirements - Essential Functions - Hands on work on development hardware. - Long periods of standing, crouching, walking. - Lifting up to 50 lbs. Why Join Vital Lyfe? - Work on high-impact problems with global relevance - Help scale breakthrough technology in water security and climate resilience - Early ownership in a high-growth, engineering-led startup - Join a tight-knit, mission-driven team in a fast-paced environment - Build long-term career equity as we grow Location Requirement: Ability to work 100% onsite in Torrance, CA (remote or hybrid work will not be considered) Vital Lyfe is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vital Lyfe 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.