Staff R&D Scientist, Mechanical (Santa Barbara)

Job Title: Staff R&D Scientist, Mechanical

Reports to: Chief Technology Officer

FLSA Status: Full time, Regular, Salary, Exempt

Location: Santa Barbara, California

Supervisory Responsibility: None; individual contributor

About Us

At Dimer Instruments we’re creating the next generation of laboratory and process analytical tools for the pharmaceutical market. Our products use multiple light-based spectroscopic methods to interrogate solutions containing molecules and particles, providing researchers not just with data but with organized information allowing them to make informed decisions, and providing automated Process systems with the feedback required for Quality by Design. At Dimer you’ll be working with a high-quality, high-performing, highly collaborative, and enjoyable team of Engineers and Scientists to create products that make a difference in the world. We have fun while we’re creating great products.

Summary

The Staff R&D Scientist, Mechanical is the senior mechanical mind on a team building precision scientific instruments. This is a hands-on research and development role for someone who is equally comfortable deriving the governing equations, cutting the parts, and running the experiment that proves the design works. Reporting to the CTO, the Staff R&D Scientist, Mechanical will invent and develop precision mechanical and electro-mechanical systems (e.g., micron-level adjustable opto-mechanical assemblies, thermal and motion subsystems, sheet metal and chassis structures, injection-molded parts, and motorized moving elements) and will own system-level architecture and integration across the mechanical, optical, electrical, thermal, and software subsystems that make up a Dimer instrument.

The role spans the full arc of product development: initial math, analysis, and simulation; mechanism and measurement-system design; proof-of-concept prototypes; system prototypes; transfer from R&D into Manufacturing; and support of product release and early rapid improvement. We are looking for someone who is scientifically rigorous, able to theoretically understand and experimentally tease apart subtle contributors to instrument performance, and also action-oriented, arriving at quick, practical, and manufacturable solutions. The instruments you design must produce research-grade data and survive the real world: shipped to Japan or Europe without falling out of alignment, and operating reliably in sometimes non-ideal laboratory conditions.

This role is a strong fit for a mechanical, robotics, mechatronics, or precision-engineering Ph.D. who wants to keep doing research-caliber work on a product that ships. Candidates from robotics, medical device, aerospace, semiconductor equipment, and other precision instrument backgrounds are encouraged to apply; experience with our specific measurement modalities is not required. The successful candidate will not shy away from the sometimes less glamorous work of writing assembly and alignment work instructions, building manufacturing tools (which can be complicated instruments in their own right), and contributing to user documentation. They will be highly collaborative, both with Dimer staff across the organization and with external researchers, and willing to present the science and engineering behind Dimer products at conferences, trade shows, customer sites, and for internal training.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Invent, model, and experimentally demonstrate novel mechanical and electro-mechanical mechanisms that solve measurement problems, carrying concepts from first principles through proof of concept and into production designs.
• Generate expert-level mechanical engineering designs for research, development, and sustaining efforts, including tolerance analysis and finite element analysis (FEA) as needed.
• Design precision mechanical systems and provide designs for sheet metal chassis, front panels, simple injection-molded parts, and electro-mechanical systems (e.g., doors opening).
• Own and drive the system-level architecture and design of laboratory analytical instrument products, integrating mechanical, optical, electrical, thermal, and software subsystems into a coherent whole that meets market requirements.
• Define and manage system-level requirements, interfaces, and specifications across subsystems, ensuring designs remain robust for real-world conditions and global shipment (e.g., withstanding transport and environmental variation without optical misalignment, and reliably operating in non-ideal laboratory conditions).
• Perform math, simulation, and analysis to predict real-world performance of physical systems (e.g., thermal behavior and cooling rates of thermoelectric assemblies, mechanical stability and vibration, precision motion and settling, and tolerance stack-up across subsystems).
• Design, build, and demonstrate prototypes — at both the mechanism and full-system level — that prove out integrated performance and functionality across measurement modalities.
• Create solid models, 2D prints from 3D models, and complex assemblies using GD&T (Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing).
• Contribute to Design Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (DFMEA) and mitigation analysis, including system/architectural level designs that achieve field serviceability requirements.
• Provide root cause analysis for failures and improve designs to mitigate those failures.
• Improve engineering and operations processes, such as engineering change order flow, vendor qualification procedures, and engineering change order implementation.
• Develop tools and procedures for manufacturing that improve efficiency, product yield, and reduce costs.
• Use programming and scripting to automate measurements, characterization, and manufacturing steps (e.g., calibrating a component as a function of temperature) and to analyze the resulting data.
• Generate manufacturing procedures, work instructions, and assembly documentation as needed, including alignment and calibration methods used in production.
• Generate user-facing procedures and documentation as needed.
• Collaborate closely with Optical, Electrical, and Software Engineers and with in-house Application Scientists, and with external academic and industry researchers.
• Provide cost and schedule estimates for various tasks.
• Manage projects and tasks to company-defined schedules and budgets.
• Lead technical design reviews with multidisciplinary teams and upper management.
• Create and present, internally and externally, explanations of the science and engineering that power Dimer Instruments products.
• Contribute to scientific publications, conference presentations, and patent applications.
• Perform other tasks as assigned by your supervisor.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, Precision Engineering, or a closely related field is strongly preferred. An M.S. in one of those fields with four (4) years of relevant industry or research experience, or a B.S. with six (6) years, will also be considered.
• Demonstrated hands-on record of designing, fabricating, and experimentally evaluating precision mechanical or electro-mechanical systems — design and analysis work backed by hardware that was built and measured, not simulation alone.
• Demonstrated experience with system-level engineering and integration of multidisciplinary (mechanical, optical, electrical, thermal, and software) instruments or complex electro-mechanical products, including requirements definition and system-level analysis and simulation.
• Strong foundation in engineering mathematics, mechanics, dynamics, and thermal analysis, with the ability to predict real-world performance analytically and validate it experimentally.
• Demonstrated ability to carry a design from concept through prototype and into production, including support of manufacturing.
• Strong problem-solving skills. Able to work independently and as part of a team.
• Proven ability to communicate complex technical concepts to a variety of audiences, both written and verbally.
• Must have the social “soft skills” required to be collaborative across the organization. Socially adept, able to navigate different groups and functions with competing needs, and able to work with stakeholders to create solutions requiring compromise.
• Must be able to understand and communicate well in English, both spoken and written, and be able to write reports, work instructions, business correspondence, procedures, and manuals.
• Must be able to present work in an organized way for project and design reviews.

Additional Skills (Preferred, Not Required)

• SolidWorks specifically, including large-assembly management and PDM.
• ANSYS specifically, or a comparable commercial FEA package, including modal and transient thermal analysis.
• Building instrument control, test, or data-analysis tooling in Python, MATLAB, or C++ beyond single-purpose scripts.
• Mechatronics, motion control, and robotics: precision stages, actuators, encoders, servo and feedback control, and hardware–software integration.
• Thermoelectric cooling and heating design, thermal uniformity across a plate or array, and transient thermal control.
• Opto-mechanical design for alignment stability through shipping, shock, and thermal cycling.
• Design for manufacturability and vendor managemen]]>