Staff R&D Scientist, Mechanical

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 functio