Mechanical Engineering & Simulation Expert, Hephaestus

Role Overview

Mercor is seeking experienced mechanical engineers to build and validate technical tasks for AI systems working on product design, engineering analysis, and simulation. The work focuses on native CAD and analysis artifacts, physically sound models, reproducible solver runs, and measurable design outcomes.

Contributors develop tasks within their specialties, including CAD and assemblies, structural or thermal analysis, fluid mechanics, and manufacturing engineering. CAD evaluation, finite-element analysis, and computational fluid dynamics are distinct workflows; the modeling and verification method should fit the task.

Key Responsibilities

• Create realistic engineering problems with native geometry, assemblies, materials, loads, boundary conditions, and design requirements.
• Build and debug analysis models in relevant areas such as stress and deformation, thermal behavior, vibration, or fluid flow. For simulation tasks, assess mesh quality, convergence, sensitivity, and physical consistency.
• Produce reference solutions and reproducible CAD, FEA, or CFD workflows using tools appropriate to the problem, such as SolidWorks, FreeCAD, CATIA, ANSYS, CalculiX, OpenFOAM, or equivalents.
• Define checks for dimensions, assembly relationships, mass properties, manufacturability, stress, displacement, temperature, pressure drop, or other relevant outputs. Apply numerical checks, artifact inspection, and engineering judgment where each is appropriate.
• Package native files, solver settings, scripts, and results; document assumptions and limitations so another engineer can reproduce the work.
• Validate reference outcomes and incorrect cases, review AI-generated artifacts, and diagnose whether failures arise from the design, model setup, numerical method, or verification logic.
• Apply relevant standards and methods, including ASME or ISO, GD&T, DFM/DFA, and reliability analysis.

Ideal Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional mechanical engineering experience, with direct ownership of product designs, engineering analysis, manufacturing processes, or validation.
• Recent hands-on depth in one or more relevant CAD, FEA, CFD, or thermal-analysis workflows. Expertise across all specialties or all named packages is not required.
• Ability to automate analysis or inspect results using Python, MATLAB, shell scripts, or comparable tools, with coding-agent assistance where useful.
• Strong judgment about model fidelity, material behavior, boundary conditions, numerical convergence, and physical plausibility.
• Clear technical communication and a disciplined approach to reproducible engineering work.
• A professional engineering credential and prior test automation, design documentation, or engineering-training experience are a plus.

Compensation

• Writers: $70, $80/hour.
• Reviewers: $90/hour.