Manufacturing Engineer, Freeform
New Grad January 2026
$90-95k
+ Stock option packages
Metal 3D printing factories
Be an early applicant
Metal 3D printing factories
21-100 employees
Be an early applicant
$90-95k
+ Stock option packages
21-100 employees
Company mission
To make the transformative power of 3D printing available to all industries at scale and unlock the future of innovation.
Role
Who you are
- 3D printing experience is not required to be successful here - rather we look for smart, motivated, collaborative individuals who love solving hard problems and creating amazing technology!
- Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, aerospace, or manufacturing engineering from an ABET-accredited university or college
- Hands on manufacturing or build experience from internships or engineering clubs such as FSAE, Baja SAE, solar car, rocket club, robotics club, or similar
- Experience working with hand tools, machinery, or complex hardware assembly
Desirable
- Advanced degree (Master's, PhD) in mechanical, aerospace, or manufacturing engineering
- Experience with CNC machining, including 3 or 5-axis programming and/or setup
- Experience with metal additive manufacturing or precision post-processing
- Exposure to fixturing, DFM, or process validation
- Experience scaling early-stage R&D into production
- Familiarity with MRP/ERP tools and lightweight production tracking systems
- Familiarity with manufacturing process development in a fast-paced hardware environment
- Ability to translate high-level engineering goals into practical factory processes
- Comfortable working in fast-paced, ambiguous environments and iterating quickly (comfortable building the plane as we fly it)
- Strong communicator who collaborates across disciplines and proactively seeks support when needed
- Willing to take ownership of tasks big and small, with a hands-on, problem-solving mindset
- Strong work ethic with a refuse-to-fail mindset
- Demonstrated indicators of excellence and/or achieving success against adversity (i.e. top academic performance, leadership in engineering clubs, first-generation college student, or other examples of resilience and achievement)
What the job involves
- As a Manufacturing Engineer at Freeform, you’ll be at the forefront of scaling production for high-performance metal 3D printed parts
- You’ll work with a talented engineering team from some of the world’s most innovative companies across a range of projects to develop and refine the processes, tooling, and CNC machining workflows that enable precision manufacturing at speed and scale
- This role is hands-on and fast-paced, ideal for someone eager to learn and contribute to the development of our autonomous metal 3D printing factories
- You’ll focus on optimizing post-processing and machining operations, helping to bridge the gap between R&D and production
- Work closely with engineers to design and implement scalable manufacturing processes for new hardware and printed parts
- Support part flow through the factory by improving fixturing, test procedures, and post-processing steps
- Develop lightweight documentation and process standards to support scaling production without slowing engineering iteration
- Build and iterate on tooling, jigs, and test setups to support reliable, high-throughput production
- Help identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in how parts, materials, and data move through the factory, and work with cross-functional teams to improve them
- Support early production of high-performance printed parts, helping bridge the gap between R&D and high-rate manufacturing
- Contribute to CNC machining workflows, including programming, setup, and optimization of multi-axis operations for post-processing of printed parts
Our take
There is a huge amount of demand for precision metal fabrication in future-focused industries such as rocketry and vehicle manufacturing, but legacy production techniques are too slow and inflexible to meet the requirements of rapidly changing designs in the most innovative firms. Enter Freeform Future, a company which builds metal 3D printing factories to allow manufacturers to swiftly and efficiently go from idea to mass production.
Founded by engineers with extensive experience at SpaceX, Freeform seeks to replace existing metal fabrication works - typified with heavy reliance on manual labour and legacy processes - with 3D printers and automated software technologies. Rather than needing to train a large workforce on production techniques, Freeform will be able to print almost any metal item at production scale on demand, with a turnaround time of days rather than weeks.
Though having only emerged from stealth in 2023, Freeform has some large-scale customers including autonomous trucking firm Embark and rocket part manufacturer, Ursa Major. After raising significant funding in early 2023, the company is moving from prototype to production, scaling up its operations to meet the growing demand for rapidly produced, high-quality metal components.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
57% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Oct 2024
$14m
EARLY VC
Feb 2023
$45m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $59m
Company benefits
- Significant stock option packages
- 100% employer-paid Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance (premium PPO and HMO options)
- Life insurance
- Traditional and Roth 401(k)
- Relocation assistance provided
- Paid vacation, sick leave, and company holidays
- Generous Paid Parental Leave and extended transition back to work for the birthing parent
- Free daily catered lunch and dinner, and fully stocked kitchenette
- Casual dress, flexible work hours, and regular catered team building events
Company HQ
Hawthorne, CA
Leadership
Erik Palitsch
(CEO)Previously was Propulsion Development Manager at SpaceX. Before that was a Solid Propulsion Systems Engineer for NASA.
Thomas Ronacher
(President)Before co-founding Freeform, was VP Hardware Engineering at Hyperloop One and Thermal System Lead for Virgin Galactic. Prior to that was Principal Design Engineer with Seal Science and Senior Propulsion Analyst at SpaceX.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job
View 23 more jobs at Freeform