Mechanical Design Engineering Team Lead

About pplwise

pplwise is a recruiting consultancy for fast-growing technology companies across Europe. Through Recruiting as a Service and Executive Search, we fill key roles for our clients, from start-ups to publicly listed companies. We are filling this position for our client Filics.

About our client: Filics

Filics is reinventing intralogistics with autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) that change how material moves. Its double-runner system makes Filics the first and only AMR that can drive through load carriers such as Euro pallets. This breaks with forklift logic and sets a new standard for efficiency. Filics is a small, hands-on team that solves hard problems with engineering excellence. Leadership goes to those who take initiative and consistently deliver. As Senior Mechanical Design Engineer (m/f/d) at Filics, you will lead the mechanical design of the robots as they move from prototype to series production.

About the role

This is an on-site/hybrid role in Munich, close to engineering and assembly.

Filics builds its own robot hardware in-house: mechanics, electronics and software. Orders are growing, and the robots are moving from prototypes to series production. Designs that worked in the lab now need to be built reliably, at scale and at the right cost. The hardest problems often sit between disciplines: parts that work on their own can fail once they're assembled with the electronics.

The mechanical team has four engineers, most of them at the start of their careers, and they need someone who guides them every day. You'll be the technical lead for the mechanical side of the product and the counterpart to the electronics lead, so the current mechanical manager can focus on core R&D. Your time splits roughly evenly between hands-on engineering and technical leadership. You'll work closely with Electronics, Production, Procurement and the CTO, and you'll set the engineering habits while the team is still small.

What you'll do

• Mentor the mechanical engineers day to day: help them make design decisions, set methods and keep projects focused

• Design parts and assemblies in CAD, including tolerancing, and check every design for manufacturability and cost before it goes out

• Lead testing and integration of mechanics and electronics, and solve the problems that only show once everything is assembled

• Prioritise incoming work, follow up on progress and make the day-to-day technical calls on the mechanical side

• Make the gated design process work in practice and run design reviews (safety, mechanics, electronics, manufacturability) before parts are integrated

• Put design for manufacturing and design for cost in place: fewer, standardised parts and production methods that scale

• Work with the electronics owner of each robot module from the first prototype on, and with Production on manufacturability and production jigs

• Build and iterate prototypes based on customer and field feedback

About you

• Several years of hands-on mechanical design in R&D at a company that develops and builds its own electromechanical products (e.g. power tools, home appliances, e-mobility, production machines, robotics, marine propulsion)

• A proven record of taking an electromechanical product from prototype to series production (ideally 1,000+ units a year) on a fast development cycle of about a year, not a decade-long program

• You still design hands-on in CAD, mainly metal parts and assemblies, with strong tolerancing skills (any CAD tool; Onshape is a plus)

• You've applied design for manufacturing and design for cost, and cut cost through design: fewer parts, standard parts

• At least two years of mentoring or technically guiding other engineers; a team-lead title isn't required

• Experience testing and integrating mechanics with electronics

• You've introduced processes, design reviews or engineering standards that helped a team deliver

• You handle unclear requirements and break complex problems down so others can work on them

• German is a plus, since production is mostly German-speaking

• Bonus: GD&T and tolerance stack-ups, design of production jigs, or projects with motors, motor controllers or electronics

What Filics offers

• A key role at an early stage: shape both the mechanical team and the product

• Real ownership of the mechanical side, from first prototype to series production

• A mix of hands-on engineering and leadership, with a path into team lead and engineering management as Filics grows

• Fast design cycles driven by customer and field feedback

• A small, high-caliber team with close collaboration across mechanics, electronics, software and production

• Fast growth: one year at Filics teaches you what usually takes many years at a large company

• An on-site/hybrid role in Munich, close to Engineering and Assembly

Sound like you? Apply with your CV.