Full-Time
Lead Manufacturing Engineer
Zoo
51-200 employees
GPU-powered hardware design toolkit and services
Compensation Overview
$145k - $195k/yr
Los Angeles, CA, USA
In Person
 Manufacturing & Process Engineering (1) |
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- At least 8 years of experience in manufacturing engineering, machining, precision manufacturing, or hardware production environments.
- Strong hands-on experience with computer numerical control machining, including mills, lathes, setups, tooling, feeds, speeds, offsets, and process optimization.
- Experience programming using computer-aided manufacturing software and editing machine code at the controller.
- Experience developing and improving manufacturing processes for prototypes and/or production hardware.
- Strong understanding of machining principles, materials, tolerances, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, and manufacturing methods.
- Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, computer-aided design models, and technical specifications.
- Experience building and scaling manufacturing teams.
- Strong troubleshooting and root-cause analysis skills across machining, tooling, fixtures, and manufacturing workflows.
- Strong operational mindset with the ability to balance prototype urgency, production quality, and manufacturing scalability.
- Strong organizational, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- High attention to detail, craftsmanship, and pride in building high-quality hardware systems.
- Lead day-to-day manufacturing and machine shop operations, including scheduling, workflow management, equipment readiness, and production prioritization.
- Develop and optimize manufacturing processes for prototypes, fixtures, production hardware, and internal tooling.
- Program, set up, and operate computer numerical control mills, computer numerical control lathes, manual machines, and fabrication equipment to manufacture precision components.
- Partner with engineering teams to evaluate manufacturability, tolerances, materials, assembly considerations, and production readiness.
- Translate computer-aided design models, engineering drawings, and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing requirements into robust and repeatable manufacturing processes.
- Develop tooling, fixturing, workholding solutions, and process documentation to improve throughput, repeatability, and quality.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives across cycle time reduction, process optimization, scrap reduction, uptime, and manufacturing scalability.
- Establish manufacturing standards, shop procedures, quality controls, and operational best practices.
- Support new product introduction efforts from prototype through early production builds.
- Inspect and validate finished components using calipers, micrometers, indicators, coordinate measuring machine tools, and other metrology equipment.
- Troubleshoot machining issues, dimensional nonconformities, tooling wear, machine performance problems, and manufacturing bottlenecks.
- Help design and build future manufacturing facilities, shop layouts, workflows, and production infrastructure.
- Manage tooling, consumables, raw materials, spare components, and manufacturing equipment readiness.
- Coordinate with external vendors, fabrication houses, and manufacturing partners when overflow or specialized production support is required.
- Support hiring, training, mentorship, and development of machinists, technicians, and future manufacturing team members.
- Maintain a safe, clean, organized, and operationally disciplined manufacturing environment.
KittyCAD.io provides infrastructure for hardware design, offering a GPU-powered engine with remote streaming and an Open API to support both pre-built tools and client-developed applications. Its Modeling AppPublic Alpha combines point-and-click CAD with code editing, and its Text-to-CAD interface helps automate workflows. The product suite accelerates design processes through machine learning and autoscaling infrastructure, while reducing hardware requirements and costs. KittyCAD.io differentiates itself with a GPU-accelerated, streaming-enabled platform that works across devices and operating systems, and by offering customizable tooling via an Open API, allowing hobbyists, startups, and enterprises to build, deploy, and scale hardware design tools more efficiently. The company’s goal is to save engineering time and resources, enable flexible tool development, and lower the barriers to hardware design by providing scalable, automated infrastructure.
Company Size
51-200
Company Stage
Seed
Total Funding
$5M
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Founded
2021
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- May 2025 launch of Zoo Design Studio expanded from alpha to subscription revenue.
- February 2026 Zookeeper and image-to-CAD upgrades deepen product stickiness and usage.
- SOC 2 Type II completion in 2026 unlocks enterprise procurement and regulated customers.
What critics are saying
- OpenAPI and self-hosted competitors can copy workflow integration by 2026-2027.
- Zoo's pricing still meters direct API usage, risking churn among high-volume developers.
- If Text-to-CAD adoption stalls, Zoo loses its core wedge against incumbents like Autodesk.
What makes Zoo unique
- Zoo Design Studio unifies point-and-click, code, and text prompts in one CAD environment.
- Zoo's GPU-based cloud geometry engine powers API-accessible, dynamically scalable hardware design workflows.
- Zookeeper embeds a conversational CAD agent directly into Zoo Design Studio, launched February 2026.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
401(k) Retirement Plan
Hybrid Work Options
Unlimited Paid Time Off
Remote Work Options
Stock Options
Competitive Equity
Wellness Program
Company News
The First Professional CAD Platform Powered by Generative AI LOS ANGELES, May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Zoo, a company that creates infrastructure for hardware design, today announced the launch of Zoo Design Studio, a unified CAD suite for engineering and manufacturing companies of all sizes. Included in Zoo Design Studio is Text-to-CAD, a feature that enables design engineers to leverage the power of generative AI to create complex designs in seconds. The new service is available via subscription, starting from free and with advanced features included in paid tiers, from $99 per month. Zoo Design Studio allows customers to flexibly weave edits to their designs between traditional point-and-click interactions, programmatic interactions with code, and text prompt interactions via Text-to-CAD. This allows the customer to choose any of these three approaches within one common environment. Zoo Design Studio is built using their proprietary geometry engine, which is the world's first to be GPU-based, cloud-implemented, API-accessible, and dynamically scalable
KittyCAD Closes $5M Seed Financing Back to HomeMALIBU, CA, KittyCAD a company developing advanced tools for hardware design, has closed a $5M Series Seed financing led by Venrex Partners.KittyCAD a company developing advanced tools for hardware design, has closed a $5M Series Seed financing led by Venrex Partners, a UK-based Venture Capital firm. The round also included participation from USC's Viterbi School of Engineering, Gaingels, Kelvin Beachum, Matt Terrell, Undeterred Capital, Liquid 2, Tom Preston-Werner's Family Office, Madrona Venture Group, Bernie Lagrange, and Nat Friedman.(c)2011-2020 by Massinvestor, Inc. For contact info, please check out our about page
KittyCAD, a company that develops advanced tools for hardware design, has released geometry engine capabilities on its application programming interface.
/PRNewswire/ -- KittyCAD, the world's only company to develop advanced tools for hardware design, announced today the release of first-ever geometry engine...
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