Full-Time

Mechanical Engineer

Robotics

Updated on 9/3/2026

TAR

TAR

11-50 employees

Off-grid power plants for AI data centers

No salary listed

San Francisco, CA, USA

Hybrid

Regular field time is required at the GW-scale campus in West Texas.

Category
Mechanical Engineering (1)
Required Skills
3D Modeling
Robotics
SolidWorks
FEM/FEA

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Requirements
  • At least 4 years of mechanical design experience on robotic or electromechanical systems.
  • Experience taking machines from computer-aided design to working, field-deployed hardware in a rapid-iteration environment such as robotics, industrial automation, construction equipment, drones, defense, or a hardware startup.
  • Deep computer-aided design and three-dimensional modeling proficiency using SolidWorks or a similar tool, with fluency in geometric dimensioning and tolerancing and tolerance analysis.
  • Strong mechanism and actuation design skills, including kinematics, linkages, gearing, motor sizing, joint design, and bearing design.
  • Expertise in materials, fabrication, and design for manufacturing across steel, aluminum, and machined and fabricated parts.
  • High ownership, a bias for speed, and comfort with ambiguity.
Responsibilities
  • Design the mechanical architecture of deployment machines, including chassis, drivetrains, booms, manipulators, and end effectors that pick, place, and fasten multi-hundred-pound energy assets.
  • Design custom mechanisms and actuation, including kinematics and linkage design, motor and gearbox selection, bearing and joint design, and tolerance stack-ups.
  • Take parts from computer-aided design through detailed drawings, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, material selection, design for manufacturing, and vendor handoff.
  • Engineer equipment for the West Texas environment, including heat, dust and particulate ingress, wind loading, vibration over rough terrain, and long intervals between service visits.
  • Run structural and mechanical simulation, including finite element analysis, load cases, and fatigue analysis, to size structures and validate designs before fabrication.
  • Build and test prototypes hands-on, instrument them, run them to failure, and incorporate the findings into the next revision.
  • Own vendor relationships and production planning, and drive machines from one-off prototype to a repeatable fleet build.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience designing heavy equipment, construction, agricultural, or mining machinery.
  • Experience with hydraulics, pneumatics, or other high-force actuation.
  • Experience with sealing, ingress protection, and thermal design for outdoor equipment.

TAR builds and operates behind-the-meter power plants for AI data centers that cannot wait out a utility interconnection queue. The company designs islanded microgrids pairing solar, battery storage, and gas peakers, then manufactures, installs, and runs them, handling power electronics, microgrid controls, dispatch software, and site construction in-house. Compared with grid interconnection, which can take years to clear, an off-grid plant can be sited and energized on the developer's own schedule, and TAR says it is working with a large compute provider and targets 5 GW by 2028. Its goal is to remove power as the constraint on AI buildout by owning generation end to end.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

Seed

Total Funding

$27M

Headquarters

Texas

Founded

N/A

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Forbes reported TAR raised $27 million in June 2026 at a $500 million valuation.
  • Pat Becker said TAR already targets over 200MW in 2027 and several gigawatts in 2028.
  • AI data centers face five-to-seven-year interconnection queues, making TAR's speed proposition urgent.

What critics are saying

  • TAR still lacks a public customer name, exposing extreme concentration risk around one neocloud.
  • Natural-gas backup and local permitting trigger regulatory delays, especially for multi-state site builds.
  • If the first 10MW deployment slips, TAR's 2027 200MW plan loses credibility fast.

What makes TAR unique

  • TAR uses factory-prefabricated behind-the-meter power systems, cutting deployments to roughly three months.
  • Its mix of solar, batteries, wind, and gas backup targets 24/7 AI data center power.
  • Pat Becker says TAR prices below typical behind-the-meter PPAs while avoiding grid queues.

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Benefits

Meal Benefits

Unlimited Paid Time Off

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Relocation Assistance

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

0%

1 year growth

0%

2 year growth

0%
Business Insider
Jun 29th, 2026
Creator economy founders pivot to data centers, raise $27M at $500M valuation to power AI infrastructure

Leonhard Soenke and Patrice Becker, who founded creator economy startup Throne in 2021, have pivoted to launch TAR (Transformative American Resources), a data centre energy startup. The company recently raised $27 million in seed funding at a $500 million valuation from an undisclosed strategic investor. TAR aims to reduce time-to-token for AI models by building modular, behind-the-meter energy systems combining solar, batteries, wind and natural gas. Soenke told Business Insider the shift came from seeking larger impact opportunities, as the creator economy has matured and become crowded. The founders spent six months transitioning Throne to trusted team members before relocating from New York to San Francisco and Austin to pursue the data centre opportunity.

Forbes
Jun 15th, 2026
Startup Raises $27 Million To Solve Two Massive Data Center Problems

Data centers are noisy and power-hungry. This startup might have a solution that prioritizes off-grid renewable energy.