Mechanical Engineering Expert

Overview

Handshake is looking for experienced mechanical, manufacturing, and quality engineers, as well as CNC programmers, to support AI research through flexible, part-time contract work. This is not a traditional engineering role - you'll draw on your hands-on experience in mechanical design, structural and thermal analysis, injection molding and tooling, manufacturing processes, or engineering change and quality control to evaluate AI-generated content and provide feedback that helps AI reason like a practicing engineer. This is an ongoing, project-based opportunity that you can take on alongside your current role or studies.

What You'll Do

• Create expert-level mechanical engineering problems and scenarios grounded in real design, analysis, tooling, manufacturing, and quality work that gets built, tested, or approved
• Review AI-generated responses for technical accuracy, practical feasibility, manufacturability, and alignment with industry standards and engineering practice
• Evaluate models, drawings, tolerances, calculations, and simulation results for correctness, defensibility, and whether a reviewer could work from them
• Provide clear, structured written feedback to help improve AI model performance
• Complete tasks at your own pace, with no set schedule or minimum-hour requirement

Qualifications

• Industry experience - working mechanical engineer or current undergraduate/graduate student who has personally produced a part, assembly, or analysis that someone else manufactured, tested, or approved from
• Degree - BS, MS, or PhD in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related engineering field A degree is not required if you are a CNC programmer.
• If you are in the process of completing your bachelor's degree, internship experience is required.
• Domain expertise - demonstrated depth in one or more of the following areas: Mechanical design
• Structural analysis (FEA)
• Thermal and fluids
• Injection molding and tooling
• Manufacturing processes
• Sustaining, quality, and configuration engineering

These are not required but will strengthen your application

• Proficiency with tools such as SolidWorks, Creo, NX, CATIA, Inventor, Fusion 360, ANSYS, Abaqus, Nastran, Fluent, STAR-CCM+, OpenFOAM, MATLAB, or comparable modeling, simulation, and CAM environments
• Experience producing manufacturing-ready drawings or models - for machining, sheet metal, casting, injection molding, or additive processes
• Experience at a manufacturer, product design firm, aerospace/defense contractor, automotive supplier

Required for All Applicants

• Based in the United States
• Strong written communication and attention to detail
• Ability to explain complex mechanical engineering concepts clearly
• Ability to work independently in a remote, asynchronous environment

Where you can work

This role is 100% remote, for applicants located in United States.