Mechanical Engineer

Position recap

You’ll be the reason our robots don’t crack under pressure, literally (or, worst case, the reason they crack miserably). The structure is yours, from first CAD model to the part that ships, tested in real water, not just on a screen.

Location

Bari Metropolitan Area, Italy

Department

Engineering, R&D

Employment Type

Full time, 36h/week

Location Type

Hybrid, starting mostly on-site

Compensation

Starting between €40,000 and €50,000 TC (Total Compensation), depending on seniority, and up from there. Salary plus contributions, comparable across countries, not just Italy.
We’re happy to evaluate senior candidates too, adjusting the offer accordingly, if the move is a real step up and a fast-moving environment is where you want to be.

Level

C1 to B1 for entry to mid-level seniority, up to B3 for more senior roles, under the Italian Metalworking Industry National Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCNL Industria Metalmeccanica).

We’re hiring more than one Mechanical Engineer right now.

About the role

A5 S.r.l. builds marine surface and underwater robotics for ocean biodiversity monitoring. We design whole systems vertically, building our own prototypes in-house and testing them on our own sea sites.

Mechanical engineering in this space can look static from the outside, the same materials and the same approaches reused for decades.

We don’t think it has to be so.

This role sits in the marine robotics engineering team, responsible for the structural design and manufacturing of A5’s autonomous underwater and surface robots. Engineering and lab work run out of A5’s marine robotics laboratory in Puglia.

Iterative engineering through trial and error is part of our process: a part that fails at sea teaches you more than a simulation ever could. Shortening that loop includes working with new tools, AI included, as part of how you design and validate.

Who we’re looking for

We’re looking for people who are genuinely excited to bring in ideas from other industries, and who want to get technology solutions that sound impossible to the people who actually need them.

Someone who’s built and tested real hardware, not just modeled it: comfortable moving from CAD to a physical part without waiting for a fully-specced plan, who wants to see their own designs in the water, not just on a screen, and who takes ownership of a problem instead of waiting to be told what’s next.

We’re a small, early-stage company, so you’ll end up doing more than the job title suggests. That has to sound like a feature to you, not a bug.

We’re looking for team people, not solo contributors. We think people grow into this role, so a lighter background is a fine place to start.

Key Responsibilities

You’ll report to our CTO, working closely with the Electronics, Optics, and Industrial Design teams on every decision and integration that shapes the final robot.

CAD Design, Integration & Simulation

• Design A5’s sealed enclosures and subsystems in CAD.
• Integrate subsystems such as batteries, sensors, electronics, thrusters, connectors, and actuators into A5’s surface and underwater robots, making sure everything fits and works together, not just in isolation.
• Define tolerances and fits between mechanical, electrical, and optical components sharing the same hull.
• Run structural and fluid-dynamics simulations to validate designs before they’re built, using SolidWorks or equivalent tools.

Prototyping & Manufacturing

• Build prototypes using in-house manufacturing tools, including 3D printing (SLA/SLS), and move quickly from design iteration to a physical part you can test.
• Ensure mechanical design choices are aligned with small-series manufacturing.

Testing & Field Validation

• Regularly test what you build in our in-house lab facilities and at sea.
• Track what breaks, what leaks, and what works, and use that data to inform the next design pass.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work with the Electronics and Optics teams to make sure structural design accommodates sensors, cabling, and internal components without compromising the mechanics.
• Keep internal technical documentation: clear, updated, structured, and something a teammate can actually rely on later.

Outreach

• Represent the company at scientific and industry events, trade and career fairs included, when it’s actually needed.

Qualifications

You don’t need to check every box above. We look at each candidate’s own areas of experience and weigh them on their merits.

Required

• A degree in mechanical engineering or a similarly quantitative field.
• Experience with CAD software (SolidWorks or equivalent), parametric modeling included.
• Comfortable with structural or fluid-dynamics simulation tools.
• A working understanding of manufacturing processes such as 3D printing and CNC machining.
• Familiarity with tolerances, seals, and connectors in systems that have to stay watertight.
• Experience designing enclosures for sensors and electronics that need to stay sealed underwater.
• Comfortable getting wet and getting dirty, and moving freely between the desk and the lab.
• Open to using AI tools as part of the design process, and to trying new R&D methods rather than sticking to the way things have always been done.

Preferred

• Experience integrating brushless motors or thrusters into a mechanical assembly is a plus.
• Hands-on experience with sea trials or field testing of mechanical prototypes is a plus. This isn’t the team for anyone who dissolves on contact with water.
• Basic knowledge of electronics integration, enough to design around sensors and wiring rather than after the fact, is a plus.

Language

• English comes first, in documentation, reports, and presentations alike: we want everything accessible across all our offices in the EU. Italian is fine too, mostly for casual chat with colleagues, just not required.

Okay, you’ve reached the end of the page, but maybe the beginning of something else. Since you’re curious enough to have read this far: why the coral? It’s not one structure. It’s a colony: thousands of individual polyps, each doing their own small part, coordinating to build something light, resistant, and genuinely magnificent. That’s the team too.

The instruments on the left just read 1,000 m. You’ve reached the bottom, literally.