Senior Mechanical Design Engineer

What you'll do

You are handed multi-part mechanical assemblies and asked to find what an expert would notice: the critical design decisions, the constraints that drove them and the places the assembly could fail. From that you write questions that test real design judgment, hard enough that a junior engineer would not get them, and you validate an exact, defensible answer for each directly from the CAD model.

The second half is reviewing AI output. You read what a model says about an assembly, pinpoint where its mechanical reasoning goes wrong and suggest targeted fixes. You also flag questions that turn out ambiguous, trivial or unanswerable, sharpen them, and document edge cases and disagreements so every answer stays verifiable.

The role is listed as contractor work at roughly 15 hours a week, fully remote.

Who fits

• At least five years creating and owning multi-part mechanical assemblies from concept, not only working from existing drawings
• Mastery of at least one major parametric CAD tool: SolidWorks, Creo, NX, CATIA, Inventor, Fusion, Onshape or Solid Edge
• Experience teaching, mentoring or leading, whether formal instruction, running design reviews or coaching an engineering team
• Depth in design intent, assembly reasoning, mechanism and kinematic analysis, and GD&T and tolerance judgment
• A background in at least one of: industrial machinery and automation, robotics, automotive and heavy equipment, aerospace and defence, medical devices, consumer products, or tooling and fixture design
• Excellent written English, since your documentation is the deliverable

The ad lists FreeCAD experience, advanced tolerance analysis and formal design review leadership as a bonus. No prior AI experience is needed.

What it pays

$40–90/hour, micro1's published band for this listing. At the stated 15 hours a week that is roughly $600–1,350 a week; that is our arithmetic on the two published numbers, not a figure micro1 states. The ad does not say what places you inside the band or whether pay is per hour or per accepted question.

Worth knowing

Good:

• Twenty openings, flagged new and high demand
• Any major parametric CAD tool counts; you are not tied to one vendor
• A stated weekly commitment (about 15 hours), which most micro1 CAD listings leave out
• Rewards the judgment senior engineers actually have, not drafting speed

Less good:

• A $40 floor for a role that asks for five years of concept-to-assembly ownership plus teaching or leadership experience
• Writing questions that are hard but have a single defensible answer is slow, and revisions are likely
• No basis for placement in the band and no project length stated
• Contractor engagement: no benefits, your own tax to manage

How it differs from micro1's other CAD listings

micro1 runs many mechanical and CAD projects. The closest in shape is Mechanical CAD Expert, which also asks for exact-answer questions about multi-part assemblies, but works in native FreeCAD files and publishes $40–80/hour. This listing pays up to $90, names no single project tool, adds direct review of AI reasoning, and asks for teaching or leadership experience. Mechanical Design / CAD Expert ($60–130/hour) is closer to solving and grading production GD&T and DFM problems.

About this listing

Posted by micro1 on its own jobs portal and read on 2 October 2026, the day it went up. The $40–90/hour band, the 20 openings, the 15-hour figure and the qualifications above are micro1's published text. Location is listed as Remote with no country requirement, and payment schedule and method are not published on the listing. See micro1.