About the role
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
Additional Qualifications:
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