Windborne Systems
Senior Manufacturing Engineer
Redwood City, CA · Senior · Full-time
Stay score
odds of building a lasting career here
Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~61% per draw at Level IV). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.
Lottery odds assume a STEM candidate.
Personalize to your clock →H-1B wage level
the lottery is wage-weighted — each level is one more entry
$19,131 more — $139,131 — moves this role to Level III and 3 lottery entries. That figure is inside the range the employer already advertised.
Based on the DOL prevailing wage for this occupation and worksite, a base salary of $139,131 would place this position at wage Level III. That figure is within the posted range, and I'd like to target it. This role classifies under "Industrial Engineers" for prevailing-wage purposes.
DOL prevailing wage, 2026-27 wage year · Industrial Engineers (17-2112) · San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA. Wage level is derived by USCIS from the offered wage, occupation and worksite; the occupation shown is inferred from the job title.
Employer immigration record
from this employer's Department of Labor filings
Files H-1B transfers
Sourced from Department of Labor LCA, PERM and prevailing-wage disclosure data. Employer matching is by name, so figures may be split across an employer's legal entities. Absence of a filing means none appears in our copy of the data, not that none exists.
Community outcomes
No reports yet — be the first to help the next applicant.
About the role
- WindBorne is an atypical hardware company: we sell the data our balloons produce, not the balloons.
- Boards arrive populated from our suppliers.
- We don't, and the manufacturing system has to work anyway.
Responsibilities
- Production processes that are designed, documented, and stable enough for the floor to run without the design engineer standing next to them
- DFM feedback delivered early and often, so manufacturability is settled before a design hardens - and design changes that reach the floor without breaking it
- Functional, end-to-end test fixtures and protocols that catch defects at the electronics assembly stage rather than at final build
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Manufacturing, Mechatronics, or a related engineering field
- 3+ years in manufacturing engineering, with a track record of launching assembly line processes, equipment, and/or new products
- Experience taking electromechanical or mechatronic products from prototype into production, including electronics assembly and functional test
- Experience designing functional test fixtures and test protocols
- Proficiency in CAD for fixture, tooling, and workstation design
- In person required.
- Demonstrated process development experience - processes you designed, documented, and put into production
- Strong DFM fundamentals, applied in direct partnership with design engineering
- Able to work on-site in Redwood Shores
Nice to have
- Have run electronics assembly integration and in-line functional test
- Know standard process documentation practice - PFMEA, control plans, DOE, SPC
- Are strong on GD&T and tolerance analysis for mechanical parts
- Have specified, sourced, and bought off production equipment with outside vendors
- Have managed suppliers and incoming quality for outsourced parts (3D-printed, laser-cut, PCB/PCBA)
- Have stood up quality, yield, inspection, or documentation systems from scratch
- Have applied Lean or structured continuous improvement to a real line
Compensation
- $120,000 - $200,000 plus equity.
Benefits
- Health, dental, and vision insurance 100% covered
- Clean design-to-manufacturing handoffs, including for parts not yet at full design lock, with judgment applied to what gets systematized and what stays flexible
Company info
- we sell the data our balloons produce, not the balloons.
- Our customer is our own operations team, which puts engineering and the field about as close together as they can get.
- We push design changes to flying hardware roughly once a week while scaling production at the same time.
- Today every part of that loop is owned by full-stack engineers who each design a part, own its tooling, and tweak it based on field performance.
- That has worked so far, but manufacturing throughput and tooling maintenance have grown into a full-time load that can no longer share a desk with design iteration.
- This role exists to take that load.
- Manufacturing and Production turns engineering designs into repeatable, high-quality production.
- We build mechatronic hardware assemblies - PCBA, electronic sensors, ballast, and an adjustable inflatable balloon.
- On our floor, we assemble the PCBAs into the electronics assembly, test it, and then build up the mechanical hardware, ballast, and balloon around it.
- The work is manual to semi-automated, and it has to hold together while the designs underneath it keep changing.
- We are running about 1,000 units a month and doubling roughly every six months.
- Most hardware teams get design lock before volume.
Equal opportunity
- WindBorne Systems is an equal opportunity employer.
- To request an accommodation in the application process, email accommodations@windbornesystems.com.
- All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic.
This listing is sourced directly from Windborne Systems's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.