Staff Application Engineer

Carbon’s Application Engineering team owns the collaboration with visionary partners from concept to production readiness. As a Staff Application Engineer, you are a seasoned technical expert who leads complex, cross-functional programs from concept through production and increasingly shapes the tools, workflows, and technical strategy that scale Carbon’s Application Engineering practice. You operate with a high degree of autonomy, own outcomes across your programs, and build your influence with stakeholders across the company.

You thrive in employing your creative problem-solving abilities and growing your depth of expertise across a variety of functional areas (including software, materials, hardware, product development processes, and cross-functional team leadership). You are comfortable leading engagements with external and internal company stakeholders and can handle tough situations with poise and confidence.

Role is based in our Sunnyvale, CA office, working minimum 3 days a week (Tues-Thurs) onsite. Occasional travel to customer locations is required, around 10% of the time (domestic and international).

Responsibilities

• Educate and influence customers on Design for DLS best practices and design for manufacturability, including printer operation, materials, design guidelines, software, and post-processing; guide customers through design, aesthetic, and technical tradeoffs that meet production requirements such as cost and manufacturability.
• Lead development and optimization of applications across the full lifecycle (design, file preparation, printing, post-processing, finishing, quality/validation), including customer benchmarks, prototypes, and bridge/production applications. Own technical outcomes for your programs, manage timelines and milestones, and proactively identify and mitigate risk.
• Drive technical strategy for assigned applications, creating designs that leverage Carbon’s technology to deliver clear, defensible customer benefit versus standard manufacturing methods.
• Evaluate projects for production based on DLS product-market fit, including technical readiness, cost model viability, and scalability, and provide well-supported recommendations to sales team and leadership.
• Serve as a technical point of contact between go-to-market needs and Carbon’s Software, Product, Materials, and Hardware teams for your programs, translating customer requirements into actionable input for roadmap discussions and validating solutions.
• Use hypothesis-driven approaches to define test methods, evaluate solutions, iterate on feedback, and provide recommendations to internal and external customers.
• Contribute across Carbon’s key sectors beyond your primary area of expertise, applying cross-vertical insights and lessons learned to accelerate success across target industries.
• Produce concise, thorough documentation and alignment artifacts (requirements, SOWs, SOPs, decision logs, next steps, action items); create reusable templates, checklists, and workflows/recipes that improve efficiency and consistency across your accounts and programs.
• Mentor and coach other Application Engineers through design reviews and informal training, sharing lessons learned and reusable materials that help build team capability.
• Identify gaps in tools and processes within your programs and accounts, and recommend improvements to your manager and team.

Requirements

• BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline, with a focus in product development or product design.
• 8+ years of experience in product development or product design, with a demonstrated track record of shipping products from concept through production readiness (DFM, validation, SOP creation, and transfer to production).
• Strong proficiency with CAD and CAE software (SolidWorks, NX or CATIA; Magics, Rhino, Grasshopper); strong working knowledge of Carbon’s Design Engine (or other similar lattice design software), with the ability to define and debug repeatable recipes/workflows.
• Experience with scripting and computational design (Python, Grasshopper, visual coding) and applying automation to design-to-production workflows.
• Working knowledge of FEA, structural loading, and common plastic material properties (tensile, impact, CTE, off-gassing, temperature limitations, bonding/adhesion).
• Familiarity with traditional manufacturing techniques (injection molding, urethane casting, CNC machining), design for manufacturing, and physical prototyping.
• Experience evaluating opportunities using cost models, scalability assessments, and technical/operational risk tradeoffs, with the ability to make and defend recommendations.
• Strong program ownership skills: comfortable managing ambiguity, driving cross-functional collaboration, and taking accountability for execution issues with rapid remediation.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and coach others.
• Detail oriented with excellent verbal, graphical, and technical communication skills.
• Proficiency with office productivity tools (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Google Suite).
• Creative problem solver with a positive attitude

You do not need to match every listed expectation to apply for this position. Here at Carbon, we know that diverse perspectives foster the innovation we need to be successful, and we are committed to building a team that encompasses a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and skills.

At Carbon, we look at the person holistically and carefully consider a wide range of factors when determining salary. The compensation bracket for this position is $182,400 - 273,600 (per year). In order to maintain equitable internal pay practices, we aim to hire new employees near the midpoint of $228,000 taking into account your experience, work location, certifications, and the unique skills you bring to the role. 

Carbon also offers to our eligible employees a comprehensive total rewards package that includes equity, benefits, and time off programs. For details on our total rewards package, visit https://www.carbon3d.com/about/life-at-carbon.

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