We identify the highest-impact opportunities to improve animal health and welfare through innovative animal welfare technology, then recruit and support the founders pursuing them — building new companies of our own and backing those already underway.

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Spring is a nonprofit venture platform building and backing companies that improve animal welfare at scale.

Spring is a nonprofit venture platform building and backing companies that improve&nbsp;animal welfare at scale.Spring Works, Spring's in-house technology group, designs, prototypes, and welfare-validates the devices the ecosystem needs but no vendor supplies. These technologies&nbsp;are then handed off to our incubated companies for deployment.The equipment you build is the foundation of better welfare for billions of animals. These&nbsp;machines will be placed on farms, at fisheries, at aquaculture sites, in land-based&nbsp;processing plants, and on boats at sea. Equipment you might work on includes stunning&nbsp;systems for fish and crustaceans, aquaculture water quality and actuation systems, and&nbsp;farm robots, with new categories added as the ecosystem presents a need.Spring Works products have to run reliably in wet, corrosive, moving environments, often thousands of miles from our shop. Some will run standalone and others in conjunction&nbsp;with equipment already on site. They have to be safe for the people operating them, who&nbsp;may have had minimal training. We design in remote diagnostics and instrumentation from&nbsp;the start. What we hand over to an incubated company is a field-deployable prototype,&nbsp;built to survive real production conditions and to return evidence of how it performed.We're hiring a Senior Mechatronics Engineer to work across the mechanical, electrical,&nbsp;and controls sides of the team as we design and build our machines. You will need real&nbsp;competence in both domains, and you will own the selection, design, and assembly of the&nbsp;subsystems that bring servo and stepper motors, pneumatics, linear actuators, and other&nbsp;motion hardware together.You bring deep competence in electromechanical design and are ready to design complex&nbsp;mechanical and electrical systems in CAD on large projects, working under the guidance&nbsp;of the Senior Mechanical Design Engineer. You are the bridge between the mechanical&nbsp;team and the controls engineer, and at this level you own the electromechanical&nbsp;architecture rather than executing someone else's.You should be able to operate without oversight from management, and to judge when to&nbsp;seek input and when to decide on your own, as well as to delegate effectively to junior&nbsp;engineers and contractors. You must have a collaborative mindset and demonstrate sound&nbsp;decision-making and judgment.What you'll do<ul><li>Own the electromechanical architecture</li><li>Define how the machine achieves the motion it needs, and work with the controls and&nbsp;mechanical leads to fold your choices into the overall machine concept.</li><li>Make and defend the trade-offs: servo versus stepper versus pneumatic, direct drive&nbsp;versus gearbox, belt versus ballscrew, integrated versus discrete drive, and where a&nbsp;sensor goes and what type it should be.</li><li>Work from requirements down to individual component selection, and speak up early&nbsp;when a component forces an architectural change. </li></ul>Motion and actuation<ul><li>Select and size motors, actuators, gearboxes, bearings, drives, and encoders. Run the calculations yourself, torque and duty cycle, thermal limits, acceleration profiles, current and load draw, and document the reasoning behind each choice.</li><li>Design and specify pneumatic circuits: cylinder bore and stroke, valves and manifolds,&nbsp;regulators, flow controls, cushioning, air prep, and tubing runs. Size for force, speed,&nbsp;and cycle time.</li><li>Design end-effectors, grippers, and tooling with their actuation and sensing&nbsp;integrated.</li><li>Specify sensors, including photoelectric, inductive proximity, magnetic reed, vision,&nbsp;load cells, encoders, and pressure and vacuum switches, and own their mounting and&nbsp;alignment.</li><li>Wiring and electrical integration</li><li>Design and build physical wiring harnesses, specifying and achieving wire gauge,&nbsp;connector selection, routing through moving joints, strain relief, cable carriers, flex-rated cable, and shielding and grounding practice.</li><li>Produce or review wiring schematics and interconnect diagrams for the&nbsp;electromechanical portions of the machine.</li><li>Source motion components, including motors, drives, sensors, connectors, cables, and&nbsp;pneumatic hardware, and manage the vendors who supply them.</li><li>Own the electromechanical side of the BOM and its revision control. </li></ul>Mechanical design and CAD<ul><li>Produce 3D models, detailed drawings with proper GD&amp;T, managed tolerance stack-ups, and BOMs for the assemblies you own.</li><li>Make confident decisions on design trade-offs, material selection, mechanism&nbsp;functionality with limited prototyping, cost reduction, and machine aesthetics.</li><li>Understand manufacturing processes and how they drive design decisions, including&nbsp;machining, welding, sheet metal fabrication, laser and waterjet cutting, and additive manufacturing. </li></ul>Prototype, test, and debug<ul><li>Bring real hand fabrication and assembly skill to prototyping and machine builds,&nbsp;working under the guidance of the lead Mechanical Engineer.</li><li>Own testing and debug for every system you designed or selected, including limit&nbsp;switch calibration, achieving repeatability, and running down whatever goes wrong.</li><li>Anything that falls cleanly into neither mechanical nor controls is yours.</li><li>Support installation, commissioning, and field issues at customer sites. </li></ul>Interface with controls<ul><li>Work closely with the Controls Engineer to divide the work during design and&nbsp;assembly. You should be able to read a PLC program well enough to argue about it, and&nbsp;to understand I/O, interlocks, and machine control architecture — though you are not&nbsp;the one architecting or certifying the control system.</li><li>Collaborate on the device list, and make sure everything you have selected is fully&nbsp;understood by the lead Controls Engineer. </li></ul>Raise the bar around you<ul><li>Set and document electromechanical design standards, including component libraries,&nbsp;preferred vendors, harnessing conventions, and sizing methodology.</li><li>Set the mechatronics standards now, mentor junior mechatronics engineers as the&nbsp;team grows.</li><li>Lead design reviews and vendor technical discussions. </li></ul>What we're looking for<ul><li>BS in Mechanical, Mechatronics, Robotics, or Electrical Engineering, or equivalent&nbsp;demonstrated experience.</li><li>Experience with high voltage, solar / EV charging, power electronics, or other electrical systems designed for human use &amp; interfacing.</li><li>5+ years designing and building electromechanical systems or automation equipment.</li><li>Strong 3D CAD skills, SolidWorks preferred, with a working background in GD&amp;T and&nbsp;tolerance stack-ups.</li><li>Experience selecting motion components such as servo and stepper motors,&nbsp;pneumatic components, and linear actuators, and the ability to justify those choices&nbsp;with real calculations.</li><li>Pneumatic system design experience, with a demonstrated ability to specify the right&nbsp;components for a circuit, including directional control valves, air prep, regulators, and&nbsp;mufflers.</li><li>Hands-on wiring experience on automation equipment, including complex harness&nbsp;construction, clean routing that avoids stress, and difficult paths through moving&nbsp;joints.</li><li>Experience selecting sensors, specifying their placement in the mechanical design,&nbsp;and integrating them with the control system.</li><li>Practical familiarity with controls hardware, including PLCs, industrial I/O, safety&nbsp;circuits, and interlocks.</li><li>Hands-on fabrication and prototyping skill: hand and powered fabrication tools, basic&nbsp;machining, 3D printing, soldering, assembly, and bench instruments such as a&nbsp;multimeter, scope, and power supply.</li><li>Testing and debug experience, using cross-domain knowledge to find and fix problems&nbsp;on real machines.</li><li>Willing to be on-site and on the floor. This is not a remote role.</li><li>Comfortable in a working shop, able to lift 50 lbs and stand for extended periods of&nbsp;time. </li></ul>Nice to have<ul><li>Equipment designed for wet, washdown, or corrosive environments.</li><li>Aquaculture, agricultural, animal processing, or food processing equipment exposure.</li><li>Time at a custom automation integrator, machine builder, capital equipment company,&nbsp;or hardware startup.</li><li>Industrial communications: EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, CANopen, Modbus, IO-Link.</li><li>eCAD: AutoCAD Electrical, SolidWorks Electrical, EPLAN, or Altium/KiCad for board-level work.</li><li>Robot integration and end-of-arm tooling design (FANUC, ABB, KUKA, Yaskawa, UR).</li><li>Machine safeguarding: safety relays, light curtains, interlocks, and E-stop circuits, with&nbsp;literacy in ISO 13849, NFPA 79, or ANSI/RIA 15.06.</li><li>Remote diagnostics, telemetry, or connected-fleet experience on equipment deployed&nbsp;far from the shop.</li><li>Working knowledge of Python or another relevant programming language.</li><li>Customer-site commissioning and validation experience.</li></ul>  Spring is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all applicants without regard to race,&nbsp;color, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, sex, pregnancy, gender, gender&nbsp;identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, age, physical or mental disability,&nbsp;medical condition, genetic information, military or veteran status, reproductive health&nbsp;decision-making, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Senior Mechatronics Engineer, Automation

Spring is a nonprofit venture platform building and backing companies that improve animal welfare at scale.Spring Works, Spring's in-house technology group, designs, prototypes, and welfare-validates the devices the ecosystem needs but no vendor supplies. These technologies are then handed off to our incubated companies for deployment.The equipment you build is the foundation of better welfare for billions of animals. These machines will be placed on farms, at fisheries, at aquaculture sites, in land-based processing plants, and on boats at sea. Equipment you might work on includes stunning systems for fish and crustaceans, aquaculture water quality and actuation systems, and farm robots, with new categories added as the ecosystem presents a need.Spring Works products have to run reliably in wet, corrosive, moving environments, often thousands of miles from our shop. Some will run standalone and others in conjunction with equipment already on site. They have to be safe for the people operating them, who may have had minimal training. We design in remote diagnostics and instrumentation from the start. What we hand over to an incubated company is a field-deployable prototype, built to survive real production conditions and to return evidence of how it performed.We’re hiring a Senior Controls Engineer to lead the controls system architecture and oversee the delegation of all related tasks within our team. This will start with defining the operations of the machine from a controls perspective very early on, scaffolding the machine logic, and providing the mechanical engineering side of the team with the specifications and components they need to incorporate during the concept phase of machine design. You will specify and source controls and electrical related components, design the schematics, program the machine including PCs/microcontrollers, PLCs, motion controllers, and HMI, and be hands-on during machine build with leading the wiring and panel builds. You will be responsible for running the machine during testing and debug, and solving whatever controls issues arise.This is a full-scope controls role at a machine builder: architecture, code, electrical design package, panel, safety, and commissioning. It is not a maintenance or sustaining role, and it is not PLC programming inside someone else's electrical design.You should be able to operate without oversight from management, and to judge when to seek input and when to decide on your own, as well as to delegate effectively to junior engineers. You must have a collaborative mindset and demonstrate sound decision-making and judgment.What you'll doScaffold the controls architecture<ul><li>Develop the sequence of operations and control architecture during machine concepting, well before the mechanical design is frozen.</li><li>Develop the I/O list, network architecture, and control philosophy, and drive them through design reviews with mechanical and mechatronics.</li><li>Identify control-side risk early: cycle-time feasibility, sensing ambiguity, safe-state definition, and recovery from fault. </li></ul>Own the electrical design package<ul><li>Produce the complete electrical design package: schematics, panel layouts, wiring and interconnect diagrams, I/O layouts, and electrical BOMs.</li><li>Select and specify control components, including PLCs and I/O, drives, safety relays and safety controllers, sensors, contactors, breakers and circuit protection, power supplies, and networking hardware.</li><li>Work with the mechanical design team to give them clear deliverables on which controls components they need to accommodate in the CAD design.</li><li>Lead the machine wiring, including panel build, I/O and sensor wiring, and crimping and connectorizing, either hands-on or by directing a panel shop and wiring technicians. You should be able to build a panel yourself and be credible telling someone else how.</li><li>Source electrical components and manage the vendors who supply them. </li></ul>Safety and compliance<ul><li>Design the machine's safety system: E-stop circuits, safety relays or safety PLC, light curtains, interlocks, guard monitoring, and safe-state behavior.</li><li>Perform and document risk assessments, and specify to the required performance level.</li><li>Design to the applicable codes: NFPA 79, NEC/NFPA 70, UL 508A for panels, ISO 13849 or IEC 62061 for functional safety, and ANSI/RIA 15.06 where robots are in the cell. </li></ul>Program the machines<ul><li>Program the PCs and microcontrollers, PLCs, and motion controllers for multi-station, multi-axis machinery.</li><li>Write code that is structured, documented, maintainable, and reusable. Build and maintain libraries and standard blocks rather than re-deriving each machine from scratch.</li><li>Configure and tune servo drives and VFDs, and implement coordinated multi-axis motion and robot integration where required.</li><li>Develop HMI interfaces for operation, diagnostics, and maintenance that are robust, easy to operate, and documented in an operations manual.</li><li>Implement machine data collection and any required MES, database, or SCADA integration.</li><li>Work with embedded systems engineers or consultants to connect machine data to ancillary telemetry systems. </li></ul>Commission and ship<ul><li>Lead power-on, bring-up, controls debug, and tuning. Own the machine's first run alongside the mechanical team lead.</li><li>Run FAT and support SAT, installation, startup, and production release at customer sites.</li><li>Produce the documentation the customer actually needs: as-built schematics, sequence of operations, alarm lists, operator and maintenance procedures, and code backups.</li><li>Support machines in the field after they ship. </li></ul>Raise the bar around you<ul><li>Set and maintain controls standards, including code structure, tag naming, library management, panel conventions, and revision control.</li><li>Set the controls standards now, mentor junior controls engineers as the team grows.</li><li>Be a credible technical voice with customers during design reviews and run-offs.</li></ul> What we're looking forRequired<ul><li>BS in Electrical, Mechatronics, Mechanical, or Controls Engineering, or equivalent demonstrated experience.</li><li>7+ years in industrial automation controls, with real machine-build experience. Not exclusively plant maintenance or building automation.</li><li>Strong PLC and machine programming background, with fluency beyond ladder logic. This includes a general-purpose language such as Python, and experience with controls software such as Studio 5000, Beckhoff TwinCAT, or Siemens TIA Portal.</li><li>HMI development experience with tools such as FactoryTalk View, Ignition, WinCC, or TwinCAT HMI.</li><li>Motion control experience, including servo drive configuration and tuning, VFD setup, and multi-axis coordination.</li><li>Schematic creation in AutoCAD Electrical, EPLAN, or SolidWorks Electrical.</li><li>Hands-on experience building electrical assemblies and wiring complex machines, with precise routing and clean workmanship.</li><li>Machine safety design, including E-stop and safety circuit design, safety relays or safety PLCs, light curtains and interlocks, and risk assessment. Working knowledge of NFPA 79, UL 508A, and ISO 13849.</li><li>Industrial networking experience, including EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, Profinet, and Modbus TCP/RTU as applicable.</li><li>Commissioning and debug experience on real machines, including at customer sites.</li><li>Willing to be on-site and on the floor. This is not a remote role.</li><li>Comfortable in a working shop, able to lift 50 lbs and stand for extended periods of time. </li></ul>Nice to have<ul><li>Equipment designed for wet, washdown, or corrosive environments.</li><li>Aquaculture, agricultural, animal processing, or food processing equipment exposure.</li><li>Prior experience at a custom automation integrator, custom machine builder, or hardware startup.</li><li>Robot integration and programming (FANUC, ABB, KUKA, Yaskawa, UR).</li><li>Vision system integration (Cognex, Keyence).</li><li>Remote diagnostics, telemetry, or connected-fleet experience on equipment deployed far from the shop.</li><li>Data logging and data server management, such as OPC UA and MES or ERP integration, and programming in SQL.</li><li>Safety protocol stacks (TwinSAFE, SIMATIC Safety, FSoE, PROFIsafe).</li><li>Validation experience (IQ/OQ/PQ). </li></ul>Role detailsReports to: Director of EngineeringEmployment type: Full timeWork location: Berkeley, CATravel: Some domestic and international travel may be required for field deployments. Spring is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, sex, pregnancy, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military or veteran status, reproductive health decision-making, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Senior Controls Engineer, Automation

Spring is a nonprofit venture platform building and backing companies that improve animal welfare at scale.Spring Works, Spring’s in-house technology group, designs, prototypes, and welfare-validates the devices the ecosystem needs but no vendor supplies. These technologies are then handed off to our incubated companies for deployment.The equipment you build is the foundation of better welfare for billions of animals. These machines will be placed on farms, at fisheries, at aquaculture sites, in land-based processing plants, and on boats at sea. Equipment you might work on includes stunning systems for fish and crustaceans, aquaculture water quality and actuation systems, and farm robots, with new categories added as the ecosystem presents a need.Spring Works products have to run reliably in wet, corrosive, moving environments, often thousands of miles from our shop. Some will run standalone and others in conjunction with equipment already on site. They have to be safe for the people operating them, who may have had minimal training. We design in remote diagnostics and instrumentation from the start. What we hand over to an incubated company is a field-deployable prototype, built to survive real production conditions and to return evidence of how it performed.We’re hiring a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer to lead the mechanical design and oversee the delegation of mechanical tasks on the equipment we build. This will include every step of the project lifecycle from concept generation through detail design, fabrication, assembly, testing/debug, and shipment to the customer facility. Beyond designing the machines in CAD, you will be expected to be hands-on, assembling and testing the machines without the assistance of technicians.You should be able to operate without oversight from management, and be able to make the distinction of when to receive input versus make your own decisions, as well as being able to delegate tasks effectively to junior engineers. You must have a collaborative mindset, and demonstrate good decision making and judgement ability.What You'll DoMechanical Design Ownership<ul><li>Lead the mechanical design of custom automation equipment from concept through drawing release — machine architecture, mechanisms, tooling, guarding, and frames.</li><li>Make confident decisions on design tradeoffs, material selection, mechanism functionality with limited prototyping, cost reduction, and machine aesthetics.</li><li>Understand manufacturing processes at a deep level, including machining, welding, sheet metal fabrication, laser/water jet cutting, and additive manufacturing, and design for the process being used on any given part.</li><li>Act as the project and engineering lead, delegating engineering work to other members of the team, collaborating with the senior controls and mechatronics engineers to achieve smooth task handoffs, and overseeing procurement and assembly tasks.</li><li>Serve as the liaison between the engineering team and the Director of Engineering, turning Spring’s wider portfolio priorities into technical direction for the team and keeping the Director current on progress, constraints, and risk.</li><li>Perform and review engineering calculations including stress, deflection, motion profiles, actuator and cylinder sizing, tolerance stack-up, and thermal where relevant.</li><li>Produce complete documentation: well-organized 3D models, ECOs, detailed fabrication and assembly drawings, BOMs, and manuals.</li><li>Work with controls and mechatronics engineers on sensor and actuator selection, cable routing, and access for wiring and service. Read their I/O and device lists and make sure the mechanical design accommodates what they need.</li><li>Support installation, site acceptance, and field issues at customer facilities as needed. </li></ul>Prototyping and Hand Fabrication<ul><li>Lead hand fabrication for prototypes and any production components made in-house, including being competent at using a manual mill and lathe, CNC router, drill press, bandsaw, and powered/basic hand tools.</li><li>Serve as the point of contact for 3D printing, including printer operation and upkeep, material selection, and setting the internal guidance for the team to follow for printed parts. </li></ul>Sourcing and Purchasing<ul><li>Select and size components such as bearings, hardware, linear guides and ballscrews, gearboxes, belts and pulleys, pneumatic cylinders and valving, servo and stepper actuators, and EOATs.</li><li>Work with vendors for quoting, DFM feedback, lead time, and qualification.</li><li>Own the mechanical BOM accuracy and revision control, as well as aiding in the efficient purchase of all components through purchase lists and supplier information. </li></ul>Raise the bar around you<ul><li>Lead and participate in design reviews. Present your design decisions in an unbiased way and always be open to feedback and new ideas.</li><li>Mentor junior designers and set the standards the rest of the team designs to, including drawing conventions, part numbering, library parts, and reusable subassemblies.</li><li>Be willing to lead improvements and set up systems that don’t exist yet within the company.</li><li>Be a credible technical voice in customer design reviews when needed. </li></ul>What We're Looking ForRequired<ul><li>BS in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent demonstrated experience.</li><li>7+ years designing machinery including custom automation equipment, robotics systems, laboratory equipment, or purely mechanical subsystems. Time spent at a machine builder or integrator counts double here.</li><li>Advanced 3D CAD proficiency, SolidWorks preferred. Working knowledge of PDM/PLM and revision control, FEA/simulation methods, and management of assemblies.</li><li>Strong GD&amp;T understanding and practical knowledge of the importance of tolerance stack-up to ensure that parts are made correctly and can assemble without rework.</li><li>Demonstrated ownership of design of machines or major subsystems from concept through production release, rather than just completing design tasks that were provided to you.</li><li>Practical knowledge of fabrication methods including machining, sheet metal, welding/weldments, additive manufacturing, and laser/waterjet cutting, including how to design for each method and how to manage cost and complexity.</li><li>Hands-on shop skills with a portfolio of projects you’ve built yourself.</li><li>Functional knowledge of control systems and electrical components, resulting in comfort working with controls and electrical engineers — including the ability to read a schematic and a pneumatic diagram, and to understand what a PLC, servo drive, and sensor need from you mechanically.</li><li>Willing to be on-site and on the floor. This is not a remote role.</li><li>Comfortable in a working shop, able to lift 50 lbs and stand for extended periods of time. </li></ul>Nice to have<ul><li>Experience with aquaculture equipment, equipment designed for wet environments, equipment for agricultural, animal, or food processing.</li><li>Experience at an automation integrator or custom machine builder.</li><li>FMEA / DFMEA, 8D, or structured problem-solving.</li><li>Machine safeguarding and guarding design; familiarity with ISO 13849, NFPA 79, or ANSI/RIA 15.06 as they constrain mechanical design.</li><li>Robot integration experience (FANUC, ABB, KUKA, Yaskawa, UR) and EOAT design.</li><li>Customer-facing experience — scoping, quoting, design reviews, or install support.</li><li>Vacuum, cleanroom, or precision-motion equipment background. </li></ul>Role Details<ul><li>Reports to: Director of Engineering</li><li>Employment type: Full time</li><li>Work location: Berkeley, CA. This is an in-person role.</li><li>Travel: Some domestic and international travel may be required for field deployments.</li></ul>Spring is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, sex, pregnancy, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military or veteran status, reproductive health decision-making, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

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