About Tovala

We're Tovala, a food-tech company completely reinventing home cooking to save consumers time. Through an innovative combination of hardware, software, and food, we give our customers a way to enjoy really good, good-for-you meals without sacrificing time to do whatever matters to them. We've amassed a loyal, rapidly growing following in just five years, radically changing the day-to-day lives of people across the country and successfully creating a new model for the food industry. We're looking for great people to join our team of hard-working, food-loving nerds.

About the role

As a Mechanical Engineer at Tovala, you would join the hardware team in their R&D and prototyping dream shop, located at The Product Manufactory in Urbana, IL (www.theproductmanufactory.com), where you will work on projects to improve the Tovala Oven’s quality and reduce its cost. You will also contribute to the design and prototyping of new packaging, test fixtures for manufacturing, data acquisition, and food production equipment. As a company that both runs a complex fresh food prepping and shipping operation, and manufactures a connected countertop appliance, we’re looking for a resourceful and versatile mechanical engineer to add to our team.

How you’ll spend your time at Tovala

• Tearing down and testing returned Tovala Ovens to determine root cause of failure, designing the intervention needed, communicating it to manufacturing partners, then overseeing the change. 
• Helping our fabricator design and build QA testing fixtures for use at the oven factory. 
• Reviewing prototypes and samples to evaluate new designs or new manufacturing partners. Testing them for fit and finish, safety, and thermal and electrical performance. 
• Communicating with vendors in China and elsewhere during their business hours.
• Working with our designers to incorporate improvements to food shipping packaging, then authoring and executing drop testing plans to evaluate new ideas with statistical significance.
• Changing existing designs to add and improve oven features, then testing  the changes and analyzing results.
• Learning completely new skills and taking on new challenges.
• Working collaboratively with and learning from your team members, including an electrical engineer, firmware developer, thermal engineer, quality engineer, and industrial designer.

About you

• You have degree(s) in mechanical engineering or similar field. You have 4+ years working experience.
• You are proficient in, or capable of quickly learning, Solidworks CAD Tools and GD&T practices.
• You are resourceful, have a sense of urgency and a hunger for technical challenges, and the ability to work under pressure.
• You have a toolkit for solving complex quantitative problems, whether it’s spreadsheet tools, python, or hand calculations, and you are willing to add to that tool kit.
• You are empathetic and you work effectively with teammates by taking the time to really understand what they need from you
• You are willing to travel internationally, including to China.
• You want to work in an environment that: Takes a people-first approach, Values humility, integrity, and ambition and is focused on creating a culture that keeps people happy and challenged.
• You love food, whether that means cooking it, eating it, frequently pressing your nose against deli windows, or lusting after soft-serve on Instagram. All fair game.

Bonus Points if: 

• You can speak and/or write Mandarin
• You have direct experience in design and manufacturing of sheet metal parts, injection molded plastic parts, wire harnesses, packaging, or appliances generally
• You are familiar with electricity and electronics 
• You have formal training in FMEA or similar frameworks.