Senior Mechanical Engineer (HVAC & MEP Systems)

Overview

Homebuilding is one of the biggest industries in the world, and it's broken. It still builds the way it did a century ago, and it shows: homes take too long, schedules and budgets are guesses, quality is inconsistent, and there aren't nearly enough of them. At Cover, we're fixing that. We design, engineer, permit, manufacture, and build fully custom homes and ADUs from our factory in Gardena, Los Angeles, using our all-steel panelized building system that fits together like life-size Lego, configured to every client's site and taste. They're built the way cars are built: in a factory, with a repeatable process, to tight tolerances. Right now many of those homes are for families who lost theirs in the 2025 LA fires.

Most homes get their heating and cooling sized by rule of thumb, 500 square feet per ton, and their ventilation left to a bath fan set to run around the clock. Commercial buildings get real load calcs, ducts designed to a static pressure budget, and outside air delivered by design, at a cost no homeowner would pay. We believe families deserve the engineered version at a price that makes sense for a home.

We're looking for the engineer who will own that work. If you've spent your career at a design-build mechanical contractor, you know how to carry a system from load calcs to a balanced, commissioned installation, and you know the moment at the end when you hand it over and move on to the next building. At Cover, you keep it. You'll own the HVAC in our homes for the long run, with our R&D shop, factory, and service team under one roof. The opportunity here is to redefine the standard for residential indoor air quality and thermal comfort.

Role

You'll be the first HVAC specialist on our product engineering team, and the system is yours end to end, from loads through commissioning.

Our homes come out of an in-house design pipeline built on a standard kit of parts, so you won't spend your days redrawing them. You'll encode your method as rules the pipeline applies to every home, then review what it produces with the eye of the engineer who would have to fix it in the field.

You own every improvement to the system, small and large. Service brings you what they see in the field; you drive root causing and solutions. You drive large scale improvements and redesigns, navigating the options and developing and communicating a clear view on the tradeoffs: comfort, maintenance, efficiency, and how fast it manufactures and installs. You prototype in our shop with full scale tests to work through the systems and integrations, including performance testing.

You'll also own our plumbing, electrical, and fire sprinkler systems: diagnosing what the field and the production line surface and changing the design when it needs it.

Everything you release has to work for the production line, its inventory, and a design approved under California's Factory-Built Housing program. You'll review the MEP work instructions and train the technicians and manufacturing engineers who implement them.

You report directly to the Head of Product Engineering.

Experience

Hard requirements:

You have spent your career engineering HVAC systems end to end: loads, equipment selection, air distribution, ventilation, refrigerant piping, controls, commissioning, and balancing. You've done that work at the level of a senior engineer at a top design-build mechanical contractor. Commercial and residential backgrounds are equally welcome.

You hold a bachelor's or master's degree in mechanical engineering, or in architectural engineering with a mechanical or HVAC focus, and you're a licensed mechanical PE, in California or able to transfer your license here.

You're at home in the field. You've traced a comfort complaint to its cause with your own instruments and analysis, and you're glad to keep doing it.

You build tools because you refuse to do the same work by hand twice. It might be a load workbook, a fabrication template, a script, BIM automation, or an AI tool. You're curious about new technology, AI included, and you use it to work better and faster.

Beyond those bars, what separates great:

A method you can write down. You work from loads and airflow to equipment, and you can explain your method clearly enough for a colleague, or an AI agent, to follow.

Good judgment about systems. You know the range of proven systems because you've seen them installed, commissioned, and serviced. Given the choice, you reach for the simplest one that does the job well, the pragmatic choice. You've made a system cheaper or simpler without making it worse, and you have a real answer for who services it ten years from now.

Follow-through. You like diagnosing a problem and like closing it out even more. The changes you've driven made it into the field and held up.

Teaching that lasts. You've trained technicians or written instructions that people kept following long after you moved on.

A feel for the factory and ease of install. Before you make a change, you think through the practical project ramifications: timeline, ease of field install, and procurement.

Useful but not required: self-perform fabrication (spools, racks, skids), design-build or target value delivery, residential or light commercial work, service or warranty experience, plumbing or fire sprinkler design, and experience with a factory-built product.

Compensation

All our positions offer a compensation package that includes equity and robust benefits.

The base salary for this role is between $125,000 and $155,000 per year, depending on experience and demonstrated engineering track record.

Our compensation package extends beyond cash salary and encompasses various elements that contribute to a comprehensive rewards system. In addition to a competitive salary, we offer equity through stock options, a discretionary annual bonus, health and fitness reimbursements, high-quality company-subsidized healthcare, a 401(k), and generous paid time off (PTO).

Cover aims to be competitive with its overall compensation packages relative to the market considering the company stage, industry, funding, and location. This market range includes salary, applicable bonuses, and equity, which are each important components of an offer from Cover. More details can be provided during the interview.

Cover's pay ranges are informed and defined through professional-grade salary surveys and compensation data sources. The actual compensation package offered to a successful candidate will additionally be influenced by a variety of factors including the essential functions of the role, experience, credentials and certifications, educational attainment, skill level, and prior accomplishments.

Our mission is to make thoughtfully designed and well-built homes for everyone. We believe that having a diverse and inclusive workplace brings a range of unique perspectives to the table and helps us better accomplish this mission. We are an equal opportunity employer to all, regardless of age, ancestry, color, disability (mental and physical), exercising the right to family care and medical leave, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, military or veteran status, national origin, political affiliation, race, religious creed, sex (includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), and sexual orientation. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination.