Lead Mechanical Engineer

At cropr, we are looking for a Lead Mechanical Engineer who will be responsible for designing, building and further developing the various components of our autonomous weed controller. Our first machines have been out in the fields for their first season in 2026, which means the focus is now shifting to further development, optimisation and upscaling.

What’s on offer?

• A salary of between €4,500 and €7,000 gross per month, depending on your knowledge and experience, based on a full-time position of 38 hours per week, excluding 8% holiday pay

• Travel allowance for commuting distances of more than 10 km one way (€ 0.25 per km net).

• 25 days’ annual leave per year, with the option to purchase additional days.

• A place in a dynamic, fast-growing start-up where there is scope for initiative, innovation and personal growth

• A key role in the development of an innovative agricultural robot with a major impact.

• Plenty of freedom, responsibility and scope to pioneer within an ambitious start-up.

• A multidisciplinary team where software, electronics and mechanics come together.

What will you be doing?

As a Lead Mechanical Engineer, you will be responsible for the mechanical development of the weedr: an autonomous robot that detects and destroys weeds using lasers. You will design and improve the mobile platform, focusing on structural strength, reliability, maintainability, vibration behaviour, assembly and production.

You will contribute ideas on system architecture and the interfaces between mechanics, electronics and software. You will build and test prototypes in real-world conditions, analyse findings from field tests and translate these into targeted design improvements. You will also make a significant contribution to standardisation, documentation and the handover to production.

Additionally, based on your seniority and deep technical expertise, you will act as team-lead for the Mechanical Engineering team.

Your responsibilities

• Designing and detailing mechanical components and setting up assemblies for production in CAD.

• Dimensioning structures for strength, stiffness, durability, and manufacturability.

• Building, testing, and iteratively improving prototypes based on hands-on practical experience.

• Define and coordinate mechanical interfaces with software and electronics teams.

• Analyze and test results and field data into design adjustments.

• Document design choices and support technical transfer to production.

• To think proactively about ease of maintenance, assembly sequence, and scalability of the design.

• Ensuring the quality of 2D manufacturing drawings, structuring Bills of Materials (BOMs), and tightly managing technical alignment and engineering change processes with production.

You will bring

• A Bachelor's or Master's degree (HBO or WO) in Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related field.

• +5 years experience in designing, sizing, and validating mechanical systems.

• Experience with CAD design and developing manufacturable constructions (DFM), preferably in SolidWorks.

• Experience with the translation of prototypes into a robust design for series production.

• Experience with PLM systems is an advantage, particularly SolidWorks 3DEXPERIENCE.

• Affinity with agricultural machinery (small vehicle) or terrain robots is an advantage.

• Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams and provide technical guidance to colleagues.

• Experience in maintaining technical product documentation (TPD) for production.

• Thorough knowledge of applicable standards for technical drawings, experience with technical product documentation (TPD) management, and directly coordination with suppliers regarding manufacturability.

About cropr

At cropr, we are developing an agricultural robot that selectively removes weeds without the use of herbicides. Following the success of our indoor tulip robot (H2L Robotics), the cropr weedr is the next step in sustainable precision farming. The first systems are now in commercial operation, which makes this role particularly interesting: you’ll be working on a platform that is already delivering value in practice, whilst at the same time being prepared for further growth and industrialisation.