# Venkatraghavan S > Product design engineer at Meta | Ex-Founding Mechanical Engineer at SPAN.IO Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/venkatraghavan I am a highly motivated analytical problem solver and researcher currently seeking full time employment opportunities. I have experience in Product Design, Computational Analysis, FEA and DFM. I would like to leverage my experience and knowledge and create value by designing creative and innovative solutions to industrial and manufacturing problems. ## Work Experience ### Product Design Engineer @ Meta Jan 2025 – Present | Sunnyvale, California, United States ### Tech Lead Mechanical - GEN3 Platform @ SPAN Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco, California, United States •Owned the mechanical design for the Gen 2 and Gen3 platform involving light-pipes, interconnected PCBs, current and voltage sense clips, thermal management strategies, EMI management and complex harness designs within tight volumetric constraints. •Responsible for mechanical and thermal packaging for GEN3 modular products by delivering mechanical architecture with an optimized assembly integrating busbars and PCB housing that met certification (UL, NEC, FCC), automation, and reliability standards. •Designed complex electromechanical assemblies integrating sheet metal, heatsinks, plastics, high voltage connectors and busbars with intricate tolerance stacks; partnered closely with manufacturing vendors and quality teams to optimize processes and maximize production yields. •Experienced in DFM, DFA, statistical tolerance analysis and geometric tolerancing for high volume manufacturing in China and Mexico. Conducted several RCAs using 8D principles, DOEs to resolve manufacturing issues and worked with vendors to bring processes under control. •Managed programs, mentored interns, functioned as a technical leader, and collaborated with cross-functional teams, including Reliability, Certification, Quality, Thermal, Electrical Hardware Engineering and Operations to deliver projects under tight deadlines. ### Staff Mechanical Engineer @ SPAN Jan 2023 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco, California, United States ### Founding Mechanical Engineer @ SPAN Jan 2018 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco, California ### Senior Mechanical Engineer @ SPAN Jan 2021 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco, California, United States • Successfully launched two generations of flagship products at SPAN from concept to mass production, interacting with interdisci-plinary teams and managing multiple deadlines • Responsible for mechanical design of plastic, sheet metal and copper/ aluminum components, connectors, insulators, harnesses and fasteners used in consumer electronic products adhering to UL, NEC and IP requirements • Developed innovative solutions to meet functional design requirements through rapid prototyping, testing and validation •Defined component and system specifications, created detailed designs in CAD, prototype, test, and document to release for manufacturing • Extensively performed FAI, GD&T and tolerance analysis and worked through DFM challenges with external vendors • Responsible for DFA, assembly instructions, determining Torque values, making assembly drawings and fixture development with CM ### Research Assistant at C-Design Lab @ Purdue University Jan 2016 – Jan 2018 | West Lafayette -Manufacturing a 2-axis mixed fabrication machine with a modular architecture to extrude conductive material on planar surfaces. These planar surfaces can subsequently be assembled to form 3D electronic and movable objects. -Incorporating metal wires and additive manufacturing (3-D Printing) techniques to develop structurally stable and fully functional configurations, to facilitate rapid prototyping of design concepts/elements -Manipulating existing materials such as paper, cardboard, 3-D printed plastics and polymers to create new model-making patterns, catering to general public as well as Maker Faire space -Developing simple tools and design hacks for rapid prototyping for educational as well as industrial usage greatly changing the scope of initial design and providing near-perfect replica of actual design without investing significant time and money on it ### Graduate Teaching Assistant @ Purdue University Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | West Lafayette -Assisting Faculty in developing coursework regarding identifying customer requirements, generating and selecting concepts and prototyping. -Analyse different case studies of companies and HBRs to develop new curriculum -Interact with employees from Whirlpool, NASA, Ethicon, Lockheed Martin and assist them in the design process ### Graduate Teaching Assistant @ Purdue University Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Purdue University Teaching assistant for the course Product and Process Design involved in developing the course material and engaging in discussions with on and off campus students ( employees in BOEING, NASA, Whirlpool) in fostering interesting ideas and prototypes. ### Research And Development Intern @ TCS Web Innovation Labs Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Purdue University - Analyzing and studying different product architectures - Modular and integral - Studying the impact of Supply Chain and product validation in product design and development. - Designed a framework for the validation of personalized design using supply chain input at the early stage of product development. ### Instructor @ Gifted Education Research Institute Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Purdue University -Tasked with Organizing and Teaching at the Toy Design camp for GERI 2017 -Co-lead a team of 10 members to successfully organise the toy design class. - Educated the students in design process and practical design philosophy by implementing a combination of new and old design techniques through exciting, innovative and age appropriate mechanical robotic toy design - Conducted user study to understand the various approaches students take while learning by evaluating various activities such as sketching, drawing, construction, software modeling, iterative designing, peer facilitation, physics concepts and mechanics - Understanding the importance of individualistic and group design process as well as group dynamics in design thinking ### Product Development Intern @ Ford Motor Company Jan 2015 – Jan 2016 | Chennai Area, India -Studied and completed training on Systems Engineering, Failure Avoidance Mode, Design and Process Failure Mode Effects Analysis, Ford's Global Product Development System and understood the core concepts and nuances involved in how a vehicle at ford is developed right from the conception of the idea to the product launching. - Assisted the R&D Engineer by developing boundary diagrams by studying CAD from Teamcenter - Improved existing data gathering protocol to increase efficiency ### Board Member and Co-Founder @ Becoming I Foundation VIT Jan 2014 – Jan 2015 | VIT vellore Co-founded the VIT - Vellore branch of The Becoming I Foundation which has a pan India presence. Setup the entire organisation and handled recruitment of new members and simultaneously handled relations with the university and local schools to chalk out an MOU. Also worked on implementing project TELL (Technology Enabled Leaders of Learning) for schools in the district. ### Team Manager @ Team KI Racing Jan 2014 – Jan 2015 | VIT University -Handled and oversaw the everyday functioning of the team -Acted as the intermediary between the team and the University -Procured sponsors and handled the financial accounts of the team -Handled the Sales presentation at BAJA SAE Oregon 2015 and BAJA SAE INDIA 2015 ### Powertrain Department @ Kshatriya International team Jan 2013 – Jan 2015 | Vellore Institute of Technology- Vellore Worked in the transmission department and studied CVT ( Continuous variable transmission) technology and CVT tuning for the BAJA vehicle. ### Core Committee Member @ IEEE student branch VIT Jan 2012 – Jan 2015 | VIT- Vellore -Worked on various projects with students from different disciplinary backgrounds -organised several national level workshops and seminars -conducted several national level events such as IEEE Programmers League, Makeathon 2014,2015 and Converge 2014,2015. ### Intern @ Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. Jan 2014 – Jan 2015 -Underwent safety training for the factory premises -studied the assembly line for the manufacture of safe doors -implemented Kaizen principles to improve efficiency without compromising on safety ## Education ### Master of Science - MS in Mechanical Engineering Purdue University ### Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering Vellore Institute of Technology ### Delhi Public School Pune ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/venkatraghavan94 --- Source: https://flows.cv/venkatraghavan JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/venkatraghavan/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13