$60-$160/hr mechanical engineering work, on your schedule
You review AI-drafted designs, FMEAs, and tolerance analyses the way you would a junior engineer's package, flagging the tolerance that cannot be held and the part that fails under fatigue. Remote, a few hours a week, paid hourly.
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Hi, we're Zac and Jack, the founders of Terac. We want to talk to you directly, because you are the most important part of what we're building.
Terac is a community of experts. People who have spent years getting good at something specific and hard. The world is about to need more of you, not less. As AI takes on more of the world's work, the bottleneck shifts to the people who actually know what they're talking about.
Expert labor is the rarest resource in the world right now, and it is shockingly hard to find. The companies that need a mechanical engineer's eye on a tolerance stack-up spend weeks chasing people, paying placement fees, and settling for whoever is available. Meanwhile thousands of qualified people are sitting with knowledge that no one ever asks for.
That gap is what we're here to close. Every project that lands on Terac is routed to the people who actually know the answer, on their schedule, paid fairly, and only when the work is verified. No middleman taking a cut of your time. No vague gigs. No chasing checks.
We care about every single person in this community. If you join Terac, you're not a row in a database to us. We read the feedback. We answer the emails. We will fight for you when a customer is being unreasonable, and we will be honest with you when something on our side is broken. The quality of this panel is our entire company, and we owe you a serious bar.
If you've made it this far, here is what we're asking: claim your profile. Put your expertise on the record. Let the world's most ambitious teams come find you for the work only you can do.
Mechanical Engineering questions
Still curious? Write to us at support@terac.com.
It is in demand. Models often generate plausible but structurally wrong analyses, and catching that takes someone who reads a mesh and a convergence plot critically. You review model FEA write-ups, flag misapplied load cases, and write worked examples. Any major solver qualifies.
An inactive or retired PE still counts. We use it as a signal of verified expertise, not authorization to stamp drawings. You are evaluating AI outputs and writing examples, which needs no active stamp. A lapsed US PE or a Chartered Engineer designation through IMechE both qualify.
No. Everything you evaluate or create is labeled AI training and evaluation material, not an engineering deliverable. Terac produces no design documents or certifications and nothing enters an approval workflow, so there is no conflict with NSPE ethics or state board rules on seal misuse.
All of it. Heat transfer and thermo, machine design, GD&T and drawing interpretation, fluid mechanics and HVAC sizing, manufacturing process selection, and materials work against ASTM or ASME. The mix shifts with what clients are training, so expect variety, and you can decline task types outside your expertise.
Yes. CSWA, CSWP, and CSWE qualify, especially for reviewing a model's CAD rationale or manufacturing feasibility. We also accept CQE, a manufacturing Six Sigma Black Belt, or credentials from AWS, ASME, or SME. What matters is spotting when a model's reasoning is wrong, not the letters after your name.
Why your expertise matters
Today's mechanical AI specs a part outside its derating curve, calls out a tolerance that cannot be held on the line, and sets FEA boundary conditions that quietly bias the von Mises result. Catching that takes a practicing engineer, not a textbook. Your corrections teach these tools the difference between reciting a formula and making a design that ships.
How pay works
Your rate within the $60-$160 band tracks your depth. Generalists start lower; active PE licensure, an industry like aerospace, or nonlinear FEA and CFD fluency reach the top. Work is remote, billed by the verified hour or task, and paid once Terac confirms quality.
What the work looks like
A sample of the mechanical engineering work you would pick up. Every project is scoped, remote, and paid on verified completion.
- Flag the wrong boundary conditions, contact definitions, or mesh density in a model's SolidWorks stress simulation setup.
- Review AI-written FMEA entries for a rotating assembly and catch the omitted failure modes and infeasible detection controls.
- Write a worked bearing-selection example for a given load, speed, and temperature, showing the L10 life reasoning.
- Judge whether a model's case for swapping 4140 steel to 17-4 PH stainless holds up on corrosion, machinability, and heat-treat.
- Compare two weld joint designs and annotate which AWS D1.1 or ASME Section IX requirements each one meets.
- Score a model's GD&T drawings for a machined bracket, marking callouts that would be rejected at incoming inspection.
Specialties we match
Mechanical Engineering projects span a wide range of focus areas. Tell us where you go deep and we route the work that fits.
- Finite element analysis (FEA)
- GD&T and tolerancing (ASME Y14.5)
- Thermodynamic cycle analysis
- Fluid mechanics and CFD
- Fatigue and fracture mechanics
- DFM / DFA
- FMEA and fault tree analysis
- SolidWorks / CATIA / NX / Creo
- ASME pressure vessel codes (BPVC)
- Mechanism design and kinematics
- Metal and polymer material selection
- Vibration and modal analysis
