28Gorilla Engineering

05/28/2026

Most eye-opening in the Addison Group report: "The 2026 engineering market is exceptionally tight [with] roughly three jobs per qualified candidate."

As steady retirements shrink the applicant pool, competition for top talent is requiring employers to move quickly through the recruiting process. Key takeaway: take care of your engineers!!

These engineering hiring and staffing trends in 2026 can help you make informed decisions about your workforce. Read more!

05/27/2026

Our software team is growing! Welcome, Jon Wardwell, our newest Software Engineer. 👋

Jon comes to us after nearly six years at Iridium. He built backend systems and data pipelines for the kind of software that has to work every time, in some of the most mission-critical environments around.

He'll be building the backend services that connect our rugged hardware to the platforms our clients use in the field. He's already been immersed in the work; we can't wait to share more about what's keeping him busy!

Welcome aboard, Jon!

05/18/2026

Meet Jacob Stroud, our newest Electronic Assembler! 👋

Jacob comes to us with years of hands-on field and production experience. He installed solar-powered camera systems at Flock Safety, ran precision press setups at MIITEK, and operated high-speed manufacturing equipment at Ball Corporation.

He'll be soldering and assembling the PCBs that go into rugged products for industrial automation, environmental monitoring and field-deployed systems. Fun fact: his hands and fine motor skills are so precise, he's also a tattoo artist!

Welcome to the team, Jacob!

05/16/2026

Less than 1 percent of Americans serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. They do it with a fortitude that protects the rest of us.

Grateful for their service, and for the chance to do our part designing products that help keep them safe.

05/15/2026

When you build for defense, aerospace or any regulated industry, the standards have to be part of the product long before they're part of a test.

Take DDTC: holding it means the State Department has audited us to confirm we're not foreign-owned or controlled. Add SAM and ITAR, and you have a partner cleared to handle the regulated work directly.

We back that with an in-house lab to test for environments most products never face, plus the discipline to design to industry and safety standards from day one. That's how rugged and regulated products engineered at 28 Gorilla earn certifications and the field time that follows.

05/12/2026

There's a good chance you have an Ethernet cord at your desk or in a closet somewhere. Do you know if it's watertight? Would you trust it with your life?

Most of us would never need to. But for the people who would, they need something far more rugged than they can find at a retailer.

Here's how we overhauled an everyday staple into one that meets MIL-STD-461. https://bit.ly/3PkCeBr

05/11/2026

Big news: the new 29tech.com is live!

Our integrated manufacturing partner 29Tech just relaunched their site. New look, deeper case studies, and the full picture of how they prototype, validate, and produce rugged hardware.

Take a look. 🔗 https://bit.ly/49GNPBL

05/07/2026

Yippee!

That's how kids on Team Scrap Metal introduced themselves at matches, and it's the perfect way to celebrate their Industrial Design Award for "Copper" at the Utah Regionals last month. The award honors teams that demonstrate industrial design principles, striking a balance between form, function and aesthetics.

Their technical documentation impressed judges, who made note that the "use of color coordination and custom machined parts was methodically documented from incubation to creation." Copper's aesthetic was indeed maxed out with anodized tubes (thanks to fellow sponsor, Anodizing of mesa), custom paint and vinyl-wrapped shafts.

Matches were competitive and students had to think quickly to fix an intake belt. They also helped other teams problem-solve on the spot.

Industrial design is at the heart of what we do, so watching the team balance the practical and the beautiful to win this award is incredibly special to us. Congratulations to the students, and thank you to Valley Robotics Program for the chance to back them!

05/04/2026

Happy Star Wars Day!
"Do or do not. There is no try." Words we engineer (and play) by, every day. May the Force be with you... and your designs!

04/27/2026

When one of our engineers needs a bracket, an enclosure or a custom test fixture, it's ready in a couple hours.

No vendor queue. No PO. No quote round-trip. Just the loop between "I want it" and "I got it" running in hours instead of weeks.

That's the difference between iterating once on a design, or iterating four times!

04/10/2026

It's National Robotics Week, so let's celebrate Mango! Mango is Team Scrap Metal's 2025 competition robot that placed third at the Arizona East Regional. Team Scrap Metal is the Gilbert-based youth robotics team we sponsor, and one of six FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) teams supported by the Valley Robotics Program.

VRP is a nonprofit that logged over 1,200 hours last year working alongside students, providing mentorship, workspace, tooling, parts and design input to teams that wouldn't otherwise have access to any of it.

Team Scrap Metal students have access to internships at Microchip, Axon and Moog, plus mentor recommendation letters for internships and college applications and scholarships through FRC. Real doors, not just real skills.

VRP charges students nothing, which means they run entirely on community support. They're looking to grow with more teams, students and shop equipment. If you have tools, equipment or materials to donate, they'd put them to real use fast. To learn more about how you or an aspiring robotics engineer can get involved, check out their website: https://bit.ly/41Iz6Ss.