ABOUT

About

Petr smiling in a Truckhouse cap and vest, standing in sagebrush below a snow-streaked mountain

The Short Version

I'm Petr — a mechanical engineer with over 10 years of product development experience across medical devices and custom expedition vehicles. I've designed FDA-cleared implants, surgical instruments, and sterilization systems at a medical device startup, and led platform design at a custom vehicle manufacturer.

I bring 15 years of deep SolidWorks expertise — including advanced surface modeling and master modeling methodology — paired with strong hands-on fabrication and manufacturing skills. I'm equally comfortable behind a screen or behind a mill, with a wide range of personal and professional build experience to back it up.

The Career Arc

  1. 2016 – 2023

    OIC — Medical Device Startup

    Intern → Product Engineer → Sr. Product Engineer

    Designed implants, surgical instruments, and sterilization systems across multiple FDA-cleared product lines. But the scope went far beyond design — in a startup that small, you do everything. Managed PLM across all product lines, maintained ISO 13485 compliance, wrote design control documentation, ran clean room operations, handled product reworks, coordinated with suppliers on DFM and tooling, developed 3D-printed prototypes, ran laser marking, designed packaging and labeling, and even picked and shipped customer orders. Multiple FDA 510(k) clearances. Grew from intern to Senior Product Engineer.

  2. 2021 – Present

    Truckhouse — Expedition Vehicle Manufacturer

    Lead Design Engineer

    Started part-time in January 2021 while still full-time at OIC — two and a half years of shipping FDA-cleared devices by day and helping build something truly special by night. Truckhouse had that spark: a small team making vehicles nobody else was making, and I wanted in. In July 2023 I went all-in, full-time, to lead design of a new platform from the ground up. Designed tooling, mechanical subsystems, interior systems, and all integration engineering. Beyond design: developed manufacturing jigs and fixtures, programmed and operated CNC routers, wrote work instructions, built and managed BOMs through ERP integration, managed supply chain, developed custom AI tools for internal operations, and oversaw 3D printing and prototyping. Lead design engineer on a small, dedicated team delivering an incredibly complex product.

The Personal Side

I don't really turn off — I just point the energy somewhere else. One day a week goes to Donna, a 1977 Datsun 280Z that my dad and I have been turning into a track car since 2017. Every tube hand-mitered, every bracket custom. It's the project that never ends, and that's the point.

The rest of the time I'm making music, remodeling houses, ripping 125cc go-karts, riding mountain bikes and Onewheels, skiing, or rock climbing. I've been this way since I was 13, when I started wrenching as a bike mechanic in South Lake Tahoe — did that for nine years before engineering school. I'm wired for this kind of work.

When I'm not building something, I'm at home with my girlfriend Erica — together 6.5 years, homeowners, and recently new parents to Whimsy, a one-year-old rescue lab who is equal parts headstrong, sweet, and too smart for her own good.

I've always been drawn to entrepreneurship, but I wanted to earn it first. A decade of late nights, hard problems, and building things from scratch at companies where I wore every hat — that's the foundation InterPetr stands on. It's where I build the tools I wish I'd had, and share what I've learned along the way.

Follow the Datsun build:@donnathedatsun

Questions about a tool, a note, or something you're building? Send me a message.