This role combines
hands-on individual contribution with technical leadership - you'll own hardware from concept to production while also guiding and reviewing the work of other engineers on the team.
$120,000 - $150,000 a year
What You'll DoPeople & Org Leadership
- Direct Reports: Manage a team of mechanical engineers - set goals, run performance reviews, provide mentorship and career development.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Production, and Test teams to align on design intent, manufacturability, and program timelines - resolving cross-team technical trade-offs as they arise.
- Resource Allocation: Prioritize and assign engineering resources across concurrent projects and subsystems based on program needs and timelines.
- Hiring: Partner with recruiting and the Program Manager on hiring plans, participate in interviews, and make hiring recommendations for open roles on the team.
- Org Scaling: Help define team structure, processes, and technical standards as the engineering org grows; identify gaps in coverage and staffing needs ahead of program milestones.
Technical & Individual Contribution
- Project Ownership: Personally own select parts/subsystems from concept to production, including UAS structures, dispersion payload hardware, and field-emplaced infrastructure.
- Technical Direction: Set design standards and review FEA/CAD work across the team; make final calls on technical trade-offs for your group's subsystems.
- Rapid Hardware Prototyping: Design and build functional prototypes, iterating quickly based on test feedback and mission requirements.
- Test Fixture Design: Conceptualize, design, build, and run test fixtures for prototype components.
- FEA: Define loading/boundary conditions, run and validate studies (linear static, linear dynamic, nonlinear dynamic, thermal); review team output for quality.
- Documentation: Write technical documentation and prepare fabrication/assembly data packages for manufacturers.
Required Qualifications- 7+ years of mechanical engineering experience in hardware development with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or related field - or equivalent practical experience in lieu of a degree, including direct experience on UAV/UAS platforms (airframe, payload integration, or flight-critical structures)
- Prior experience managing engineers - direct reports, performance management, and resource/project allocation
- Excellence in parametric CAD (SolidWorks required)
- Strong FEA experience: linear static, linear dynamic, nonlinear dynamic, thermal
- Hands-on rapid prototyping experience: FDM, SLA, MJF, CO2 laser, fiber laser, press brake
- Significant composites experience - layup, tooling, and design for manufacturing with composite materials - in addition to sheet metal, molded polymers, and ceramic component design/manufacturing
- Demonstrated experience taking designs from prototype to production
- Demonstrated understanding of designing for staged scaling of a product, including staffing and process scaling as team size grows
