As a Senior Mechanical Engineer on the Avionics Mechanical team, you will own the mechanical implementation of spacecraft electrical systems from early architecture through flight hardware. You will work at the intersection of mechanical, electrical, thermal, reliability, and manufacturing engineering to develop innovative solutions that protect sensitive electronics while enabling efficient assembly, qualification, production, and long-term mission success.
This is a highly cross-functional role with significant technical ownership. You will be expected to make sound engineering tradeoffs across multiple disciplines, balancing performance, reliability, manufacturability, cost, and schedule while delivering robust flight hardware for one of the world's most advanced satellite systems.
Key job responsibilities
- Own the mechanical design and development of spacecraft avionics hardware from concept through flight.
- Partner with Electrical Engineering to develop robust packaging architectures for circuit boards, connectors, harnesses, and electronic assemblies.
Perform engineering trade studies balancing performance, reliability, manufacturability, mass, cost, and schedule.
Develop mechanical solutions that protect electronics from launch loads, vibration, thermal cycling, radiation, and the space environment.
Design qualification hardware, production fixtures, inspection tooling, and test equipment.
Collaborate across Mechanical, Electrical, Thermal, Reliability, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering to retire technical risk early through analysis, prototyping, and testing.
Lead root cause investigations and implement design improvements throughout the product lifecycle.
Mentor junior engineers and help raise the technical bar across the organization.
A day in the life
As a Senior Mechanical Engineer, you'll work across nearly every engineering discipline involved in spacecraft development. One day you may be developing a new avionics packaging architecture alongside electrical and thermal engineers. The next, you could be reviewing vibration or thermal vacuum test results, troubleshooting qualification issues with manufacturing teams, or leading a design review for flight hardware entering production.
You'll regularly perform engineering trade studies, evaluate failure modes, work directly with suppliers, support qualification testing, and develop innovative solutions that improve reliability, manufacturability, and system performance. Engineers on this team are trusted to make technically sound decisions, move quickly through ambiguity, and deliver hardware that meets the demanding requirements of spaceflight.
About the team
The Avionics Mechanical team partners closely with Electrical Engineering to ensure every spacecraft electrical subsystem is mechanically robust throughout manufacturing, launch, and mission life. The team is responsible for the structural implementation of avionics hardware, including enclosure design, packaging architecture, mounting strategies, and environmental protection.
Working alongside Electrical Engineering, Structures, Thermal Engineering, Reliability Engineering, and Manufacturing Engineering, the team develops solutions that protect sensitive electronics from launch loads, vibration, thermal cycling, radiation, and the space environment. Engineers solve challenging problems involving PCB support, connector retention, thermal interfaces, fastener design, electronics packaging, and long-term material durability while balancing system performance with manufacturability.
Beyond flight hardware, the team also develops the specialized qualification hardware, manufacturing fixtures, inspection tooling, and test equipment that enable efficient verification throughout the product lifecycle. We are a highly collaborative organization that values first-principles engineering, technical curiosity, and a bias toward delivering practical solutions that enable reliable spacecraft at scale.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering or equivalent
- 5+ years of hardware design and validation of components, subsystems and systems experience
- Experience carrying design concepts through exploration, development, and into deployment or mass production
- Experience working in cross-functional teams with Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering.
- Experience using CAD tools to develop detailed mechanical designs and engineering documentation.
- Experience conducting engineering trade studies and making data-driven technical decisions.
- Strong understanding of Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), and engineering best practices.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Master's degree in mechanical engineering or equivalent
- Experience developing aerospace, satellite, defense, medical device, automotive, semiconductor, or consumer electronics products.
- Experience designing electronics packaging, structural enclosures, or electromechanical assemblies.
- Experience with environmental qualification testing, including vibration, shock, thermal cycling, thermal vacuum, or accelerated life testing.
- Experience with engineering tools and methodologies such as FMEA, tolerance analysis, root cause analysis, and Design Verification & Validation (V&V).
- Familiarity with thermal interface materials, adhesives, conformal coatings, EMI mitigation, or other materials used in high-reliability electronic systems.
- Demonstrated ability to lead technical efforts across multiple engineering disciplines and mentor junior engineers.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to influence technical decisions across cross-functional teams.
The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.
USA, WA, Redmond - 137,300.00 - 185,700.00 USD annually
