You'll own the mechanical side of our products - from concept and CAD through prototyping, qualification, and production transfer. Our systems are safety-critical, field-deployed, and built to survive demanding environments. This is a hands-on role: you'll be in the lab as much as at your desk, and you'll work directly alongside hardware and software engineers.
What you'll do:
Design and own mechanical assemblies end-to-end: housing, structure, actuation mechanisms, and integration architecture.
Define the mechanical safety architecture in collaboration with HW and SW leads - interlocks, fail-safe geometry, retention features, and impact behavior.
Spec materials, tolerances, finishes, and fasteners for operating environments involving temperature, vibration, humidity, and drop loads.
Build and iterate prototypes in-house (3D print, CNC); hand off polished DFM packages to external machinists and mold vendors.
Plan and execute mechanical qualification: drop, shock, vibration, environmental, mass-properties, and integration testing.
Own the BOM, weight budget, and CG budget - track them as the safety-critical numbers they are.
Collaborate directly with HW and SW engineers on PCB envelope, connector placement, harnessing, and mechanism actuation.
Required:
7+ years designing mechanical assemblies that go into the field - UAV payloads, defense, automotive, aerospace, or similar rugged/regulated domains.
Fluency in a parametric CAD tool (SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Onshape, Creo, or NX).
Ability to produce manufacturing-ready drawings: GD&T, tolerance stacks, surface finishes, and fits.
Hands-on with prototyping: FDM/SLA printers, basic machining (mill, lathe), and in-lab build-and-break cycles.
Strong failure-mode intuition - you've broken things on purpose and know which question to ask next.
Working English, written and verbal.
Nice to have:
Experience with energetics, safety-critical arming or actuation mechanisms in defense, aerospace, or industrial applications.
Familiarity with MIL-STD-810 (environmental), MIL-STD-331, or equivalent civilian qualification standards.
UAV or payload integration experience, including mass/CG sensitivity.
How we work: Short cycles, weekly hardware iterations. You'll sit next to the HW and SW engineers and have a lab with prototyping equipment on-site. We expect you to be opinionated, design for testability from day one, and push back when constraints are wrong.