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You will own the mechanical design and development of safety-critical, field-deployed products from concept through production. This is a hands-on role combining CAD work, prototyping, and direct collaboration with hardware and software engineering teams.
Key Responsibilities:
- Design and own mechanical assemblies end-to-end: housing, structure, actuation mechanisms, and integration architecture
- Define mechanical safety architecture in collaboration with hardware and software leads, including interlocks, fail-safe geometry, retention features, and impact behavior
- Specify materials, tolerances, finishes, and fasteners for demanding operating environments (temperature, vibration, humidity, drop loads)
- Build and iterate prototypes in-house using 3D printing and CNC; prepare design-for-manufacturing (DFM) packages for external vendors
- Plan and execute mechanical qualification testing: drop, shock, vibration, environmental, mass-properties, and integration tests
- Own the bill of materials (BOM), weight budget, and center-of-gravity (CG) budget as safety-critical tracking items
- Collaborate directly with hardware and software engineers on PCB envelope, connector placement, harnessing, and mechanism actuation
Work Environment:
Short development cycles with weekly hardware iterations. You will work on-site in a lab with prototyping equipment, sitting alongside hardware and software engineers. The role expects you to be opinionated, design for testability from the start, and push back when constraints are misaligned.
Requirements:
- 7+ years designing mechanical assemblies for field deployment in domains such as UAV payloads, defense, automotive, aerospace, or similar rugged/regulated environments
- Fluency in parametric CAD tools (SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Onshape, Creo, or NX)
- Ability to produce manufacturing-ready drawings with GD&T, tolerance stacks, surface finishes, and fits
- Hands-on prototyping experience: FDM/SLA 3D printers, basic machining (mill, lathe), and in-lab build-and-break cycles
- Strong failure-mode intuition and experience breaking things intentionally to understand failure mechanisms
- Working English proficiency, 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
- FEA/structural simulation (Ansys, SolidWorks Simulation, Onshape FEA)
- Injection-mold and metal-casting design-for-manufacturing experience
- UAV or payload integration experience, including mass and CG sensitivity analysis
