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Salary: USD 153,000 - 243,000 / annual
Skydio is the leading US autonomous drone company, serving defense, public safety, and enterprise customers. This Senior Hardware Product Packaging Engineer role owns the complete packaging ecosystem for Skydio's drone products—from unboxing experience through field deployment and long-term storage.
You will design customer-facing and enterprise-ready packaging across Skydio's full product line: aircraft, docks, controllers, batteries, attachments, and accessories. Your responsibilities span concept through mass production, including commercial cartons, ruggedized field and transit cases, precision foam and molded-fiber inserts, multi-component kits, and accessory trays.
Key responsibilities include:
- Owning packaging design end-to-end: 3D CAD modeling (cushion geometry, cavity fits, trays, closures, case interiors), die lines, and production-ready drawings
- Partnering with industrial design, product management, and marketing to create unboxing and use experiences that match product quality
- Collaborating with mechanical, electrical, battery, and material flow engineering to ensure product safety and transport efficiency
- Managing vendor relationships: RFQs, tooling kickoffs, first article inspection, quality criteria, and corrective action
- Selecting and optimizing packaging processes: corrugated/folding carton, molded fiber, thermoforming, rotational/injection molding, foam conversion, and soft goods
- Defining and executing transit and field testing (drop, vibration, compression, incline impact, thermal/humidity conditioning) against ISTA, ASTM D4169, ATA 300, and MIL-STD-810 standards
- Owning packaging compliance and labeling: lithium battery shipping marks, hazmat/carrier requirements, regulatory markings, serialization, and artwork management across SKUs and regions
- Supporting internal manufacturing with pack-out processes, line-side layout, packaging BOMs, and work instructions
- Debugging field damage and shipping returns to identify root causes
This is a highly cross-functional role sitting between design, manufacturing, supply chain, and external vendors. You'll work with both domestic and international suppliers and may travel to supplier sites.
Requirements:
- Prior packaging or product development experience with proven track record of execution, enthusiasm, and cooperation
- Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, packaging engineering, or equivalent with demonstrated academic excellence
- Mastery of 3D CAD for complex assemblies; CATIA experience preferred
- Fluency in 2D structural design and artwork workflows: die lines, dieline-to-print handoff, collaboration with graphic designers
- Demonstrated ability to design for packaging manufacturing processes: corrugated and folding carton, foam conversion, and thermoforming required; molded fiber, roto-molding, injection molding, and soft goods desired
- Hands-on prototyping instinct: willingness to knife-cut cartons, hot-wire foam, or create samples quickly rather than wait for vendor timelines
- Ability to produce well-constructed part and assembly drawings, specifications, and tolerance stacks anticipating production fit
- Working knowledge of transit and field test standards and judgment to apply them appropriately
- Comfort with direct vendor engagement: quoting, tooling timelines, technical negotiation, and international supplier site visits
- Strategic mindset across design, source, build, validate, and ship processes with proven decision-making ability
- FAA Part 107 certification strongly encouraged within first 60 days; required for certain positions
Nice to have:
- Experience with ruggedized or mission-critical cases for defense, public safety, or industrial customers
- High-volume consumer electronics packaging experience including retail and e-commerce requirements
About Skydio
Defense / GovTech; Industrial — autonomous drones for defense, public safety, and enterprise.
