Mechanical Systems Engineer

Responsibilities

• Assist in developing mechanical configurations and architectures for small satellites, drones, payloads, and ground terminals from initial mission concepts to final design layouts.
  
• Support the creation and upkeep of mechanical specifications, interface control documents, and budgets covering mass, volume, and alignment tolerances.
  
• Help verify that designs meet launch vehicle and deployer interface criteria, including adherence to standards such as CubeSat specifications.
  
• Participate in critical design reviews, such as SRR, PDR, and CDR, to ensure all identified action items are successfully resolved.
  
• Design primary and secondary structures, brackets, enclosures, and harness routing systems using CAD software like SolidWorks, Autodesk, FreeCAD, or Inventor.
  
• Conduct or assist with finite element analysis (FEA) encompassing static loads, modal analysis, random vibration, and shock testing.
  
• Select appropriate materials and fasteners that satisfy requirements for strength, stiffness, outgassing, and corrosion resistance.
  
• Develop thermal models and perform analyses for both operational and survival scenarios within the orbital environment.
  
• Engineer passive and active thermal management solutions, including coatings, radiators, heat paths, insulation, and heating elements.
  
• Collaborate with electronics engineers to address board-level heat dissipation and ensure components remain within temperature limits.
  
• Engineer optomechanical mounts and structures designed to maintain optical stability during launch and thermal cycling.
  
• Support the design of mechanisms such as deployables, gimbals, or pointing assemblies when included in the project scope.
  
• Execute tolerance and thermo-elastic analyses to guarantee pointing accuracy and alignment performance.
  
• Generate production-ready drawings with geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) while overseeing fabrication with machine shops, 3D printing, and composite vendors.
  
• Draft assembly, integration, and test (AIT) procedures and lead the mechanical integration process.
  
• Organize and direct environmental testing, including vibration, shock, thermal-vacuum, and thermal cycling, in collaboration with test facilities.
  
• Define specifications for mechanical ground-support equipment, transport containers, and handling fixtures.
  
• Assist in the planning and setup of clean rooms, laboratories, and integration facilities.
  
• Establish standards for CAD, documentation, product data management (PDM), and configuration control regarding mechanical tasks.
  
• Mentor junior engineers and interns, providing design review and test guidance to university teams such as Project D.A.W.N.
  
• Forecast effort, costs, and schedules for mechanical deliverables and provide progress updates to management.
  
• Contribute technical expertise to proposals and partner discussions, collaborating with colleagues across US and Japan locations.
  
• Ensure all activities comply with relevant export-control regulations concerning hardware and technical data.
  

Requirements

• Proficiency in defining mechanical architectures for small satellites, drones, and related payloads.
  
• Expertise in creating and maintaining requirements, interface documents, and system budgets.
  
• Knowledge of launch vehicle interface standards, including CubeSat specifications.
  
• Experience leading mechanical content through design reviews and resolving action items.
  
• Advanced skills in CAD platforms such as SolidWorks, Autodesk, FreeCAD, or Inventor.
  
• Capability to perform or oversee finite element analysis (FEA) for static, modal, vibration, and shock scenarios.
  
• Understanding of material selection regarding strength, stiffness, outgassing, and corrosion.
  
• Competence in thermal modeling and analysis for orbital operating and survival conditions.
  
• Experience designing passive and active thermal control systems.
  
• Ability to collaborate on thermal management with electronics engineering teams.
  
• Skill in designing optomechanical mounts for alignment stability.
  
• Experience with mechanism design, including deployables and pointing assemblies.
  
• Proficiency in tolerance and thermo-elastic analysis.
  
• Capability to produce detailed manufacturing drawings with GD&T.
  
• Experience managing manufacturing processes with external suppliers.
  
• Knowledge of AIT procedures and mechanical integration.
  
• Familiarity with environmental testing protocols.
  
• Experience specifying ground support equipment and transport solutions.
  
• Ability to establish CAD and configuration control standards.
  
• Experience mentoring engineering staff and student teams.
  
• Skills in estimating project effort, cost, and schedule.
  
• Experience contributing to proposals and cross-border technical collaboration.
  
• Understanding of export-control compliance for hardware and data.