Senior Manager Mechanical Engineering Drone

You will lead mechanical engineering for drone platforms from airframe design through aircraft integration, flight testing, and production. You will set the engineering roadmap, manage engineers, validate designs, lead investigations, and coordinate with technical partners to deliver robust aircraft.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the mechanical engineering team for drone airframes and structural components
• Set technical direction for weight, strength, aerodynamics, flight time, and payload tradeoffs
• Guide integration of propulsion, batteries, avionics, and payloads into the airframe
• Oversee structural, thermal, and vibration analysis and validate designs with test data
• Drive rapid prototyping, hardware assembly, iteration, and flight-test support
• Lead failure and crash investigations and drive root-cause design improvements
• Own mechanical design, analysis, and validation quality
• Champion manufacturability, repairability, and field serviceability
• Hire, mentor, develop, and manage mechanical engineers
• Partner with autonomy, avionics, electrical, software, and flight-test leaders

Requirements

• BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field
• 12+ years of hardware-design and product-shipping experience
• 7+ years leading and managing mechanical engineering teams
• Experience designing flight vehicles or flight-critical structures
• Understanding of aircraft weight, structures, aerodynamic loads, stability, and propulsion integration
• Experience designing lightweight structures with composites, carbon fiber, and aerospace-grade metals
• Experience with CNC machining, composite layup, sheet metal, and additive manufacturing
• Proficiency in CAD
• Track record of hiring, developing, and retaining engineering talent

Benefits

• Equity