Senior Mechanical Engineer
$150,000–$200,000 year
On-site · El Segundo, California, United States
Job Summary
Senior Mechanical Engineer leads a defined mechanical discipline across design, build, and test of flight hardware for aerospace/defense programs. Owns end-to-end design decisions, builds and mentors a team of mechanical engineers, executes detailed design work (drawings, GD&T, FEA, component specs, risk assessments), drives hardware from prototype through qualification and production handoff, leads or supports qualification campaigns (functional, environmental, pneumatic, hydraulic, structural per MIL-STD and aerospace standards), spearheads root-cause investigations with corrective actions, ensures designs are optimized for reliability, manufacturability, and cost, provides mentorship, collaborates with mechanical, electrical, software, and build engineering to deliver integrated hardware systems, participates in design reviews, and supports customer-facing engagements as a subject matter expert.
Required Qualifications
- Substantial experience in mechanical engineering for aerospace or defense hardware, with a strong track record taking products from concept through flight qualification and into production
- Deep technical expertise in at least one mechanical discipline — such as fluid systems (pneumatic or hydraulic), mechanisms, structural design, cockpit avionics packaging, or power electronics enclosures — with working fluency across adjacent areas
- Hands-on and lab-comfortable; expected to be in the protoshop and on the bench, not just at a CAD station
- Strong command of engineering first principles across thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and solid mechanics; proven ability to simplify requirements and cut complexity
- Experience with Siemens NX or equivalent CAD package; familiarity with FEA tools and test instrumentation
- Familiarity with MIL-STD-810, DO-160, and other aerospace qualification frameworks
- Independent, direct, and action-oriented; takes full ownership
- Nascent leadership instincts — comfortable informally guiding peers and ready to grow into broader responsibility over time
Additional Requirements
- ITAR requires U.S. person status as defined by ITAR for eligibility
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