Senior Manufacturing Design Engineer

The role

The Senior Manufacturing Design Engineer develops, validates, and scales manufacturing processes for advanced unmanned aircraft systems. This role bridges product development and production to ensure drone designs are manufactured safely, reliably, and at required cost and quality.

What you will do

• Lead manufacturing activities for new drone products and major design changes.
• Develop manufacturing plans, process flows, workstation layouts, and tooling strategies.
• Provide design-for-manufacturing, assembly, test, automation, and serviceability feedback.
• Coordinate prototype, engineering-validation, design-validation, and production-validation builds.
• Develop and validate manufacturing processes for mechanical assembly, electronics integration, and functional testing.
• Create process specifications, work instructions, control plans, and manufacturing bills of material.
• Design or specify production tooling, fixtures, and semi-automated equipment.
• Translate production forecasts into labor, equipment, tooling, and capacity requirements.
• Lead root-cause investigations for manufacturing defects and reliability issues.
• Partner with design, test, and supply chain teams to improve manufacturability and quality.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related technical field.
• Three or more years of experience in manufacturing engineering, process development, new product introduction, or production engineering.
• Experience transitioning complex electromechanical products from development into production.
• Working knowledge of design for manufacturing and assembly, process validation, production tooling, and manufacturing documentation.
• Experience with structured problem-solving, root-cause analysis, and corrective-action methods.
• Ability to interpret engineering drawings, specifications, bills of material, and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing.
• Experience analyzing manufacturing data and using it to improve yield, cycle time, cost, or process capability.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment with evolving products and production requirements.
• Willingness to work directly on the manufacturing floor and support time-sensitive production builds.

Nice to have

• Experience manufacturing drones, aerospace products, robotics, autonomous systems, consumer electronics, or other complex electromechanical assemblies.
• Knowledge of aerospace quality systems, including AS9100, first-article inspection, configuration management, and production traceability.
• Experience with printed circuit board assemblies, cameras, optical systems, gimbals, inertial sensors, electric motors, batteries, composite structures, or precision mechanical assemblies.
• Experience developing adhesive-bonding, torque-controlled fastening, soldering, calibration, or environmentally controlled processes.
• Familiarity with production databases, manufacturing execution systems, enterprise resource planning systems, and product lifecycle management tools.
• Experience with CAD, tolerance analysis, statistical analysis, and manufacturing simulation tools.
• Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or Design for Six Sigma training.
• Experience specifying, purchasing, commissioning, or validating automated manufacturing equipment.
• Familiarity with regulated defense or export-controlled manufacturing environments.

Benefits

• Competitive base salaries
• Equity in the form of stock options
• Group health insurance plans
• Paid vacation time
• Sick leave
• Holiday pay
• 401K savings plan
• Relocation assistance may be provided for eligible roles

Before you apply

• Obtaining FAA Part 107 certification within the first 60 days of employment is strongly encouraged and required for certain positions.
• Skydio, Inc. uses E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility.

About the company

Skydio is the leading US drone company and the world leader in autonomous flight. The team combines expertise in artificial intelligence, hardware and software product development, operational excellence, and customer obsession.