Lead Mechanical Engineer, Airframe

The role

The Lead Mechanical Engineer will own the structural and mechanical design of major aircraft assemblies from concept through flight testing. This role involves setting technical direction, leading design reviews, and managing subsystem interfaces.

What you will do

• Lead the design of primary aircraft structures, mechanisms, and major airframe assemblies
• Develop composite and metallic structures, joints, interfaces, and mounting systems
• Define structural load paths, design requirements, margins, and validation methods
• Perform and review hand calculations and finite element analysis
• Evaluate strength, stiffness, buckling, fatigue, vibration, and composite failure modes
• Lead preliminary and critical design reviews
• Own CAD assemblies, production drawings, bills of materials, tolerances, and design releases
• Manage mechanical interfaces between subsystems
• Design aircraft mechanisms including control surfaces, doors, landing gear, actuation systems, and deployable systems
• Work with manufacturing to develop tooling, assembly processes, inspection methods, and repair procedures

Required qualifications

• Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field
• 7 or more years of relevant mechanical, structural, or aerospace engineering experience
• Experience designing primary aircraft structures or large composite airframes
• Experience with bonded composite structures, sandwich panels, bonded inserts, and hybrid composite-metallic assemblies
• Experience with aircraft mechanisms, actuation systems, control surfaces, doors, landing gear, or deployable systems
• Knowledge of composite failure criteria, buckling, fatigue, vibration, modal analysis, or damage tolerance
• Experience taking safety-critical hardware from concept through manufacturing and testing
• Strong proficiency with CAD software such as Fusion, SolidWorks, CATIA, NX, or Creo
• Strong proficiency with finite element analysis tools such as ANSYS, Nastran, Abaqus, Fusion Simulation, or similar
• Ability to verify analysis using hand calculations and first-principles methods
• Strong understanding of structural mechanics, load paths, joint design, material behavior, and mechanical failure modes
• Experience applying GD&T and mechanical tolerancing to production drawings

Nice to have

• Experience designing structures for marine environments
• Experience developing structural test plans, fixtures, instrumentation, and acceptance criteria
• Familiarity with FAA certification, military airworthiness, or experimental flight-test programs
• Proficiency with MATLAB or Python for engineering analysis
• Experience with product lifecycle management and configuration control systems

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Meaningful early-stage equity
• Relocation support if applicable
• Employee Health Benefit Plans
• 6% Retirement matching
• Flexible PTO
• Free lunches, snacks, and a stocked fridge at our offices
• AI tools and subscriptions

Before you apply

• Candidates who are not yet qualified for a Lead position may apply to our Mechanical Engineer openings

About the company

Poseidon Aerospace builds and operates full-size autonomous cargo aircraft. The company is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with locations in Washington DC, Oregon, and Maine.