Engineering Manager, Air Vehicle Mechanical Systems
Leads a mechanical engineering team developing and integrating flight- and mission-critical aircraft mechanisms and actuation systems for a military VTOL UAV. Requires a mechanical engineering degree, 10+ years of aerospace mechanisms experience, and demonstrated team leadership.
About the job
Responsibilities
- Lead and develop a team of mechanical engineers, from new graduates to Principal-level engineers, focused on aircraft mechanisms and actuation systems.
- Guide architecture, detailed design, analysis support, release, integration, testing, and sustaining of mechanisms.
- Provide technical support for:
- Doors and latching
- Uplocks and downlocks
- Landing gear mechanisms
- Flight-control actuation integration
- Nozzle and propulsion actuation mechanisms
- Actuation and hydraulics
- Establish engineering quality standards for sizing, tolerances, margins, drawings/MBD, materials and process selection, and verification evidence.
- Define team goals, interfaces, resources, and decision rights.
- Drive collaboration across systems, structures/loads, aerodynamics, propulsion, GNC, avionics, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and test organizations.
- Coach and develop engineers through technical mentorship, career development, feedback, hiring, onboarding, and performance management.
- Manage workload across multiple builds and test campaigns, communicating risks, staffing needs, and schedule impacts.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent.
- 10+ years of experience with aerospace mechanisms and actuated-system design, build, integration, testing, and flight.
- 2+ years leading teams or serving in a team leadership role.
- Demonstrated ability to lead autonomous teams, set direction, ensure quality, and scale output through people.
- Strong fundamentals in kinematics, statics and dynamics, fatigue and wear, tolerancing/GD&T, materials and finishes, lubrication and bearings, and failure modes.
- Experience shipping hardware through prototype build, test, iteration, and release, including supplier and manufacturing engagement.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with environmental and operational robustness, including vibration/shock, thermal extremes, contamination, corrosion, and sand/dust.
- Experience supporting ground- and flight-test campaigns and investigating mechanism failures.
- Familiarity with reliability and safety methods such as DFMEA, FTA, fault containment, and safe-state thinking.
- Experience building supplier relationships for machined parts, actuation systems, and mechanism assemblies.
- Understanding of special processes and inspection/acceptance strategies.
Skills
Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Mechanisms, Actuation Systems, Kinematics, Statics And Dynamics, Fatigue Analysis, GD&T, Materials Selection, Hydraulics, Failure Modes, Dfmea, Fault Tree Analysis, Supplier Management, Flight Testing, Manufacturing Processes
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