Master Mechanical Engineer

Summary

As a Master Mechanical Engineer, you join the Pirate Team—the highest engineering team at the company. Reporting directly to the CEO and acting as a collective, council CTO, the Pirate Team is the best of the best: a small band of the most senior engineers who set the technical direction, take on the problems no one else can, and hold the bar for how the entire company builds. This is not a role for people who want to be told what to do; it is for the engineers others look to when the answer isn't obvious.

In this role you own mechanical engineering at its deepest level—the structures, mechanisms, and physical integration that make our mobile robotics platforms survive and perform in the real world. You take a system from a blank sheet to a manufacturable design: airframes, chassis, and hulls; load-bearing structures and enclosures; actuation and moving mechanisms; and the thermal, vibration, and environmental realities that decide whether a robot works in a lab or in the field. You know how to prove it out—so you build the fixtures, test rigs, and characterization setups that turn "it should hold" into measured fact. You are not afraid to go past the catalog: you have designed, or are ready to design, bespoke mechanisms, advanced composites, and novel manufacturing approaches when off-the-shelf parts and standard processes can't get us where we need to go.

Duties

• Own mechanical architecture across structures, mechanisms, and physical integration for our mobile robotics platforms—UAVs, UGVs, USVs—from concept through production
• Design complex mechanical assemblies: airframes, chassis, and hulls, load-bearing structures, enclosures, mounts, and harnessing routes, with full ownership of CAD models and manufacturable drawings
• Design actuation and mechanisms—gimbals, deployment and articulation systems, drivetrains—integrating motors, gearing, bearings, and seals into reliable motion
• Design for the physical environment mobile robots operate in: vibration, shock, thermal management, ingress protection and sealing, corrosion, and weight optimization
• Own materials and manufacturing: select materials and processes (machining, molding, sheet metal, composites, additive), own DFM/DFA, and drive designs from prototype to volume with contract manufacturers
• Develop the fixtures, jigs, and mechanical test rigs needed to bring up, validate, and stress the hardware—make measurement a first-class part of how we build
• Explore and de-risk new techniques, materials, and manufacturing methods; bring the promising ones into the product
• Debug the hardest cross-domain mechanical failures—structural, thermal, vibration, fatigue, wear—down to root cause using first-principles reasoning and the right analysis tools
• Define mechanical interfaces and constraints in partnership with the electrical, embedded, mechatronics, and applications teams; own the mechanical side of the seams
• Set and hold the mechanical engineering bar company-wide as a member of the Pirate Team's council CTO—shape technical direction, weigh in on the hardest cross-team calls, and raise the level of every engineer around you

Required Skills

• Deep, demonstrated mastery of mechanical engineering as a senior individual contributor—you have designed, shipped, and been trusted with the hardest mechanical decisions
• Expert-level CAD for complex assemblies with manufacturable drawings and rigorous GD&T (SolidWorks, Creo, Fusion 360, or equivalent)
• Strong structural and mechanical analysis: FEA, hand calculations, tolerance stack-ups, fatigue, and thermal analysis—you predict behavior before you cut metal
• Materials and manufacturing expertise across machining, molding, sheet metal, composites, and additive—with real command of DFM/DFA and moving designs to production
• Mechanism and actuation design: bearings, gears, seals, drivetrains, and motion systems that hold up under load and cycles
• Design for harsh, mobile, weight-constrained environments: vibration, shock, thermal, and ingress/sealing (IP ratings)
• Proven ability to design and build fixtures, jigs, and mechanical test rigs—you make hardware verifiable, not just buildable
• Hands-on prototyping instincts—you are comfortable in the shop and lab with your own designs, from first article through field testing
• Experience with, or genuine readiness to take on, bespoke mechanisms, advanced composites, and novel manufacturing—you are not scared of going past the catalog
• Clear technical communication and the judgment to know when to reach for a standard part and when to build something new

Nice to Have

• Prior experience designing mechanical systems for UAV, UGV, or USV platforms or other harsh-environment, mobile systems
• Deep composites or advanced-materials experience: layup design, tooling, and validation
• Experience with CFD, thermal, or aero/hydrodynamic simulation for mechanical validation
• Background in weight-critical or aerospace-grade structural design
• Experience with power/thermal packaging for battery-powered mobile platforms
• Familiarity with environmental and military standards (MIL-STD-810, IP ratings)
• Experience with PLM systems and version control for mechanical design files