Applied Intuition
Senior Manager, Mechanical Engineering - Drone
$225K–$310K
Sunnyvale · On-site · Manager · Full-time · Posted Oct 16, 2026
- Experience
- 12+ years designing hardware and shipping products; 7+ years leading and managing mechanical engineering teams.
- Education
- BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
About the job
Leads the mechanical engineering team and roadmap for drone platforms, guiding aircraft design from concept and prototyping through flight testing and production.
What you'll do
- Build, manage, and develop the team responsible for drone airframes, structures, and aircraft integration.
- Set technical direction and oversee design, analysis, validation, prototyping, and flight-test improvements.
- Coordinate with autonomy, avionics, electrical, software, and flight-test teams to meet mission requirements.
What they ask for
- BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
- 12+ years designing hardware and shipping products; 7+ years leading and managing mechanical engineering teams.
- Hands-on flight-vehicle or flight-critical-structure design experience and understanding of aircraft structures, aerodynamic loads, stability, weight, and propulsion integration.
- Experience designing lightweight structures and design for manufacturing; proficiency in CAD.
Nice to have
- SolidWorks experience.
- Experience with flight testing, custom cable harnesses, FEA/CAE, or shipping complex hardware from early-stage development through mass production.
Pay
$225K – $310K USD base salary
Tools
CAD, SolidWorks, CNC machining, composite layup, sheet metal, additive manufacturing, FEA/CAE
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative