Wardstone
Lead Mechanical Engineer
El Segundo, United States · On-site · Full-time · Posted Oct 18, 2026
- Experience
- 7+ years designing flight or high-load hardware; experience leading engineers or owning a major subsystem from design through test.
- Education
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
- Visa sponsorship
- Must be a U.S. person as defined by ITAR (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual).
About the job
Leads the mechanical engineering team and owns interceptor structures, mechanisms, and launcher interfaces from concept through testing and flight.
What you'll do
- Lead and develop a team of mechanical engineers; set engineering standards, priorities, schedules, and design review practices.
- Design and analyze interceptor structures, mechanisms, and interfaces, including CAD assemblies and mass properties.
- Coordinate hardware integration, suppliers, and structural, vibration, and environmental testing.
What they ask for
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
- 7+ years of experience designing flight or high-load hardware.
- Experience leading engineers or owning a major subsystem from design through test.
- Expertise in CAD and structural analysis, including FEA for static, dynamic, and vibration loads; strong materials-selection experience and hands-on shop/test skills.
Nice to have
- Hardware experience on missiles, rockets, UAVs, or other high-speed aerospace vehicles; manual or CNC mill and lathe proficiency.
- Experience with MIL-STD environmental testing, designing and building structural test rigs, or working at an early-stage startup.
Tools
CAD, FEA, GD&T, MIL-STD-810
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative