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Senior Manager, Mechanical Engineering - Drone

Applied Intuition· Hardware
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Sunnyvale$225k - $310kFull-timePosted 1w ago

About the role

Senior Mechanical Engineering Manager responsible for the mechanical design of drone platforms, from airframe and structures through full aircraft integration, including roadmap, team leadership, and hands-on product development across concept, prototype, flight test, and production.

Responsibilities

  • Build and lead a team of mechanical engineers responsible for the airframe, fuselage, wings or rotor arms, landing gear, and structural components of our drone platforms
  • Set technical direction on the tradeoffs between weight, strength, aerodynamics, flight time, and payload capacity that determine whether an aircraft flies well
  • Guide your team's integration of propulsion, batteries, avionics, and payloads into the airframe, including packaging, mounting, cooling, and cable routing
  • Oversee structural, thermal, and vibration analysis across the team, and use flight and test data to validate and improve designs
  • Drive a culture of rapid prototyping: build, assemble, and iterate on real hardware, and support flight testing and field operations alongside your team
  • Lead failure and crash investigations, drive root cause analysis, and turn lessons into design improvements across the team
  • Own design, analysis, and validation quality at the component, assembly, and fully integrated aircraft level
  • Champion design for manufacturability, repairability, and field serviceability across your team's work
  • Hire, mentor, and grow mechanical engineers, and manage their performance and career development
  • Partner cross-functionally with autonomy, avionics, electrical, software, and flight test leaders to ensure designs meet mission requirements

Qualifications

  • BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field
  • 12+ years of experience designing hardware and shipping products, ideally for drones, UAS, or aircraft
  • 7+ years of experience leading and managing mechanical engineering teams
  • Hands-on experience designing flight vehicles or flight-critical structures, such as airframes, wings, fuselages, rotor arms, or landing gear
  • Strong understanding of what makes an aircraft fly: weight, structures, aerodynamic loads, stability, and propulsion integration
  • Experience designing lightweight structures, including composites, carbon fiber, and aerospace-grade metals
  • Experience with design for manufacturing across methods such as CNC machining, composite layup, sheet metal, and additive manufacturing
  • Proficiency in CAD, SolidWorks preferred, for 3D design and modification
  • Track record of hiring, developing, and retaining strong engineering talent

Skills

Required:Mechanical design and integrationWeight and propulsion integration

Benefits

  • N/A
Last updated Oct 18, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Applied Intuition

Building vehicle intelligence | Applied Intuition

Applied Intuition is the vehicle intelligence company with the tools, Vehicle OS, and autonomy stacks for creating safe, AI-powered vehicle experiences.

AIAutonomy stacksSelf-Driving SystemSimulationTesting & ValidationVehicle IntelligenceVehicle OSai-infrastructure-and-development
Company profileWebsite

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