Senior Manager, Mechanical Engineering - Drone

About the role

As the senior Mechanical Engineering Manager, Drone, you will lead and grow the team responsible for the mechanical design of our drone platforms, from airframe and structures through full aircraft integration. You will own the mechanical engineering roadmap for our uncrewed aircraft, hire and develop a team of mechanical engineers, and work hands-on with your team through the full product design lifecycle, from concept and prototype through flight test and production.

At Applied Intuition, you will:

• 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

We're looking for someone who has:

• 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

Nice to have:

• Experience supporting flight test and field operations, including setting up devices under test and writing clear documentation for test, maintenance, safety, and team processes

• Experience designing, drawing, and prototyping custom cable harnesses

• Demonstrated experience in FEA/CAE (structural, thermal, vibration, and shock)

• Hands-on experience shipping high-complexity hardware in both early-stage startup (0 to 1) and mass-production environments