Drone Hardware Design Engineer – Equity Eligible

Skydio; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 132,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mentorship from experienced engineers

Hands-on hardware lifecycle exposure

Ownership growth opportunities

Job summary

Skydio is seeking a mechanical engineer to design parts and assemblies for aircraft, ground stations, and accessories. You will partner with electrical engineers to integrate boards and cabling into robust mechanical solutions and collaborate with vendors for part reviews.

You will plan tests, analyze trade-offs, and drive designs from prototyping to pre-production, ensuring manufacturability and quality. A strong fundamentals base and teamwork are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering or related field.
• 0-3 years of hands-on product or hardware experience through internships, co-ops, student design teams, research, or personal projects.
• Strong engineering fundamentals to solve open-ended design problems.
• Proficiency in 3D CAD and building multi-part assemblies.
• Familiarity with manufacturing processes such as injection molding, CNC machining, casting, or sheet metal.
• Ability to create clear mechanical drawings.
• Curiosity, attention to detail, and a love of well-designed hardware.
• A collaborative mindset and comfort working in a fast-paced environment where priorities shift.

Responsibilities

• Design mechanical parts and assemblies for our aircraft, ground stations, and accessories, working alongside senior engineers on new architectures and taking ownership of components as you grow.
• Partner with electrical engineers to integrate custom PCBAs, flex circuits, antennas, and cable harnesses into mechanical designs.
• Work with vendors on technical questions and part reviews, in collaboration with our operations and supply chain teams.
• Plan and run engineering tests, and use analysis to evaluate design trade-offs and verify that your parts perform as intended.
• Follow your designs through the full development cycle, from early prototypes to pre-production and mass production, and help our manufacturing teams with assembly processes and quality and inspection criteria.
• Investigate and debug failures, digging into the details to find root causes.

Skills

3D CAD proficiency

Mechanical design

Engineering fundamentals

Manufacturing processes knowledge

Mechanical drawings

Team collaboration

Open-ended design problem solving

CATIA

Education

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering or related field

Tools

CATIA

Job description

Skydio is seeking a mechanical engineer to design parts and assemblies for aircraft, ground stations, and accessories. You will partner with electrical engineers to integrate boards and cabling into robust mechanical solutions and collaborate with vendors for part reviews.

You will plan tests, analyze trade-offs, and drive designs from prototyping to pre-production, ensuring manufacturability and quality. A strong fundamentals base and teamwork are essential.