Lead Mechanical Engineer - UAV Hardware & Production

Rainmaker; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Rainmaker is building a modern cloud seeding system to address water scarcity and weather challenges. This hands-on role combines individual contribution with technical leadership, owning hardware from concept to production while guiding engineers across the team.

The engineer will lead a mechanical team, collaborate with Electrical, Manufacturing, Production, and Test groups, manage resources and hiring, and help scale processes as the program grows.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of mechanical engineering experience in hardware development.
• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or related field, or equivalent.
• Direct UAV/UAS experience (airframe, payload integration, or flight-critical structures).
• Experience managing engineers — reports, performance, and allocations.
• Excellence in parametric CAD (SolidWorks).
• Strong FEA experience: linear static, linear dynamic, nonlinear dynamic, thermal.
• Hands-on rapid prototyping: various methods.
• Significant composites experience in layup, tooling, and DFm with composites, sheet metal, polymers.
• Experience taking designs from prototype to production.
• Experience designing for staged scaling of a product; staffing and process scaling.

Responsibilities

• Direct Reports: Manage a team of mechanical engineers — set goals, run performance reviews, provide mentorship and career development.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Production, and Test teams to align on design intent, manufacturability, and program timelines.
• Resource Allocation: Prioritize and assign engineering resources across concurrent projects and subsystems based on program needs and timelines.
• Hiring: Partner with recruiting and the Program Manager on hiring plans, participate in interviews, and make hiring recommendations.
• Org Scaling: Help define team structure, processes, and technical standards as the engineering org grows; identify gaps in coverage and staffing needs ahead of program milestones.
• Project Ownership: Personally own select parts/subsystems from concept to production, including UAS structures, dispersion payload hardware, and field-emplaced infrastructure.
• Technical Direction: Set design standards and review FEA/CAD work; make final calls on technical trade-offs.
• Rapid Hardware Prototyping: Design and build functional prototypes, iterating quickly based on test feedback and mission requirements.
• Test Fixture Design: Conceptualize, design, build, and run test fixtures for prototype components.
• FEA: Define loading/boundary conditions, run and validate studies; review team output for quality.
• Documentation: Write technical documentation and prepare fabrication/assembly data packages for manufacturers.

Skills

7+ years mechanical

Team management

SolidWorks

FEA

Rapid prototyping

Composites

Production transition

Scaling teams

Education

Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering or related field

Tools

SOLIDWORKS

Job description

Rainmaker is building a modern cloud seeding system to address water scarcity and weather challenges. This hands-on role combines individual contribution with technical leadership, owning hardware from concept to production while guiding engineers across the team.

The engineer will lead a mechanical team, collaborate with Electrical, Manufacturing, Production, and Test groups, manage resources and hiring, and help scale processes as the program grows.