Mechanical Engineer

Cantos Ventures; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Heaviside Industries in Los Angeles, CA seeks a Mechanical Design Engineer to own the mechanical design of munition airframes, mechanisms, and payload packaging from concept through production. You will lead structural design and analysis (hand calculations and FEA) for airframes under launch, flight, and terminal loads, and design for MIL-STD-810 with qualification campaigns.

You’ll mentor peers on the mechanical team. U.S.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, or a closely related field.
• 1–3 years of hands-on mechanical design experience.
• Proficiency in 3D CAD and creating production-ready drawings with GD&T.
• Experience with machining, sheet metal, composites, or additive processes and cost/lead time impact.
• Comfort doing structural analysis by hand and with FEA tools.
• You've built things with your own hands and enjoy being on the shop floor and at the test site.
• U.S. Person as defined by ITAR (22 CFR 120.62)

Responsibilities

• Own mechanical design of munition airframe structures, mechanisms, and payload packaging.
• Lead structural design and analysis (hand calculations and FEA) for airframes under launch/flight/terminal loads.
• Design for gunfire/shock, vibration, thermal extremes, and moisture per MIL-STD-810 with qualification campaigns.
• Drive design-for-manufacture across composites, metals, and additive processes with production teams.
• Own thermal management for dense avionics/RF payloads in small airframes.
• Develop single-use-reliability mechanisms (deployment, separation, folding surfaces, actuation).
• Release production drawings with GD&T per ASME Y14.5 and mentor engineers.

Skills

3D CAD

GD&T

FEA

Hand calculations

Shop floor

Airframe design

US Person

Machining

Education

B.S. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering

Tools

FEA tools

Job description

About Heaviside Industries

Heaviside Industries builds multi-domain autonomous precision munitions for U.S. and allied special operations and conventional forces. While modern warfare has rapidly evolved with the proliferation of unmanned systems, hyper-precise munitions in contested environments are the future of the battlefield. Economical precision strike capabilities are critical to U.S. and allied war efforts, enabling successful defeat of enemy military assets and infrastructure. Heaviside builds precision munitions designed to operate in GPS-denied and spectrum-jammed battlefields—where traditional systems degrade or fail—without inflated prices or sacrifice to performance.

All engineering and manufacturing is conducted in-house in Heaviside's Los Angeles, CA headquarters and Oslo, Norway office.

Heaviside is backed by Felicis, Hedosophia, Interlagos, Friends & Family Capital, Menlo Ventures, Flume Ventures, Cantos, and others.

What You Will Do

• Own the mechanical design of munition airframe structures, mechanisms, and payload packaging from concept through production at Heaviside's in-house LA factory.
• Lead structural design and analysis — hand calculations and FEA — for airframes subject to launch loads, flight loads, and terminal conditions.
• Design for the tactical environment: gunfire/launch shock, vibration, thermal extremes, and moisture per MIL-STD-810, with qualification campaigns to prove it.
• Drive design-for-manufacture across composites, machined metallics, and additive processes, working directly with Heaviside's in-house production and RF production teams on integrated builds.
• Own thermal management design for dense avionics and RF payload packaging in small tactical airframes.
• Develop single-use-reliability mechanisms: wing/fin deployment, tube-launch separation, folding aerosurfaces, and actuation systems.
• Release production-ready drawing packages with rigorous GD&T per ASME Y14.5, and mentor engineers across the mechanical team.

What We Are Looking For

• B.S. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, or a closely related field.
• 1–3 years of hands-on mechanical design experience, full-time or on a serious competition or race team.
• Proficiency in 3D CAD and creating production-ready drawings with GD&T.
• Working knowledge of machining, sheet metal, composites, or additive processes, and how design choices affect cost and lead time.
• Comfort doing structural analysis by hand and with FEA tools.
• You've built things with your own hands and enjoy being on the shop floor and at the test site.
• U.S. Person as defined by ITAR (22 CFR 120.62)

NICE TO HAVE

• Formula SAE, Baja SAE, Formula Student, Solar Car, or similar competition team experience, especially in a lead role.
• Time at a race team, motorsports supplier, or automotive OEM (chassis, suspension, powertrain, aero, or vehicle dynamics).
• A personal build: a track car, kit car, motorcycle, or EV conversion you designed or modified yourself.
• Hands-on skills: TIG welding, manual or CNC machining, composites layup.
• Experience with vibration and shock analysis, data acquisition, or test instrumentation.
• Exposure to aerospace, defense, or underwater systems.
• An active security clearance, or prior military service.

Additional Information

Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

Heaviside is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Heaviside is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, physical disability or any other legally protected status.