Mechanical Engineer - Airframes & Mechanisms

Socket.dev; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Socket.dev is seeking a Mechanical Engineer for Airframes and Mechanisms to own the mechanical architecture, design, build, and flight validation of new airframes and systems for our high‑performance UAS intercept platforms.

You will turn evolving mission requirements into real hardware—compact mechanisms, structural load paths, subsystem packaging, and manufacturable airframes that survive field handling, vibration, launch, and flight loads. Passion and hands-on mastery are valued.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of professional or equivalent hands-on experience in mechanical/airframe hardware design.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Own mechanical architecture for airframes and vehicle configurations from concept to CAD, prototyping, test, flight test, and iteration.

Skills

Complex mechanical ownership

First-principles execution

Hands-on fabrication

Flexures & compliant mechanisms

Collaborative interdisciplinary work

Education

Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering / Aerospace Engineering / Robotics

Tools

Fusion 360

Siemens NX

CATIA

Onshape

SolidWorks

Ansys

Abaqus

Nastran

Job description

About the role

As a Mechanical Engineer for Airframes and Mechanisms, you will own the mechanical architecture, design, build, and flight validation of new airframes and mechanical systems for our high-performance UAS intercept platforms.

You will turn evolving mission requirements and vehicle concepts into real hardware: compact mechanisms, structural load paths, subsystem packaging, mechanical interfaces, fixtures, and manufacturable airframes that survive field handling, vibration, launch, flight loads, and repeated iteration.

This role is for an incredibly first-principles engineer who is equal parts mechanisms designer and hands‑on builder. You move quickly across the full loop, from trade study to design, build, test, and validation, and you upgrade your first-principles models the moment the data demands more fidelity.

You make hard structural and packaging trades, create elegant solutions under severe constraints, and personally build and test the hardware. You thrive in early ambiguity, cutting through the noise to find the few constraints that actually matter, and you prioritize physical reality over opinion.

Above all, you have a track record of novel mechanical system design. You have personally taken complex physical systems from concept through CAD, prototyping, test, failure analysis, and real‑world validation. Ideally, you spend your free time building drones, airplanes, robots, mechanisms, or strange machines because you cannot help yourself.

Passion coupled with engineering mastery are the two most important things we are looking for.

You will spearhead airframe and mechanisms development, working with the aerodynamics, rotorcraft, GNC, perception, electrical, and manufacturing teams to integrate their subsystems into coherent, rugged, flight‑proven vehicles.

Portfolio Strongly Encouraged: We strongly favor candidates who can show a portfolio of personally executed mechanical design and build work. Show us what you have designed, built, tested, broken, and improved (CAD, mechanisms, prototypes, airframes, robots, personal projects, test hardware, or other complex physical systems).

What you'll do

You will own mechanical architecture for new airframes and vehicle configurations, from clean‑sheet layout and first‑principles trades through CAD, prototyping, bench test, flight test, and iteration. You will work across the aerodynamics, rotorcraft, GNC, perception, electrical, and manufacturing teams, but the mechanical architecture, airframe structures, mechanisms, and packaging trades are yours to drive.

You will focus on problems in all of the following areas:

• Airframe & Mechanical Architecture: Own mechanical architecture for new airframes and vehicle configurations, from clean‑sheet layout and first‑principles trades through CAD, prototyping, bench test, flight test, and iteration.
• Mechanisms Design: Design compact, rugged airframe structures and mechanisms, including linkages, hinges, latches, retention features, printed flexures, and deployables, that survive real handling, transport, vibration, launch, and flight loads.
• Subsystem Packaging: Package motors, propellers, batteries, avionics, sensors, wiring, compute, and thermal paths under aggressive size, weight, and performance constraints.
• Structural Analysis & Failure Modes: Perform FEA, hand calculations, load‑path development, tolerance stackups, and failure‑mode analysis to ensure hardware survives real‑world loads.
• CAD, Fixtures & Test Articles: Produce high-quality CAD, drawings, mechanisms, fixtures, and test articles that can be rapidly manufactured, assembled, inspected, and iterated.
• Manufacturable Hardware Design: Translate mechanical and performance targets into manufacturable hardware, accounting for materials, fabrication methods, assembly sequence, and scale‑up.
• Rapid Prototyping & Test: Prototype quickly, test aggressively, break hardware, diagnose failures, and turn real data into the next design revision.
• Subsystem Integration: Integrate subsystems from the aerodynamics, rotorcraft, GNC, perception, electrical, and manufacturing teams into robust, serviceable vehicles.

Basic Qualifications

• Complex Mechanical System Ownership: You have personally brought a complex mechanical system from concept through design, CAD, prototyping, test, failure analysis, and real‑world validation. This is non‑negotiable.
• First‑Principles Execution: You are an incredibly first‑principles engineer who moves fast: you drive rapidly from trade study to design, build, test, and validation, simplify problems to the few constraints that actually matter, and upgrade your first‑principles models as the system becomes better understood.
• Experience: 6+ years of professional or equivalent hands‑on experience in mechanical, mechanism, airframe, robotics, or aerospace hardware design, including serious hobbyist and personal‑build experience, which we weight heavily.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or a related engineering discipline, or equivalent demonstrated ability.
• Mechanisms: Strong experience designing mechanisms, linkages, joints, hinges, latches, flexures, and compact moving assemblies under real‑world constraints.
• CAD: Strong proficiency in 3D CAD for complex mechanical assemblies, including Fusion 360, Siemens NX, CATIA, Onshape, SolidWorks, or similar tools.
• FEA & Structural Analysis: Strong proficiency in FEA and first‑principles structural analysis, including load paths, stress, vibration, shock, stiffness, buckling, fatigue, and failure modes, using Ansys, Abaqus, Nastran, Fusion Simulation, or similar tools.
• Design for Fabrication & Scale: Experience designing hardware for rapid fabrication and eventual scale, including additive manufacturing, CNC machining, sheet metal, carbon fiber and fiberglass composites, thermoplastics including ASA and ABS, fasteners, and assembly processes.
• Hands‑On Fabrication: Extensive hands‑on fabrication experience, including machining, 3D printing, carbon fiber and fiberglass composites, thermoplastics including ASA and ABS, hand tools, mechanical assembly, and field repair.
• Flexures & Compliant Mechanisms: Experience designing flexures and compliant mechanisms, including flexures printed on FDM and SLA machines.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in any of the following areas is a plus:

• Education: Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or a related engineering discipline.
• Small Air Vehicle Design: Multirotor, fixed‑wing, missile, loitering munition, racing drone, or other small air vehicle mechanical design experience.
• Compact Mechanical Systems: Experience designing compact, lightweight, deployable, or highly packaged mechanical systems for aerospace, robotics, or defense.
• Racing Drone & Multirotor Experience: Racing‑drone or multirotor design, build, tuning, and crash‑repair experience.
• Robotics & Electromechanical Hardware: Experience building robots, autonomous systems, end‑effectors, or rugged electromechanical hardware.
• Rapid Prototyping: Rapid‑prototyping fluency across additive and subtractive methods and their material tradeoffs, including FDM, SLA, CNC, and laser cutting.
• Composite Structures: Carbon fiber and fiberglass composite structures, bonded assemblies, and lightweight, high‑stiffness mechanical design.
• Mechanical Test Setups: Experience designing mechanical test setups, including load fixtures, vibration, drop, abuse, and environmental tests.
• Analysis Tooling: Experience building analysis tooling, including AI/LLMs, Python, MATLAB, or simulation workflows, to accelerate design and iteration.
• Defense & Aerospace Vehicles: Experience developing fielded defense or aerospace vehicles where ruggedness, flight performance, and speed matter more than presentation‑quality CAD.
• Excellent Interpersonal Skills: This is a highly interdisciplinary role requiring constant interface with the aerodynamics, rotorcraft, GNC, perception, electrical, and manufacturing teams to understand and integrate subsystem needs.

This position may involve access to technology, material, technical data, defense articles, or information subject to U.S. export‑control laws, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), and applicable contract requirements. Assignment to covered work is contingent upon the company’s ability to verify that the candidate is authorized to receive access to such items or information, including by qualifying as a “U.S. person” as defined in 22 C.F.R. § 120.62, or through any required export‑control authorization, notice, approval, or access‑control process.