Mechanical Engineer - Mechanisms & Structures

Endeavor Optical Networks Inc.; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Endeavor Optical Network is seeking a Mechanical Engineer to own the terminal's mechanisms and structures, from demonstrator to production-ready designs. You will collaborate with optomechanical, PAT, GNC, and Thermal teams, delivering reliable, manufacture-ready hardware for space-ground terminals.

The role emphasizes fast decisions, hands-on prototyping, and design-for-manufacturability to enable repeatable assembly across stations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in mechanical engineering or related discipline.
• Mechanism design depth: gimbals, rotation stages, actuators, bearings and drive trains.
• Structural design and analysis experience, with proficiency in FEA (ANSYS Mechanical or equivalent).
• Proficiency in professional 3D CAD (NX, SolidWorks, Creo) with toleranced drawings for fabrication.
• Hands-on prototyping, assembly, and test experience.
• Comfort moving fast and making sound calls without complete data.

Responsibilities

• Design the terminal's gimbal and coarse-steering mechanisms: bearings, drives, encoders, and budgets.
• Design terminal structures: telescope support, enclosures, and load paths for alignment retention.
• Own structural analysis for stiffness, modal behavior, and survival loads, and correlate with test.
• Define mechanism requirements with PAT and GNC seats and translate to hardware.
• Coordinate with Thermal to understand structural-thermal effects on pointing stability.
• Drive design-for-manufacturability and repeatable assembly for scalable production.
• Select and manage suppliers and machine shops for structures and components from prototype to production.
• Support terminal integration and field deployment, handling mechanical issues from bench to site.

Skills

Gimbals

Rotation stages

Actuators

Bearings

Drive trains

Prototyping

Assembly

Testing

Mechanical design

Structural design

FEA

3D CAD

Education

Bachelor's or advanced degree in mechanical engineering or a related discipline

Tools

NX

SolidWorks

Creo

Job description

About EON

EON is building the highest-throughput point-to-point data transport network ever deployed in space. Using free-space laser links in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), we move petabytes of data between any two points on Earth as an alternative to subsea or terrestrial fiber. EON recently closed a $10.75M seed financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst in their first-ever co-led space deal. EON is building out of its R&D center in Culver City.

About EON

EON is building the highest-throughput point-to-point data transport network ever deployed in space. Using free-space laser links in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), we move petabytes of data between any two points on Earth as an alternative to subsea or terrestrial fiber. EON recently closed a $10.75M seed financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst in their first-ever co-led space deal. EON is building out of its R&D center in Culver City.

The Role

Our ground terminal needs gimbals, coarse-steering mechanisms, and structures that point a telescope at a moving satellite and survive years in the field, designed from the start for production and repeatable assembly. We are seeking a mechanical engineer to own the terminal's mechanisms and structures, from the demonstrator's first build through designs that can be manufactured for every ground station. You'll own the terminal-scale mechanisms and structures, partnering with the optomechanical seats whose sub-micron optical mounts ride on your hardware, and with the PAT, GNC, and Thermal seats on the budgets that flow through it.

Responsibilities

• Design the terminal's gimbal and coarse-steering mechanisms: bearings, drives, encoders, and the stiffness and backlash budgets the PAT loop points through
• Design the terminal structures: telescope support, enclosures, and the load paths that hold optical alignment through wind, thermal, and handling loads
• Own structural analysis for stiffness, modal behavior, and survival loads, and correlate models to test
• Define mechanism requirements with the PAT and GNC seats (slew rates, pointing stiffness, jitter contributions) and carry them into hardware
• Work with the Thermal seat on the structural-thermal behavior that drives pointing and alignment stability
• Drive design-for-manufacturability and repeatable assembly, so the demonstrator terminal becomes a build recipe rather than a one-off
• Select and manage suppliers and machine shops for structures and mechanism components, from prototype through production
• Support terminal integration and field deployment, owning mechanical issues from bench to site

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in mechanical engineering or a related discipline
• Mechanism design depth: gimbals, rotation stages, actuators, bearings, and drive trains
• Structural design and analysis experience, with proficiency in FEA (ANSYS Mechanical or equivalent)
• Proficiency in professional 3D CAD (NX, SolidWorks, Creo, or equivalent), including toleranced drawings for fabrication
• Hands-on prototyping, assembly, and test experience
• Comfort moving fast and making sound calls without complete data

Preferred Experience

• Precision pointing mechanisms: telescope mounts, antenna gimbals, or tracking pedestals
• Designing for outdoor or field-deployed hardware: sealing, corrosion, and wind and seismic loads
• Motion-control adjacency: encoders, servo drives, and mechanism-level tuning alongside controls engineers
• Design-for-manufacturability and design-for-assembly for low-rate production
• Optomechanical adjacency: kinematic mounts, athermalization, or structures that hold optical alignment
• Environmental test (vibration, shock, thermal cycling) for mechanisms and structures
• Materials selection for stiffness, weight, and thermal stability trades

A note on level and background: We hire this role at all levels, from Associate through Senior and Principal Mechanical Engineer, and calibrate title, scope, and compensation to your experience. If this list doesn't perfectly match your background still reach out. We are always looking for exceptional people from many disciplines.

What This Job Is Really Like

We're a seed-stage company building toward first light on a single-route demonstrator. There's no program office and no requirements team. The terminal that points at space is your hardware: you'll design it once for the demonstrator, then design it to be built again at every station, and every microradian the pointing loop holds rides on your stiffness budget. If you do your best work inside a large, well-resourced program, this isn't it. If you want your fingerprints on a Tbps-class link from the start, this is it.

Compensation + Benefits

In addition to base salary (to be determined on a case by case basis), compensation for this role includes:

• EON believes the business should be primarily employee owned. In turn, all compensation offers include company stock options for FTEs.
• Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental insurance with significant cost covered by the company for yourself and dependents.
• Paid parental leave and flexible PTO (3 weeks accrued vacation and 10 company holidays per year).
• Relocation assistance to Los Angeles available.
• A real equipment and lab budget.

Location

Culver City, CA (onsite).

Endeavor Optical Network is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with EON 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, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.