Mechanical Engineer — Munition System

head\\-huntress.com; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 201,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

Kela Technologies (Kela Defense) is seeking a mechanical design engineer to own end-to-end development of a small, safety-critical munition housing for a FPV-class airframe. You will work with HW/SW leads to define interlocks, tolerances, and manufacturability, and you will prototype and hand off production-ready drawings.

Responsibilities include 3D CAD design, BOM ownership, and ensuring rugged performance under flight loads, vibration, and environmental conditions.

Qualifications

• Requires 5+ years designing mechanical assemblies for UAV payloads, defense, automotive, aerospace or similar regulated domains.
• Fluency with parametric CAD tools (SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Onshape, Creo, NX).
• Ability to create manufacturing-ready drawings with GD&T, tolerances, finishes.

Responsibilities

• Design the munition housing, internal structure, and arming mechanism in CAD.
• Define mechanical safety architecture with HW/SW leads (interlocks, tolerances).
• Specify materials, finishes, tolerances for harsh operating environments.

Skills

Mechanical design

UAV payloads

Will require prototyping

GD&T

Finite element intuition

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

SolidWorks

Fusion 360

Onshape

Creo

NX

Job description

Washington, United States | Posted on 06/01/2026

Experience level: Mid-senior Experience required: 5 Years Education level: Bachelor’s degree Job function: Engineering Industry: Defense & Space Compensation: $201,000 - $225,000 Total position: 1 Relocation assistance: No Visa sponsorship eligibility: No Recruiter Note: Candidate must be comfortable completing an initial 1-month onsite training period in Kearneysville, WV, after which they will relocate back to work from either San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Washington DC. End Client: Kela Technologies (Kela Defense) About the project We’re building a small, safety-critical kinetic munition delivered by an FPV-class airframe. The system carries an electro mechanical safe and arm device (EMSAD) governed by a seven-state safety-arm-fire state machine, electromechanical safing features, and sensor suite. Everything has to survive flight loads, drops, vibration, and field handling — and fail safe at every step. You will own the mechanical side end-to-end: from concept and CAD through prototypes, testing, and the transfer to production. What you’ll do Design the munition housing, internal structure, and arming mechanism (S&A train, transport pin, motor-driven elements) in CAD. Define the mechanical safety architecture together with the HW and SW leads — interlocks, out-of-line geometry, transport-pin retention, drop/impact behavior. Spec materials, finishes, tolerances, and fasteners for the operating environment (temperature, vibration, humidity, salt fog as relevant). Build prototypes in-house (3D print, CNC) and run iteration loops; hand off drawings and DFM packages to external machinists / injection-mold vendors. Plan and execute mechanical qualification: drop, shock, vibration, environmental, mass-properties / CG checks, integration with the airframe. Own the BOM, weight budget, and CG budget. Track them like the safety-critical numbers they are. Work directly alongside the HW and SW engineers — PCB outline, connector placement, harnessing, mechanism actuation requirements come out of these conversations. Required 5+ years designing mechanical assemblies that go into the field — UAV payloads, defense, automotive, aerospace, or similar regulated/rugged domains. Fluency in a parametric CAD tool (SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Onshape, Creo, NX — pick your favorite). Comfort producing manufacturing-ready drawings: GD&T, tolerance stacks, surface finishes, fits. Hands-on with prototyping: FDM/SLA printers, mill, lathe, basic machining sense. Strong intuition for failure modes — you’ve broken things deliberately and know which question to ask next. Working English, written and verbal. Nice to have Experience with safety & arming (S&A) mechanisms, fuzing, pyrotechnics, or anything else that has to be unambiguously safe before it’s allowed to be dangerous. Familiarity with MIL-STD-810 (environmental), MIL-STD-331 (fuze tests), or equivalent civilian standards. FEA / structural simulation (Ansys, SolidWorks Simulation, Onshape FEA). Injection-mold and metal-casting DFM. FPV / small-UAV background — payload integration, mass/CG sensitivity. How we work Small team, short cycles, weekly hardware iterations. You’ll have a desk next to the HW and SW engineers and a lab with prototyping kit. We expect you to be opinionated, to design for testability from day one, and to push back when the constraints do not make engineering sense.

Must-Have's

Required5+ years designing mechanical assemblies that go into the field — UAV payloads, defense, automotive, aerospace, or similar regulated/rugged domains.Fluency in a parametric CAD tool (SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Onshape, Creo, NX).Comfort producing manufacturing-ready drawings: GD&T, tolerance stacks, surface finishes, fits.Hands-on with prototyping: FDM/SLA printers, mill, lathe, basic machining sense.Nice to haveExperience with safety & arming (S&A) mechanisms, fuzing, pyrotechnics.Familiarity with MIL-STD-810 (environmental), MIL-STD-331 (fuze tests).FEA / structural simulation (Ansys, SolidWorks Simulation, Onshape FEA).