Principal Mechanical Engineer

Cantos Ventures; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Medical, vision & dental

401(k) retirement plan

Job summary

Heaviside Industries in Los Angeles, CA, is seeking an experienced Mechanical Design Engineer to own airframe structures and payload packaging from concept through production at our in-house facility.

You will lead structural design and analysis, drive design-for-manufacture across composites and machined metals, and mentor engineers while ensuring GD&T per ASME Y14.5 and MIL-STD-810 compliance. US person required.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of mechanical design experience on defense or aerospace hardware.
• Ownership of complete mechanical subsystems: requirements, design, analysis, qualification test, and production release.
• Expert 3D CAD proficiency (NX preferred; SolidWorks or CATIA acceptable) and rigorous GD&T per ASME Y14.5.
• Strong structural analysis capability, including FEA (e.g., Nastran, ANSYS, Abaqus).
• Hands-on experience with composite and machined-metallic airframe design and fabrication methods.
• Experience qualifying hardware to MIL-STD-810 environments, including shock and vibration.
• Bonus: folding aerosurfaces, tube-launched packaging, or deployment mechanisms for munitions or small UAS.
• U.S. Person as defined by ITAR (22 CFR §120.62).

Responsibilities

• Own the mechanical design of munition airframe structures, mechanisms, and payload packaging from concept through production.
• 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 with in-house production teams.
• 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.

Skills

Mechanical design

3D CAD (NX)

GD&T (ASME Y14.5)

Finite Element Analysis

Composite airframes

Machined metals

MIL-STD-810

Tools

NX (preferred)

SolidWorks

CATIA

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

• 10+ years of mechanical design experience on defense or aerospace hardware — missiles, munitions, military UAS, or comparable flight systems — with products reaching flight or production.
• Demonstrated ownership of complete mechanical subsystems: requirements, design, analysis, qualification test, and production release.
• Expert 3D CAD proficiency (NX preferred; SolidWorks or CATIA acceptable) and rigorous GD&T per ASME Y14.5.
• Strong structural analysis capability, including FEA (e.g., Nastran, ANSYS, Abaqus) validated against test.
• Hands-on experience with composite and machined-metallic airframe design and fabrication methods.
• Experience qualifying hardware to MIL-STD-810 environments, including shock and vibration.
• [BONUS] Experience with folding aerosurfaces, tube-launched packaging, or deployment mechanisms for munitions or small UAS.
• [BONUS] Experience supporting in-house or rate manufacturing of defense hardware.
• U.S. Person as defined by ITAR (22 CFR §120.62)

Additional Information:

The anticipated annual base salary range for this role is $170,000 – $270,000.

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.