Senior Mechanical Design Engineer (Prism)

Northwood Space; Torrance (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwood Space seeks a talented Mechanical Engineer to design structures, tooling, and hardware for global ground station antennas. You will work with RF, electrical, and manufacturing teams to deliver reliable, manufacturable products and fabrication tooling.

Responsibilities include RF waveguide structures, tooling for fabrication and assembly, and ensuring compliance with industry standards. Strong CAD skills and experience across thermal, materials, and structural analyses are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience designing and building hardware.
• Experience with taking a product from concept to production.
• Knowledge of manufacturing processes and ability to design for manufacturability.
• Strong understanding of mechanical design principles, including thermal management, materials selection, and structural analysis.

Responsibilities

• Design multiple product lines, structures, mechanisms, environmental systems, and GSE for satellite ground stations ensuring performance, reliability, and manufacturability.
• Design manufacturable, intricate RF waveguide filtering and feed structures for high performance antennas
• Design tooling for fabrication and assembly processes, including test fixtures and weldments.
• Collaborate with RF, electrical, and manufacturing to ensure reasonable system requirements and seamless integration of designs and hardware.
• Ensure compliance with industry standards, regulations, and best practices in mechanical, thermal, and environmental design.
• Participate in design reviews and provide feedback to ensure design objectives are met.

Skills

Hardware design

Concept to production

Thermal management

Materials selection

Structural analysis

GSE/tooling design

RF systems basics

Weldments

ANSYS

Siemens NX

Environmental testing

Reliability testing

Electrical systems basics

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field

Tools

Siemens NX

ANSYS

Job description

About Northwood:

Northwood is a modern space infrastructure company bringing the benefits of space to the masses through advanced communications technology. We are building a global network of phased array and parabolic ground stations that enable real-time, reliable communication for satellite missions such as national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. With a vertically integrated approach, Northwood designs, builds, and rapidly deploys scalable systems that power the next generation of space missions. If you like solving complex challenges and seeing your work deployed around the world with real impact, Northwood is the place to do it.

Role:

Northwood is seeking a talented Mechanical Engineer to join our dynamic team, specializing in the design of structures, systems, tooling, and other products for our ground station antennas. This role will involve designing and developing hardware that will be deployed all over the world as well as fabrication and assembly tooling, test fixtures, and more. You will work closely with RF engineers, electrical engineers, manufacturing engineers, and software engineers.

Responsibilities:

• Design multiple product lines, structures, mechanisms, environmental systems, and GSE for satellite ground stations ensuring performance, reliability, and manufacturability.

• Design manufacturable, intricate RF waveguide filtering and feed structures for high performance antennas

• Design tooling for fabrication and assembly processes, including test fixtures and weldments.

• Collaborate with RF, electrical, and manufacturing to ensure reasonable system requirements and seamless integration of designs and hardware.

• Ensure compliance with industry standards, regulations, and best practices in mechanical, thermal, and environmental design.

• Participate in design reviews and provide feedback to ensure design objectives are met.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.

• 5+ years of experience designing and building hardware.

• Experience with taking a product from concept to production.

• Knowledge of manufacturing processes and ability to design for manufacturability.

• Strong understanding of mechanical design principles, including thermal management, materials selection, and structural analysis.

Preferred Skills:

• Proficiency in Siemens NX for 3D modeling, assembly, and drafting

• Understanding of environmental and reliability testing procedures for mechanical systems.

• Experience with weldments, tooling, GSE, and fixture design and assembly.

• Experience with mechanical/thermal simulation tools (e.g. ANSYS)

• Basic understanding of electrical systems and components to ensure a holistic approach to system design

• Basic understanding of RF systems and devices.

Additional Information:

To conform to U.S. Government space technology 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.

Northwood Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Northwood Space 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.

If you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know at [e-mail]