Senior Mechanisms Engineer: Precision Flight Actuation

Next Matter; Torrance (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity and growth opportunities

Paid time off

Company holidays

Comprehensive health benefits

Dependent coverage (dental & vision)

Parental leave

Fitness stipend

EV charging on site

Catered meals & stocked kitchen

Job summary

Castelion is seeking a Senior Mechanisms Engineer to design and deliver high‑performance mechanical actuation systems for long‑range hypersonic strike vehicles. You will work hands‑on with multidisciplinary teams to design, analyze, build, and validate elevon drive trains and related actuation systems in a fast‑paced hardware environment.

Responsibilities include leading gear train designs, performing rigorous analyses, and ensuring integration with control electronics and avionics.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Mechanical Engineering or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in mechanism design, analysis, and validation for aerospace or high-performance mechanical systems.
• Strong background in gear trains, actuation systems, and precision mechanical design.
• Experience designing electromechanical actuators (EMAs) for aerospace or similarly demanding applications.
• Familiarity with motor-driven actuation systems, including motor selection, gear reduction, torque transmission, and position feedback mechanisms.
• Experience designing control surface drive systems or similar high-load, high-reliability mechanisms.
• Proficiency in CAD and analysis tools (e.g., NX, SolidWorks, ANSYS, or equivalent).
• Experience with structural analysis, fatigue/life assessment, and tolerance stack‑up analysis.
• Familiarity with high-temperature materials, lubrication strategies, and operation in extreme environments.
• Experience with hardware build, test, and troubleshooting in a lab or flight hardware environment.
• Strong problem‑solving mindset, thriving in a fast‑paced, hardware‑rich, high flight cadence environment.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop mechanical actuation systems, including elevon drive trains and control surface mechanisms, for high-speed flight vehicles.
• Lead architecture and detailed design of gear trains, linkages, bearings, and structural components.
• Analyze loads, stresses, deflections, and dynamics to ensure performance under extreme environments.
• Collaborate with control electronics, GNC, avionics, and structures teams for seamless integration.
• Perform tolerance analysis, lubrication strategy development, and life/reliability assessments.
• Support prototyping, assembly, hardware bring-up, and root-cause analysis of issues.
• Define and execute qualification and environmental test plans (vibration, thermal, shock).
• Optimize designs for mass, stiffness, reliability, and manufacturability.
• Mentor junior engineers and share best practices in mechanism design and analysis.
• Partner with program leadership to make technical trades aligned with mission success.

Skills

Gear trains

Actuation systems

Precision design

EMAs design

Control surface drive

Motor-driven actuation

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's/Master's/PhD in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

NX

SolidWorks

ANSYS

Job description

Castelion is seeking a Senior Mechanisms Engineer to design and deliver high‑performance mechanical actuation systems for long‑range hypersonic strike vehicles. You will work hands‑on with multidisciplinary teams to design, analyze, build, and validate elevon drive trains and related actuation systems in a fast‑paced hardware environment.

Responsibilities include leading gear train designs, performing rigorous analyses, and ensuring integration with control electronics and avionics.