Senior Opto-Mechanical Payload Engineer

Anduril Industries; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 166,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries seeks a senior mechanical/design engineer for space payloads. You will create opto-mechanical designs, perform analyses, and manage subsystem interfaces for on-orbit components, ranging from cameras to telescopes.

The role requires a BS+ in engineering with 5+ years of design experience, proficiency in CAD, and hands-on fabrication. Expect rigorous testing, geometry control, and collaboration across vendors and internal teams.

Qualifications

• BS or higher degree in engineering or hard science
• Ability to obtain and hold U.S. Top Secret security clearance
• 5+ years of mechanical design experience
• Experience with exotic opto-mechanical materials
• Experience with tolerance stack-ups, mechanical alignments, and qualification test campaigns
• CAD proficiency and ability to create engineering drawings meeting industry standards (GD&T)
• Hands-on fabrication and assembly skills with hand tools, mill, lathe, etc.
• Strong fundamentals in optics, heat transfer, statics, solid mechanics, and materials
• Excellent attention to detail, highly motivated, self-starting, and autonomous
• Organized with ability to define scope and requirements for ambiguous problems
• Experience with high-reliability design, athermalization, and vibration/shock resistance

Responsibilities

• Create opto-mechanical designs of space payloads ranging from small cameras to large telescopes
• Act as Responsible Engineer: conduct analyses, visit vendors and test sites, define and execute test plans, and manage subsystem interfaces
• Run finite element models and hand calculations to predict stresses in mechanical and optical components
• Contribute to STOP analyses to evaluate structural and thermal effects on optical performance
• Conduct hand calculations and run higher order thermal analyses to evaluate survival and operational on-orbit temperatures including solar loading effects through apertures and optics
• Design alignment features and conduct tolerance stack-ups enabling sub-arcsecond payload pointing and stability over large temperature ranges
• Own hardware design from concept to launch, intelligently pacing design maturity with a holistic program view
• Use first principles for every decision and continuously simplify designs
• Communicate pros/cons of system architectures with respect to mechanical design and packaging considerations
• Lead subsystem design reviews and provide clear status updates on timelines and technical progress
• Build prototypes, analyze failures, and transition successful designs to flight hardware and low-rate production
• Create excellent technical documentation (presentations, test plans/reports, procedures, drawings, specifications, etc.)
• Mentor junior engineers

Skills

Mechanical design

Security clearance

Opto-mechanical materials

Tolerance stack-ups

CAD/GD&T

Fabrication

Optics fundamentals

Heat transfer

Statics & materials

Problem scoping

High-rel design

Vibration/shock resistance

NX/Teamcenter

Programming (Python/MATLAB/C++)

Testing & data analysis

Education

BS or higher in engineering or hard science

Tools

None

Job description

Anduril Industries seeks a senior mechanical/design engineer for space payloads. You will create opto-mechanical designs, perform analyses, and manage subsystem interfaces for on-orbit components, ranging from cameras to telescopes.

The role requires a BS+ in engineering with 5+ years of design experience, proficiency in CAD, and hands-on fabrication. Expect rigorous testing, geometry control, and collaboration across vendors and internal teams.