Staff Mechanical Engineer

Chaos, Inc.; El Segundo, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 167,000 - 209,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401k match

Relocation assistance

Free daily lunch

No meeting Fridays

Stock options

Job summary

CHAOS Industries is seeking a hands-on Staff Mechanical Design Engineer to lead the design and integration of air‑launched and ground‑launched aerospace vehicles and hardware. You will own mechanical design for airframes, control surfaces, and structures, collaborating with engineering and manufacturing to get real hardware flying.

This full‑time role is based in El Segundo, CA or Tucson, AZ. The El Segundo site requires on‑site work; Tucson may be remote with on‑site reporting as needed.

Qualifications

• Hands-on mechanical design of airframes and structures.
• Experience with production-ready drawings and GD&T.
• Experience with vibration, thermal, environmental loads.
• Experience with military specs and aerospace standards.

Responsibilities

• Design and integrate flight-vehicle structures and mechanical hardware.
• Develop CAD models, drawings, ICDs.
• Lead design review on owned design.
• Support flight testing and integration.
• Mentor junior engineers.
• Collaborate across mechanical, electrical, and manufacturing teams.

Skills

Mechanical design

Airframes

3D CAD

GD&T

Structural analysis

Thermal analysis

Aerospace hardware

FEA

Security clearance

Education

Bachelor's Mechanical Engineering

Aerospace Engineering

Tools

SolidWorks

CATIA

NX

ANSYS

Job description

CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with a multi-product portfolio that gives the ultimate advantage—domain dominance. The company's products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats.

CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised a total of $1 billion in funding from leading investors, including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and London. For more information, please visit www.chaosinc.com .

Role Overview:

CHAOS is seeking a hands‑on Staff Mechanical Design Engineer to lead the design and integration of air‑launched and ground‑launched aerospace vehicles and associated hardware, from early concept development through flight test and production support. This is a build‑and‑fly environment. You will own mechanical design for airframes, control surfaces, and structures while working closely across engineering and manufacturing functions to get real hardware flying.

This is a full‑time position in El Segundo, CA or Tucson, AZ depending on the candidate’s preference and needs of the role. The El Segundo position requires regular on‑site work. The Tucson position may be primarily remote; however, the employee must reside within reasonable commuting distance of Tucson and be able to report on‑site as needed.

This requisition is open to candidates who may be considered for a lower or higher job level. Final level and grade will be determined based on relevant experience, skills, and qualifications.

Responsibilities:

• Perform hands‑on mechanical design and integration of flight‑vehicle structures and mechanical hardware, including control surfaces, payload and avionics hardware, mechanisms, enclosures, and related support equipment
• Own the mechanical design and integration of defined subsystems, product areas, or major assemblies
• Perform trade studies and recommend path forward
• Develop and maintain 3D CAD models, assemblies, detailed drawings, assembly and installation documentation, and interface control documents (ICDs)
• Develop mechanical designs subject to structural, thermal, environmental, manufacturability, installation, and operational requirements
• Perform first‑order structural and thermal analyses, hand calculations, requirements analysis, and design verification activities
• Lead design review on owned design.
• Work collaboratively with mechanical, electrical, electrical harness, RF, power, manufacturing, systems engineering, customers, suppliers, and platform providers to resolve integration challenges
• Support system integration, qualification, and flight testing, including fit‑check, installation, alignment, and troubleshooting
• Support prototype fabrication, assembly, transition to production, configuration control, fielding, and sustainment of deployed systems
• Mentor junior engineers
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline
• 7+ years of progressively responsible experience in mechanical design and integration of airframes, flight vehicles, structural assemblies, or related aerospace hardware
• Demonstrated experience designing airframes, control surfaces, and structural assemblies
• Strong proficiency with mechanical CAD tools (SolidWorks, CATIA, NX, or equivalent), including production‑ready drawings with GD&T, tolerance analysis, and configuration‑controlled documentation
• Strong understanding of structural load paths, joints, fasteners, inserts, bearings, hinges, and bonded joints
• Experience designing or integrating metallic or composite structures subject to vibration, shock, thermal, aerodynamic, and other environmental requirements, including structural analysis using hand calculations and/or FEA
• Experience applying military specifications and applicable aerospace, defense, and airworthiness standards
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance

Preferred Requirements:

• Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field
• Experience with composite materials, bonded joints, and composite manufacturing processes
• Experience with advanced structural analysis methods (fatigue, damage tolerance, fracture mechanics, buckling, aeroelasticity) using commercial FEA/multiphysics tools (ANSYS, NASTRAN, ABAQUS, COMSOL, or similar)
• Experience with airframe manufacturing processes, including machining, sheet metal, forming, welding, additive manufacturing, or assembly
• Experience supporting structural or flight testing, including instrumentation, strain‑gage testing, environmental qualification, or flight‑test range operations
• Experience with deployment, release, or separation mechanisms for air‑or ground‑launched vehicles
• Experience integrating avionics, sensors, payloads, propulsion systems, or other mission equipment into flight vehicles
• Experience with wire‑harness routing and connector selection and integration in space‑constrained or separation‑critical assemblies

Why CHAOS?

• Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision benefits 100% paid for by the company
• Additional benefits: 401k (+ 50% company match up to 6% of pay), FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more
• Our Perks: Free daily lunch, ’No meeting Fridays’, unlimited PTO, casual dress code
• Compensation Components: Competitive base salaries, generous pre‑IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and (coming soon!) annual bonuses
• Team Growth: 350 employees and counting across 5 global offices

$167k-209k

The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations.

EXPORT CONTROLS - This position may require access to information and technology that is subject to U.S. export controls. Your responses to the questions below will be used solely to determine your eligibility under U.S. law to receive information and materials subject to U.S. export controls.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in CHAOS Industries’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Please note this position does not necessarily require eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

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