Staff Mechanical Engineer: Antenna & Plasma Systems Lead

Red Cell Partners; South Gate (CA); Hybrid; USD 145,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Unlimited PTO

Career growth

Professional development

401K / FSA / equity

Mental health benefits

GLP-1 solutions access

Job summary

Dash 2 Dynamics (D2) is seeking a practical, inventive Staff Mechanical Engineer to serve as the senior mechanical technical owner for plasma-enabled antenna and advanced communications hardware.

You will shape mechanical architecture, lead critical design trades, and drive antenna assemblies, plasma devices, electronics housings, fixtures for installation and platform integration, thermal interfaces, and test hardware from early concepts through qualification-ready designs, while raising

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Materials Engineering, or a related field.
• 7+ years of relevant mechanical product-development experience, including technical ownership of complex electromechanical hardware through design, build, integration, and test.
• Advanced proficiency with a modern 3D CAD platform, production drawings, GD&T, and tolerance analysis.
• Strong command of thermal management, structural mechanics, materials selection, and manufacturing processes.
• Demonstrated ability to lead design reviews, mentor engineers, communicate technical risk, and make sound decisions with incomplete information.
• Hands-on experience with experimental hardware and disciplined technical documentation.
• Ability to meet requirements associated with work on U.S. government and national-security programs.

Responsibilities

• Own the mechanical architecture for advanced antenna, plasma-device, electronics, and communications-system hardware.
• Lead mechanical design reviews, establish analysis and documentation standards, and guide critical decisions involving performance, risk, cost, schedule, and manufacturability.
• Define modular product architectures that can evolve from laboratory prototypes to fieldable systems and future product variants.
• Mentor engineers and provide trusted technical guidance across multidisciplinary programs.
• Create and maintain CAD models, production drawings, GD&T schemes, tolerance analyses, bills of material, and configuration-controlled design documentation.
• Perform or direct thermal and structural analyses for electronics, antenna assemblies, plasma devices, and environmental loads.
• Select materials and joining methods for high voltage, RF exposure, thermal cycling, vacuum or controlled environments, and rugged use.
• Engineer interfaces involving ceramics, metals, seals, brazed or bonded joints, precision alignment, thermal expansion, shock, vibration, and fatigue.
• Drive rapid hardware iteration from concept through prototype, integration, environmental test, qualification, and design release.
• Design fixtures and test articles; support instrumentation, assembly, troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and corrective action.
• Define test procedures and acceptance criteria that retire the highest mechanical risks and produce defensible design evidence.
• Correlate thermal and structural predictions with measured hardware behavior and incorporate learning into subsequent designs.
• Apply DFM and DFA principles while preserving RF, plasma, thermal, structural, and serviceability requirements.
• Lead technical engagement with machine shops, specialty joining and brazing vendors, additive manufacturers, and contract manufacturing partners.
• Review quotes, supplier capabilities, first articles, inspection results, nonconformances, and corrective actions.
• Establish repeatable assembly, inspection, quality, and configuration-management processes.

Skills

3D CAD

GD&T

Thermal management

Structural mechanics

Mentoring

Technical leadership

Electromechanical

Manufacturing processes

Test experience

Risk communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

MS/PhD in a related field

Tools

Finite-element analysis tools

Job description

Dash 2 Dynamics (D2) is seeking a practical, inventive Staff Mechanical Engineer to serve as the senior mechanical technical owner for plasma-enabled antenna and advanced communications hardware.

You will shape mechanical architecture, lead critical design trades, and drive antenna assemblies, plasma devices, electronics housings, fixtures for installation and platform integration, thermal interfaces, and test hardware from early concepts through qualification-ready designs, while raising