Staff Mechanical Engineer, UAV Systems - Flight Testing

SiFly; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

SiFly is building vertical-takeoff, long-endurance UAVs with helicopter-like performance. We are hiring a Staff Mechanical Engineer to lead the mechanical design of next-generation autonomous aircraft at our Santa Clara factory.

This hands-on role spans prototyping, field test guidance, and scaling production while collaborating across teams to deliver robust, manufacturable systems. You will own assemblies, mass budgets, tolerances, and interfaces, and apply AI-driven workflows to streamline

Qualifications

• Experience designing composite, injection-molded plastic, and machined parts to production.
• Familiarity with additive, subtractive manufacturing, vacuum forming, injection molding.
• DFMEA, design margin and derating, fatigue and life testing, tolerance-stack risk, accelerated life and HALT.
• First-principles thinking about propulsion, power systems, and radio technologies.
• Hands-on field work across bench, shop, flight line, and customer sites.
• Experience using AI to improve workflows and problem solving.
• Strong parametric CAD skills in Fusion 360.

Responsibilities

• Own the design of mechanical assemblies and systems for our aircraft—from concept exploration to installation on flying units.
• Design and improve drone subsystems and integrated electromechanical assemblies, balancing performance against weight.
• Guide designs through field flight testing and use flight data to drive design changes and recommendations.
• Take products from prototype into medium-volume production, designing for manufacturability across composites, injection molding, and machined parts.
• Produce detailed engineering drawings for fabrication and assembly, and design fixtures for assembly and test.
• Own mass budgets, tolerance analysis, and interface definitions between parts.
• Collaborate with Electrical, Software, Integration, Test, Manufacturing, Operations, and Supply Chain teams at every stage.
• Find, build, and share AI-assisted approaches to mechanical work and documentation.

Skills

Composite part design

Parametric CAD

Production readiness

Design for manufacturability

AI-driven workflow

DFMEA & tolerance analysis

Tools

Fusion 360

SolidWorks

Job description

SiFly is building vertical-takeoff, long-endurance UAVs with helicopter-like performance. We are hiring a Staff Mechanical Engineer to lead the mechanical design of next-generation autonomous aircraft at our Santa Clara factory.

This hands-on role spans prototyping, field test guidance, and scaling production while collaborating across teams to deliver robust, manufacturable systems. You will own assemblies, mass budgets, tolerances, and interfaces, and apply AI-driven workflows to streamline