{"id":725863,"url":"https://alion.io/job/poseidonaero-lead-mechanical-engineer-airframe","title":"Lead Mechanical Engineer, Airframe","company":{"id":686447,"name":"Poseidon Aerospace","domain":"poseidonaero.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/poseidonaero","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"Aerospace","role_family":"Aerospace","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Alameda, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":125000,"max_usd":252000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":1829},"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"SolidWorks","optional":false},{"name":"MATLAB","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-05T03:05:30Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-05","last_verified_at":"2026-10-25T13:53:25Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":50,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":50},"description":"About Poseidon Aerospace:\nPoseidon Aerospace is reimagining how the world moves goods. We build and operate full-size autonomous cargo aircraft - capable of carrying two tons of payload over a thousand nautical miles. From remote communities to contested logistics operations, our platforms unlock a new cost curve for air freight, making it faster, cheaper, and accessible anywhere it's needed. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with locations in Washington DC, Oregon, and Maine; we're building something consequential.\nAbout the Role\nThe Lead Mechanical Engineer will own the structural and mechanical design of major aircraft assemblies from concept through flight testing.\nThis role is responsible for setting technical direction, leading design reviews, managing subsystem interfaces, and supporting other mechanical engineers. It is a hands-on engineering position that requires detailed involvement in CAD, analysis, manufacturing, assembly, and testing.\nResponsibilities\nLead the design of primary aircraft structures, mechanisms, and major airframe assemblies\n\nDevelop composite and metallic structures, joints, interfaces, and mounting systems\n\nDefine structural load paths, design requirements, margins, and validation methods\n\nPerform and review hand calculations and finite element analysis\n\nEvaluate strength, stiffness, buckling, fatigue, vibration, and composite failure modes\n\nLead preliminary and critical design reviews\n\nOwn CAD assemblies, production drawings, bills of materials, tolerances, and design releases\n\nManage mechanical interfaces between the airframe, propulsion, avionics, flight controls, landing systems, and other subsystems\n\nDesign aircraft mechanisms, including control surfaces, doors, landing gear, actuation systems, and deployable systems\n\nWork with manufacturing to develop tooling, assembly processes, inspection methods, and repair procedures\n\nPlan and support component, structural, subsystem, and vehicle-level testing\n\nInvestigate failures, determine root causes, and implement corrective actions\n\nMentor mechanical engineers and review their design and analysis work\n\nSupport aircraft assembly, integration, ground testing, and flight testing\n\nRequired Qualifications\nDegree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field\n\n7 or more years of relevant mechanical, structural, or aerospace engineering experience\n\nExperience designing primary aircraft structures or large composite airframes\n\nExperience with bonded composite structures, sandwich panels, bonded inserts, and hybrid composite-metallic assemblies\n\nExperience with aircraft mechanisms, actuation systems, control surfaces, doors, landing gear, or deployable systems\n\nKnowledge of composite failure criteria, buckling, fatigue, vibration, modal analysis, or damage tolerance\n\nExperience taking safety-critical hardware from concept through manufacturing and testing\n\nStrong proficiency with CAD software such as Fusion, SolidWorks, CATIA, NX, or Creo\n\nStrong proficiency with finite element analysis tools such as ANSYS, Nastran, Abaqus, Fusion Simulation, or similar\n\nAbility to verify analysis using hand calculations and first-principles methods\n\nStrong understanding of structural mechanics, load paths, joint design, material behavior, and mechanical failure modes\n\nExperience applying GD&T and mechanical tolerancing to production drawings\n\nExperience designing for manufacturing, assembly, inspection, maintenance, and repair\n\nExperience leading technical reviews and making design decisions across multiple engineering teams\n\nComfortable working directly with aircraft hardware, prototypes, test fixtures, and shop tools\n\nPreferred Qualifications\nExperience designing structures for marine environments\n\nExperience developing structural test plans, fixtures, instrumentation, and acceptance criteria\n\nFamiliarity with FAA certification, military airworthiness, or experimental flight-test programs\n\nProficiency with MATLAB or Python for engineering analysis\n\nExperience with product lifecycle management and configuration control systems\n\nCandidates who are not yet qualified for a Lead position may apply to our Mechanical Engineer openings.\nWhat you get from us\nCompetitive salary and meaningful early-stage equity\n\nRelocation support if applicable\n\nEmployee Health Benefit Plans\n\n6% Retirement matching\n\nFlexible PTO\n\nFree lunches, snacks, and a stocked fridge at our offices\n\nAI tools and subscriptions","description_format":"text","description_chars":4458,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":7,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Transportation & Logistics","Logistics","Air Transport"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-11T08:26:34Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":28,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.625,"p_room":0.45,"age_days":50,"expected_fill_days":33,"reasons":["conf:3","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/poseidonaero-lead-mechanical-engineer-airframe","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/poseidonaero-lead-mechanical-engineer-airframe.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-25T16:52:14Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":24340,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-26T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":686447},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=686447"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fposeidonaero-lead-mechanical-engineer-airframe"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fposeidonaero-lead-mechanical-engineer-airframe"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fposeidonaero-lead-mechanical-engineer-airframe"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/poseidonaero-lead-mechanical-engineer-airframe\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fposeidonaero-lead-mechanical-engineer-airframe"}]}