Senior Mechanical Engineer, Interceptor
Torrance, CAAll locationsTorrance, CALos Angeles, California, United States Hybrid
$155,000–$200,000 a yearJobFig found this opening at its original source and checks that it remains available.
About the role
You will own complex mechanical systems across vehicle structures, propulsion interfaces, avionics packaging, internal mechanisms, test hardware, and ground-support equipment. You will make critical design decisions, resolve cross-functional problems, and help the broader engineering team move faster through strong technical judgment and direct hands-on execution. This is a senior individual-contributor role. This is not an analysis-heavy or propulsion-performance position. You will perform and review the calculations needed to support sound decisions, but the work remains grounded in hardware.
What you'll bring
- You do not need to be a people manager, but you will be expected to provide technical direction, review the work of other engineers, raise the quality of mechanical design, and step into difficult hardware problems when the team is blocked.
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field.
- At least five years of professional experience in rocketry, missiles, launch vehicles, propulsion, or a closely related aerospace field.
- Demonstrated ownership of rocket or missile hardware from design through manufacturing, assembly, and test.
- Strong mechanical design capability, including 3D CAD, production drawings, GD&T, tolerance analysis, material selection, fastening methods, and design for manufacturing and assembly.
- Strong practical understanding of structural mechanics, load paths, vibration, shock, thermal effects, and the calculations required to support and review mechanical designs.
- Experience leading complex hardware development or serving as a technical lead, including reviewing designs and guiding less-experienced engineers.
- Experience working directly with machinists, technicians, fabrication suppliers, and test teams to solve real hardware problems.
- Ability to investigate failures, make sound decisions with incomplete data, and rapidly convert findings into improved hardware.
- Working knowledge of rocket or missile propulsion systems and the mechanical, thermal, and operational constraints they impose on the vehicle.
- Ability to remain effective as priorities, requirements, and schedules change quickly.
- Willingness and ability to spend approximately 50% of your time at remote test sites under demanding field conditions.