Senior Mechanical Design Engineer

Pyka is looking for a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer to join our experienced and enthusiastic team of engineers. In this role, you will take ownership over a variety of mechanical components and subsystems on Pyka’s aircraft and support them from conceptualization through serial production.

Our Mechanical Engineering team members work closely with Manufacturing Engineers, Flight Test Engineers, and other Mechanical Engineers to design, test, and iterate on mechanical components and assemblies. This role is not for the faint of heart -- the Pyka ME team handles the same amount of hardware as teams 10x the size. You’ll have the opportunity to work with a team that moves extremely quickly with significant opportunities for ownership/contribution, professional development, and growth. 

Some of the first projects you will work on include:

• Design of novel payload handling and air drop capabilities for our cargo aircraft. 
• Design changes to Pyka’s custom aircraft transportation trailer to improve the user experience and protection of the aircraft. 
• Improved packaging of Spray aircraft electronics to improve reliability and ease of maintenance.
• Lead the investigation, root causing, solution creation, and solution validation  of complex hardware bugs that come up during field testing.

As a Senior Mechanical Engineer at Pyka, you will be central to supporting our existing fleet of aircraft as well as developing the next generation through continuous learning and iteration.

About Pyka

Pyka’s goal is to provide society with a new form of safe, clean, and cost-effective transportation enabled by autonomous electric aviation.
To get there, we’re taking a different approach than most. We're applying our technologies to every industry where autonomous electric aircraft can be useful, starting with the highest value and most dangerous jobs. In doing so, we're building game-changing products manufactured at scale, while perfecting the safety, reliability, and capabilities of our autonomy engine and electric propulsion systems. 

We design, develop and manufacture an ecosystem of technologies including proprietary flight control software, avionics, high power density motors, motor controllers, batteries, and custom carbon-fiber composite airframes.

Today, we supply autonomous electric aircraft for cargo transport and crop protection to real-world customers across four separate continents and have secured industry-first regulatory approvals from the FAA. 

Our cargo aircraft enables remote connectivity, enhances express delivery networks, and ensures fast and reliable shipping of critical supplies to areas in need. Our crop protection aircraft offers agricultural services providers and farmers an autonomous tool to make aerial application safer, more precise, and less harmful to surrounding environments. Both vehicles are highly economical to operate, easy to deploy, and significantly reduce C02 emissions in their respective industries. 

What you work on at Pyka makes people’s lives better now and brings the future of electric aviation one step closer each day. 

Responsibilities

• Act as project lead on several mechanical design and development projects simultaneously. You will take projects from the definition of initial design criteria, through prototyping, production, and support of the product in the field. 
• Facilitate collaboration with project stakeholders across all teams at Pyka including Electrical Engineering, Software, Flight Operations, and Manufacturing, as well as our customers to deploy industry leading products. 
• Use your engineering, design and project management experience to provide mentorship and help junior engineers to succeed in their roles.
• Lead the conceptual design, prototyping, testing, iteration and documentation of flight critical mechanical parts and assemblies.
• Create and maintain 3D CAD, drawing sets and manufacturing documents with meticulous attention to detail.
• Work with manufacturing teams to build tools and processes to facilitate the efficient manufacture of in-house high quality parts and subsystems.
• Communicate closely with external suppliers and fabricators to ensure receipt of quality products, on time.

Preferred Qualifications

• 4+ years of professional experience in mechanical design, preferably in the aerospace industry.
• Experience designing for, performing structural analysis, and supporting the production of a wide range of manufacturing processes including: composites, CNC machining, 3D printing, sheet metal, and injection molding. 
• Knowledge of the tooling, fixturing, and processes involved in the production of composite assemblies.
• An inquisitive attitude with an ability to quickly and deftly research new topics, and try new things.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; the ideal candidate is not afraid to ask for clarification, question requirements, or give feedback.
• Extensive record of leading mechanical design and development projects from conceptualization to manufactured product. 
• Expertise in any 3D CAD package (Solidworks, NX, Inventor). 
• Experience using FEA and hand calculations to validate a wide variety of mechanical design decisions (stress/strain, thermal, fatigue).
• Strong skills in a prototyping shop building things with your hands.

Company Perks

• $133,000–$167,000 per year base salary + equity. Compensation will vary depending on location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Salary ranges are subject to change.
  
• Employer-sponsored health, dental and vision insurance, FSA with employer matching, and 401(k)
  
• Paid holidays and generous PTO
  
• Free catered lunch and plenty of snacks
  
• Opportunity to work on large autonomous aircraft and see them fly
  

Export Control Requirements

This position requires access to technology, software and other information that is subject to governmental access control restrictions, due to export controls.  Employment in this position is conditioned on the continued availability of government authorization to authorize release of such items, to the extent required, including without limitation an export license, or other documentation required to establish authorization to receive access to such items. 

Company may delay commencement of employment, rescind an offer of employment, terminate employment, and/or may modify job responsibilities, compensation, benefits, and/or access to Company facilities and information systems, as Company deems appropriate, in order to ensure compliance with applicable government access control restrictions.

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We do not work with external recruiters; if you are an external recruiter, please do not reach out.