Senior Mechanical Engineer – Defense Autonomous Systems (Maritime)
Location: Florida (Full on-site or hybrid – 2-3 days/week in office)
Salary: Up to $160k + $30k Equity + 15% bonus
Clearance: Active Secret Required (TS/SCI Preferred)
Travel: 30-50% depending on field exercises and demonstrations
About the Company
I am working with a defense start-up building autonomous maritime and airborne systems for real-world military operations.
They work directly with U.S. Navy program offices and national labs – not just prototyping, but fielding systems that get deployed. The team operates at the intersection of mechanical engineering, autonomy, and naval systems integration.
Small, technically rigorous team. High ownership. Real hardware in the field.
The Role
You’ll own mechanical engineering across the full lifecycle – from rapid concept through to production design, test execution, and field deployment:
* Structural design and FEA – stress, fatigue, fracture mechanics, safety factors for sustained military use
* Rapid prototyping – design-build-test cycles on CNC, waterjet, and 5-axis laser systems
* Composite fabrication – wet lay-up, RTM, and VaRTM; fiber architecture, resin systems, cure cycles
* Fluids, thermal & propulsion analysis – hydrodynamic loading, drag, thermal margins across maritime and airborne environments
* Test & field support – SIL/HIL campaigns, instrumentation setup, DoD documentation, deployed exercises
* Systems engineering – MBSE, requirements decomposition, FMEA, ICDs, CDRLs, cross-functional integration
Requirements
* USV, UUV, AUV or UAS experience
* BS Mechanical Engineering + 10 years, MS + 7-10 years, or PhD + 5 years of relevant experience
* Strong fundamentals across mechanics of materials, fluid dynamics, and thermodynamics/heat transfer
* Hands-on CNC, waterjet, additive manufacturing, and composite fabrication experience
* Proficiency in 3D CAD (SolidWorks, CATIA or equivalent) with GD&T
* FEA experience (ANSYS, NASTRAN or equivalent)
* Active U.S. Secret clearance (or ability to obtain)
* Direct experience supporting military testing or field exercises
Why Join?
* Ship hardware that actually gets used – field exercises, live demonstrations, real operational conditions
* Move from whiteboard to shop floor to shipboard test in the same role
* Direct collaboration with U.S. Navy program offices and national laboratories
* Shape the mechanical architecture of next-generation autonomous platforms from an early stage
Interested?
Drop me an email at kyle.gauntlett@darwinrecruiment.com if you’d like to learn more.
Darwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.
Kyle Gauntlett
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