Lead Mechanical Engineer

SiFly • Santa Clara, CA

2d • Onsite

About The Position

SiFly is building vertical-takeoff, long-endurance drones designed to provide helicopter-level performance at drone economics. Its aircraft combine aerial robotics, perception, onboard intelligence, and communications and networking capabilities to enable remote operations with reduced complexity and human intervention.

The posting describes a hands-on Manufacturing Test Engineer role developing, deploying, and supporting production test systems for complex electromechanical products, including PCBAs, embedded electronics, motors and actuators, sensors, communications, and complete systems. The engineer is expected to support products through NPI, production ramp, sustained manufacturing, and customer shipment; R&D, prototype, or laboratory-only test experience is not sufficient. Modern AI-assisted engineering tools are expected to accelerate development and troubleshooting, while the engineer remains responsible for validating results and production release.

The position is onsite in Santa Clara, California, and offers a stated pay range of $130,000–$180,000. Domestic and international travel may be required to support deployments, production builds, suppliers, and contract manufacturers.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechatronics, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related discipline; equivalent relevant technical education and experience may be considered.
• At least 5 years of manufacturing test engineering experience with complex electronic or electromechanical products.
• Direct experience supporting products that have been built, tested, released, and shipped to customers in a production environment.
• Experience supporting NPI, production launch and ramp, and sustained manufacturing.
• Experience developing production test solutions for PCBAs and electromechanical systems, including test fixtures and station architecture.
• Strong hands-on troubleshooting skills across hardware, firmware/software, electrical, and electromechanical systems.
• Experience with production test instrumentation, test-system validation, GR&R, calibration, test correlation, MES/data collection, and serial-number traceability.
• Ability to use modern AI-assisted engineering/software tools and independently review, debug, and validate AI-assisted outputs.
• Ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally as required.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with UAVs or drones, robotics, autonomous systems, industrial automation, consumer electronics, or other motorized products.
• Experience testing motors/ESCs, batteries/BMS, sensors, cameras, navigation/RF systems, embedded electronics, and PCBA functional test.
• Experience with contract manufacturers or EMS providers, manufacturing transfers, PFMEA/control plans, and deployment of test systems across multiple manufacturing locations.

Responsibilities

• Develop, validate, deploy, and maintain automated production test systems for PCBAs, subassemblies, and finished products.
• Define test station architecture, test protocols, coverage, limits, fixtures, instrumentation, interfaces, software, data collection, and pass/fail criteria.
• Develop, modify, and debug automated test software for device-under-test communication, instrument control, test sequencing, data acquisition, analysis, and result traceability.
• Partner with Engineering during NPI and Design for Test reviews to convert engineering verification methods into robust production tests.
• Improve test cycle time, throughput, first-pass yield, test coverage, and overall production efficiency.
• Establish test-system validation and measurement controls, including GR&R, correlation, repeatability and reproducibility, calibration, and preventive maintenance.
• Support MES and serial-number traceability, production test records, failure analysis, root-cause investigations, corrective actions, and production-floor troubleshooting.
• Use AI-assisted engineering tools to accelerate test protocols, software development and debugging, station development, failure analysis, data analysis, and documentation, while retaining responsibility for engineering review and validation.
• Travel domestically and internationally as required to support test-system deployment, production builds, suppliers, and contract manufacturers.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior