Product Configuration Engineer (Motor Systems)

Unusual Machines•Orlando, FL

About The Position

Unusual Machines is a U.S.-based drone and drone parts company focused on the small and First-Person View (FPV) segments of the drone market. Our brands - Rotor Riot and Fat Shark - are two of the most respected names in FPV and have helped shape the industry through e-commerce, product development, and a deep connection with the pilot community. We’re expanding into enterprise and defense - bringing our obsessive attention to performance, design, and U.S.-based manufacturing into high-stakes environments like search and rescue and military innovation. With several of our products already approved by the Defense Innovation Unit, we’re solving procurement issues for customers who demand speed, agility, and compliance. If you love working at the intersection of community, content, and cutting-edge technology, you’ll feel right at home here. The Configuration & Product Definition Engineer owns the technical definition, configuration, and product data for our UAV propulsion motors. They work closely with motor design, mechanical engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, and sales teams to manage product variants, engineering bills of materials, winding configurations, approved component options, material selections, and customer-specific motor configurations. This role serves as the primary connection between engineering and procurement, ensuring that supplier changes, material substitutions, configuration requests, and product updates are evaluated from both a technical and operational perspective. They are responsible for maintaining motor specifications, datasheets, winding definitions, approved material selections, and product configuration records that support customers, manufacturing, and future product development. Success in this role requires strong mechanical engineering judgment, exceptional attention to detail, and the ability to balance performance, manufacturability, cost, and supply chain realities while enabling rapid deployment of new motor products. This role works closely with electric machine design engineers, mechanical design engineers, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, procurement, production, and sales teams. They help define new customer-specific motor configurations, evaluate alternative materials and suppliers, coordinate technical validation activities, maintain engineering product structures, and ensure product data remains accurate throughout the product lifecycle. They are regularly involved in discussions regarding custom motor configurations, approved component substitutions, new supplier qualification, material changes, and manufacturing process updates. As the engineering-side owner of product definition, they help ensure customers, suppliers, manufacturing teams, and internal stakeholders are all working from a consistent and accurate product definition.

Requirements

3-5 years industry experience in mechanical engineering, product engineering, configuration management, engineering operations, or a related technical discipline.
Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related engineering field or equivalent work experience
Strong understanding of mechanical systems, manufacturing processes, materials, and engineering documentation.
Experience working with engineering bills of materials, product structures, engineering changes, and product configuration management.
Experience maintaining technical specifications, product datasheets, engineering documentation, or released product definitions.
Ability to evaluate technical tradeoffs involving performance, manufacturability, cost, quality, and supply chain risk.
Strong organizational skills and exceptional attention to detail.
Strong communication skills and ability to work effectively across engineering, sales, manufacturing, quality, procurement, and supply chain teams.
Practical engineering mindset with the ability to make sound technical decisions while supporting business objectives.
Candidates must be a US Citizen or permanent resident to be eligible for employment

Nice To Haves

Experience with electric motors, UAV propulsion systems, rotating machinery, or precision electromechanical products.
Experience managing configurable products with multiple product variants, winding options, or customer-specific configurations.
Experience with Arena PLM or similar product lifecycle management systems.
Experience supporting engineering change processes, supplier qualification activities, or component approval workflows.
Experience evaluating suppliers, materials, manufacturing processes, or quality improvement initiatives.
Familiarity with global supply chains and contract manufacturing environments.
Exposure to aerospace, defense, robotics, UAV, or other high-reliability industries.
Experience supporting new product introduction and rapid customization of engineering products.

Responsibilities

Own engineering configuration management for UAV propulsion motors and motor component assemblies.
Maintain engineering bills of materials, approved material selections, approved component options, winding configurations, and product configuration records.
Own motor datasheets, technical specifications, winding databases, product definition documents, and released engineering records.
Work with engineering teams to define and manage motor variants, product families, and customer-specific configurations.
Support sales teams and customers by rapidly standing up new motor configurations and product variants.
Participate in customer discussions to help define custom propulsion system requirements and configuration options.
Evaluate proposed supplier, material, component, and process changes from an engineering perspective.
Act as the primary engineering representative for supplier substitutions, component approvals, material changes, and alternate source qualification activities.
Coordinate validation activities required to qualify alternate suppliers, materials, components, and manufacturing processes.
Work closely with supply chain teams to ensure engineering intent is correctly implemented within procurement and manufacturing systems.
Support maintenance of manufacturing bills of materials alongside supply chain and production teams.
Maintain product structures, part numbering systems, specifications, and configuration records supporting production and customer programs.
Manage product data, engineering change workflows, and release processes within Arena PLM.
Help establish scalable product definition and configuration management processes that support both standard catalog products and rapidly customized customer solutions.