Senior Mechanical Engineer / Program Support

Mettle Ops • Madison Heights, MI

10d • Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Mechanical Engineer / Program Support role is a senior technical position focused primarily on mechanical engineering execution, technical leadership, and mentoring of junior engineers. This individual leads and supports mechanical design, integration, build, test, troubleshooting, requirements decomposition, and drawing release activities across complex defense-related engineering efforts. The role also includes a limited program-support component focused on breaking larger engineering objectives into executable tasks, coordinating engineering work, and communicating progress and schedule concerns to the program manager. It is not a full-time project or program management role and does not include formal personnel management authority. Length: 6-month contract with possibility of extension.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or closely related discipline.
• 15+ years of relevant mechanical engineering experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading mechanical design, integration, test, and troubleshooting efforts for complex systems.
• Strong background in requirements decomposition, engineering documentation, and drawing release.
• Demonstrated ability to guide and mentor junior engineers in a technical lead capacity.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and engineering judgment skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools.

Nice To Haves

• Military experience preferred.
• Experience in defense or other highly regulated technical environments.
• Experience working on vehicle, platform, or other complex integrated mechanical systems.
• Experience with CAD tools, PDM/PLM systems, and engineering documentation processes.
• Experience supporting engineering planning, engineering task coordination, and schedule status reporting.
• Active security clearance, or ability to obtain one.

Responsibilities

• Lead mechanical engineering activities for system-, subsystem-, and component-level design, integration, build, and test efforts.
• Apply advanced mechanical engineering principles and sound judgment to solve complex technical problems.
• Support requirements decomposition and translate technical requirements into practical engineering solutions.
• Lead or support design development, packaging, integration, troubleshooting, verification, and validation efforts.
• Produce, review, and improve engineering documentation including drawings, design packages, presentations, reports, test documentation, and related technical artifacts.
• Support drawing development, drawing review, and drawing release activities.
• Participate in technical reviews, design reviews, test events, and problem-resolution activities.
• Evaluate technical issues, customer comments, and design changes for impact to performance, manufacturability, cost, and schedule.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including manufacturing, quality, program management, and other engineering disciplines.
• Provide technical leadership to junior mechanical engineers through coaching, task guidance, design review, and day-to-day mentoring.
• Help develop engineering rigor, problem-solving ability, and execution discipline across the team.
• Share best practices in design, integration, test, troubleshooting, documentation, and configuration discipline.
• Support consistent engineering execution without formal supervisory authority.
• Help break larger engineering objectives into clear, executable tasks for the engineering team.
• Support planning and coordination of engineering work to align with program priorities and milestones.
• Assign or coordinate actionable engineering tasks within the team in alignment with program direction.
• Monitor engineering task progress and identify delays, blockers, and technical risks that could affect schedule.
• Communicate engineering status, completion progress, and schedule concerns to the program manager.
• Support disciplined execution of engineering scope in coordination with program leadership.

What This Job Offers

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