Staff Mechanical Engineer

CHAOS Industries•El Segundo, CA

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with a multi-product portfolio that gives the ultimate advantage—domain dominance. The company's products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats. CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised a total of $1 billion in funding from leading investors, including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and London. For more information, please visit www.chaosinc.com . Role Overview: CHAOS is seeking a hands-on Staff Mechanical Design Engineer to lead the design and integration of air-launched and ground-launched aerospace vehicles and associated hardware, from early concept development through flight test and production support. This is a build-and-fly environment. You will own mechanical design for airframes, control surfaces, and structures while working closely across engineering and manufacturing functions to get real hardware flying. This is a full-time position in El Segundo, CA or Tucson, AZ depending on the candidate’s preference and needs of the role. The El Segundo position requires regular on-site work. The Tucson position may be primarily remote; however, the employee must reside within reasonable commuting distance of Tucson and be able to report on-site as needed. This requisition is open to candidates who may be considered for a lower or higher job level. Final level and grade will be determined based on relevant experience, skills, and qualifications.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline
7+ years of progressively responsible experience in mechanical design and integration of airframes, flight vehicles, structural assemblies, or related aerospace hardware
Demonstrated experience designing airframes, control surfaces, and structural assemblies
Strong proficiency with mechanical CAD tools (SolidWorks, CATIA, NX, or equivalent), including production-ready drawings with GD&T, tolerance analysis, and configuration-controlled documentation
Strong understanding of structural load paths, joints, fasteners, inserts, bearings, hinges, and bonded joints
Experience designing or integrating metallic or composite structures subject to vibration, shock, thermal, aerodynamic, and other environmental requirements, including structural analysis using hand calculations and/or FEA
Experience applying military specifications and applicable aerospace, defense, and airworthiness standards
Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field
Experience with composite materials, bonded joints, and composite manufacturing processes
Experience with advanced structural analysis methods (fatigue, damage tolerance, fracture mechanics, buckling, aeroelasticity) using commercial FEA/multiphysics tools (ANSYS, NASTRAN, ABAQUS, COMSOL, or similar)
Experience with airframe manufacturing processes, including machining, sheet metal, forming, welding, additive manufacturing, or assembly
Experience supporting structural or flight testing, including instrumentation, strain-gage testing, environmental qualification, or flight-test range operations
Experience with deployment, release, or separation mechanisms for air- or ground-launched vehicles
Experience integrating avionics, sensors, payloads, propulsion systems, or other mission equipment into flight vehicles
Experience with wire-harness routing and connector selection and integration in space-constrained or separation-critical assemblies

Responsibilities

Perform hands-on mechanical design and integration of flight-vehicle structures and mechanical hardware, including control surfaces, payload and avionics hardware, mechanisms, enclosures, and related support equipment
Own the mechanical design and integration of defined subsystems, product areas, or major assemblies
Perform trade studies and recommend path forward
Develop and maintain 3D CAD models, assemblies, detailed drawings, assembly and installation documentation, and interface control documents (ICDs)
Develop mechanical designs subject to structural, thermal, environmental, manufacturability, installation, and operational requirements
Perform first-order structural and thermal analyses, hand calculations, requirements analysis, and design verification activities
Lead design review on owned design.
Work collaboratively with mechanical, electrical, electrical harness, RF, power, manufacturing, systems engineering, customers, suppliers, and platform providers to resolve integration challenges
Support system integration, qualification, and flight testing, including fit-check, installation, alignment, and troubleshooting
Support prototype fabrication, assembly, transition to production, configuration control, fielding, and sustainment of deployed systems
Mentor junior engineers