Lead Mechanical Engineer (Aerospace & Defense)

Location: El Segundo, California, United States; onsite hands-on work in the protoshop and laboratory is expected.

Annual salary: $150,000–$200,000 USD

Company

hirify.global develops and manufactures critical aerospace, defense, avionics, hydraulic, and electrical components and subsystems.

What you will do

• Lead a defined mechanical discipline and own design decisions and technical outcomes.
• Build and develop a mechanical engineering team while mentoring less experienced engineers.
• Execute detailed design work, including drawings, GD&T, FEA, component specifications, and risk assessments.
• Drive flight hardware from bench prototypes through qualification and production handoff.
• Lead functional, environmental, pneumatic, hydraulic, and structural qualification testing.
• Investigate root causes, own corrective actions, and collaborate with electrical, software, and build engineering teams.

Requirements

• Substantial mechanical engineering experience with aerospace or defense hardware from concept through flight qualification and production.
• Deep expertise in at least one area such as fluid systems, mechanisms, structural design, cockpit avionics packaging, or power electronics enclosures.
• Hands-on laboratory and protoshop experience, not limited to CAD-based work.
• Strong knowledge of thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and solid mechanics.
• Experience with Siemens NX or an equivalent CAD package, plus familiarity with FEA tools and test instrumentation.
• Familiarity with MIL-STD-810, DO-160, and other aerospace qualification frameworks; applicants must be U.S. persons under ITAR.

Culture & Benefits

• Hands-on work supported by an in-house R&D laboratory and protoshop.
• High ownership, independent decision-making, and direct action-oriented collaboration.
• Opportunity to grow from technical leadership into broader responsibility.
• Work on aerospace, defense, and critical infrastructure hardware programs.