Senior Manager, Mechanical Engineering

Firestorm is hiring a Senior Manager, Mechanical Engineering to lead the mechanical engineering team responsible for the airframes, structures, mechanisms, and integration hardware that make up our sUAS platforms. You will own the technical direction, execution, and growth of a team that spans our main product lines, partnering with electrical engineering, propulsion, payloads, and manufacturing to deliver producible, qualified aircraft on aggressive timelines.

This is both a technical leadership role and a people leadership role. You will set design standards, drive change control, and represent mechanical engineering in cross-functional decision-making at the IPT and program level. Just as importantly, you will build the team: hiring, mentoring, and developing engineers at every level—creating the kind of environment where junior engineers grow into leaders and senior engineers do the best work of their careers.

What You'll Do

Technical Leadership

• Set the technical direction for mechanical engineering across Firestorm's aircraft platforms—structures, mechanisms, integration, packaging, and production hardware.
• Own design standards, drawing standards, and engineering documentation practices; ensure consistency and quality across the team's output.
• Drive change control discipline: lead the team's participation in CCB, ECR/ECO workflows, and configuration management across Arena PLM.
• Lead and participate in design reviews (PDR, CDR, structural reviews, production readiness reviews); provide technical judgment on trade studies and architecture decisions.
• Partner with manufacturing and quality on producibility, DFM/DFA, first-article inspection, and disposition of non-conformances.
• Represent mechanical engineering in cross-functional IPTs, customer technical interchanges, and program reviews.

People Leadership and Development

• Lead, grow, and develop a multi-disciplinary mechanical engineering team spanning structures, mechanisms, GSE, and packaging.
• Hire across all levels—from interns and new graduates to principal engineers—and build a pipeline of mechanical talent that scales with the company.
• Mentor and develop early-career engineers: assign stretch work, run structured 1:1s, give honest feedback, and create clear paths from junior to senior contributor.
• Coach senior engineers into technical leadership and IPT lead roles.
• Set performance expectations, run performance reviews, and own compensation and leveling decisions for the team.
• Build a team culture that values rigorous engineering, hands-on work, and personal ownership of outcomes.

Program Execution

• Plan and resource mechanical engineering work across multiple programs; balance new development, sustaining engineering, and customer-driven changes.
• Partner with program management to commit to schedules, identify risks, and deliver on milestones.
• Drive productionization and transition from prototype to rate production across Firestorm's aircraft lines.
• Support test and fielding events, including on-site presence for structural and integration test campaigns.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field (Master's degree preferred)
• U.S. Citizenship required due to ITAR regulations & the ability to maintain a Department of Defense (DoD) security clearance
• 10+ years of mechanical engineering experience, with significant time in aerospace, defense, automotive, or comparable hardware-intensive industries
• 5+ years of direct people management experience, including hiring, performance management, and growing engineers from junior to senior levels
• Demonstrated history of building and developing high-performing engineering teams—not just managing them
• Deep technical credibility in mechanical design: structures, mechanisms, composites and/or metallic structures, GD&T, tolerance analysis, and DFM
• Hands-on experience leading designs from concept through qualification and into production
• Experience with change control, PLM systems (Arena, Windchill, Teamcenter, or equivalent), and configuration management at scale
• Experience leading cross-functional integrated product teams (IPTs)
• Strong communication skills—able to engage with engineers, executives, customers, and government stakeholders with equal effectiveness
• Ability to work in a fast-paced and dynamic startup environment

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading mechanical teams on sUAS, large aircraft, missile, or other SWaP-constrained airborne platforms
• Experience scaling a hardware engineering team from prototype to rate production
• Experience standing up or significantly improving change control / CCB processes
• Track record of identifying and developing early-career engineers who have gone on to senior or principal-level roles

Who We Are

At Firestorm, we are building the future of expeditionary defense manufacturing and autonomous systems. Modern conflict has exposed a fundamental problem: the systems needed most by operators are often too expensive, too slow to produce, and too difficult to sustain at scale. Firestorm exists to change that.

We develop mission-adaptable aerial systems and deployable manufacturing infrastructure designed to put capability directly into the hands of the warfighter. From modular unmanned aircraft to xCell — our deployable microfactory — our goal is to make defense systems rapidly deployable, adaptable, and producible at the point of need.

We are looking for builders, operators, and problem-solvers who want to work on meaningful technology with real-world impact.

Work Environment

• The position is working onsite in San Diego, CA. at Firestorm Headquarters
• We welcome candidates who are local or open to relocating; relocation assistance is available and may be included in the offer package where appropriate.
• Domestic travel up to 10%, in support of test events.

This position typically operates in a standard office setting and manufacturing environment. This role requires use of standard office equipment and the physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Ability to sit, stand, bend, reach and move about regularly throughout the day. Must have manual dexterity to operate standard office equipment.

Compensation

• Base salary: $190,000 - $210,000 base, commensurate with experience
• Equity: Meaningful equity grant in a growth-stage defense technology company.