Senior Mechanical Engineer

Senior Mechanical Engineer Opportunity

Odin Dynamics is a defense technology company founded in 2025 to build autonomous underwater vehicles that will define the next era of undersea warfare. The company is delivering capable, resilient autonomous systems that strengthen the strategic advantage of the United States and its allied navies.

This is a greenfield program. The platform is being built from scratch. Engineers here will take incomplete requirements, early hardware, and difficult physical constraints and turn them into production-ready mechanical systems that survive and perform at depth. Decisions are driven by physics, test data, and product outcomes — not inherited convention or documentation volume.

Odin Dynamics is hiring multiple Senior Mechanical Engineers to serve as Responsible Engineers for critical mechanical subsystems across the platform. Each engineer will own one of five focus areas:

• Hull and Hydrodynamics — external vehicle form, primary pressure boundary, sealing strategies, hull geometry, hydrodynamic performance, and depth qualification testing.
• Structures and Integration — load-bearing and integration structures, nose cone and payload bay, internal component packaging, sensor and payload mounting, and interface management across subsystems.
• Mechanisms and Actuation — control surfaces and payload deployment mechanisms, actuator selection and integration, kinematics and tolerance analysis, and sealing of moving systems in the marine environment.
• Battery and Energy Storage — battery pack mechanical architecture, cell and module packaging, thermal management, pressure tolerance and sealing, structural integration, and coordination with power electronics and BMS engineers.
• Propulsion — propulsor and blade geometry, shaft and bearing design, dynamic rotating seal design, drivetrain layout, and propulsor-to-hull integration.

Candidates apply to a common requisition and Odin Dynamics will determine the best area of focus through the interview process. The company is looking for engineers with deep expertise in at least one area who are comfortable working across structures, hydrodynamics, mechanisms, thermal, materials, manufacturing, and test.

What You'll Do

• Serve as the Responsible Engineer for a major mechanical subsystem, owning it from requirements and architecture through detailed design, analysis, prototyping, integration, verification, field testing, production support, and failure investigation
• Develop greenfield mechanical designs from initial requirements through field-tested, production-ready hardware
• Produce detailed CAD designs and complete assemblies, managing interfaces and integration across the vehicle
• Perform structural, thermal, and fluid analyses using both hand calculations and FEA, applying judgment about which approach each problem needs
• Select materials and design for the marine environment, accounting for pressure, corrosion, sealing, and long-duration reliability
• Design for manufacturing, working directly with machine shops, fabrication partners, and internal technicians
• Bring up, assemble, and validate hardware on the bench, in test fixtures, and in the water
• Define mechanical interfaces and coordinate closely with electrical, firmware, and software engineers
• Develop and execute test plans from component-level validation through full-vehicle pressure testing and ocean trials
• Support production, investigate failures on deployed hardware, and own corrective improvements
• Mentor other engineers and contribute to technical reviews while remaining hands-on

You Should Have

• Deep practical expertise in at least one of: hull and hydrodynamics, structures and integration, mechanisms and actuation, battery mechanical design, or propulsion
• Strong CAD proficiency and experience managing complex assemblies across multidisciplinary teams
• Strong analytical skills across FEA and hand calculations, with sound engineering judgment about when to use each
• Demonstrated ability to design for manufacturing — you know how parts get made and design accordingly
• Hands-on experience with prototyping, assembly, and test; comfortable in a shop and on a dock
• Experience designing for demanding physical environments including pressure, thermal, vibration, corrosion, or long-duration reliability
• Demonstrated ability to work from first principles, make progress with incomplete information, and rapidly iterate between design, analysis, fabrication, and test
• U.S. citizenship and eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance
• Approximately 5+ years of relevant mechanical engineering experience preferred, though demonstrated technical depth and a record of delivering difficult systems matter more than years

Nice to Have

• Experience taking a mechanical system from blank sheet through design, analysis, test, and refinement cycles into production or operational deployment
• Background in underwater vehicles, marine systems, UAVs, robotics, aerospace, or other tightly integrated electromechanical products
• Design experience for pressure-loaded or submerged environments
• Corrosion engineering and material compatibility in seawater
• Battery pack mechanical, thermal, or enclosure design for demanding applications
• Rotating machinery, propulsor design, shaft sealing, or drivetrain integration
• Composite structures or advanced manufacturing methods
• Environmental qualification testing including shock, vibration, pressure cycling, and thermal extremes

Compensation and Benefits

Base Salary: $140,000 - $220,000, depending on experience, plus equity and performance bonus.