Sr. Mechanical Engineer

About the role

Who We Are: Aurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones. We're a small team of engineers, former US military, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system. Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable. In addition to our San Francisco lab, we opened our Detroit manufacturing hub and field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range. The Role and Your Impact: We need a Senior Mechanical Engineer who owns major mechanical subsystems on Archimedes end to end and makes them survive the field. That means ruggedization of a fiber laser system against shock, vibration, moisture and environmental extremes, plus the structure, thermal management and precision packaging around the laser head and beam director. You'll work hands on from architecture through bench validation, field correlation and the production handoff to our Detroit manufacturing hub, alongside our Staff and Principal engineers. What You'll Own: - Mechanical design of major subsystems: laser source and head enclosures, gimbal and beam director structure, mounts - Survivability to MIL-STD shock, vibration, humidity, dust and austere environments - Thermal management for high-power laser and electronics packaging - Precision and optomechanical packaging that holds alignment through shock and thermal cycles - FEA (static, modal, random vibration, shock response spectrum) and correlation to test - Test rigs, instrumentation and bench validation you build and run yourself - DFM and the handoff to manufacturing in Detroit - Design reviews and raising the bar for the junior ME team What We're Looking For: - 5+ years in mechanical engineering on ruggedized, field-deployable or high-performance systems - At least one subsystem you took from prototype to production - Strong FEA (ANSYS, Nastran, Abaqus or equivalent) and the bench work to back it up - Hands-on design to MIL-STD-810 or equivalent shock and vibration standards - Thermal design for high-power systems - Evidence you learn fast. You got effective in a new domain in months, not years Where you probably come from: Defense hardware, airborne or ground vehicle systems, F1 and high-performance automotive, aerospace, maritime, ruggedized electronics, or directed energy and field-deployed sensor programs. Domain matters less than shipping hardware that had to survive. We want to talk if: You've owned a system that had to survive shock, vibration and environmental extremes in a tight, deployable package, and you modeled it, built it, instrumented it and correlated it. Not a fit if: You've only done commercial or consumer product design, your work is simulation-only with no bench validation, or you've spent years on one narrow subcomponent without seeing the system around it. Nice to Haves: - Laser, directed energy or high-power hardware - Optical bench or precision instrument ruggedization - MIL-STD-461 EMI/EMC awareness for mechanical integration - Vehicle-mounted systems - Manufacturing ramp experience Education: BS or MS in Mechanical, Aerospace or related field. What you've built matters more than where you went to school. How You Operate: - Extreme bias for action. You'd rather build a prototype tomorrow than model it for a month - You characterize your own systems before the field does - Comfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration in a startup environment - You debug from first principles, not intuition alone - Clear communicator across mechanical, electrical, optical, and software teams - Self directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told Why Join Aurelius Systems: - Build more in 1 month than most engineers build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work goes downrange, not into a filing cabinet. - Career velocity is real. At ~10 engineers, there are no layers between you and impact. - Work on a problem that actually matters. Small cheap drones are changing warfare. Our laser systems are the asymmetric answer — infinite magazine, near zero cost per shot, scalable to every base, border, facility, and truck. - Join the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country. California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built. How We Work: Core hours are Monday through Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up — nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship. When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show. Benefits: - Competitive salary and equity - United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage - Flexible 18 days PTO plus 5 sick days - Travel to field test events and range days - Covered daily lunches and office snacks and drinks - E-bike and scooter stipend up to $500 - Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work Export Control Notice: This role requires access to export-controlled information or items that require U.S. Person status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a U.S. Person: (1) U.S. citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).