Mechanical Engineer (New Graduate)

About Poseidon Aerospace:

Poseidon Aerospace builds and operates unmanned planes for commercial logistics and defense missions. Our two full-size fixed-wing platforms - Heron, a seaplane, and Egret, a STOL aircraft - can carry two tons of payload over a thousand nautical miles. We are headquartered in San Francisco with satellite offices in Washington, DC and Maine.

As a Mechanical Engineer at Poseidon Aerospace, you will design the structural and mechanical systems that make our composite aircraft functional and manufacturable. You will work across CAD design, mechanism development, and finite element analysis to create reliable, lightweight structures suited for flight and marine environments. This role is both analytical and hands-on, involving close collaboration with manufacturing, aerodynamics, and test teams to bring designs from concept to flight hardware.

Responsibilities:

• Design and develop aircraft structures, mechanisms, and tooling using CAD software

• Perform FEA to validate strength, stiffness, and load paths in composite and metallic components

• Create detailed part/assembly drawings and documentation for manufacturing and inspection

• Design linkages, control surface mechanisms, and mounting systems for aircraft subsystems

• Collaborate with manufacturing engineers to ensure designs are practical, cost-effective, and easy to assemble

• Support testing and validation of structural and mechanical systems, including fixture and rig design

• Maintain CAD libraries, revision control, and configuration management for aircraft assemblies

• Provide design feedback to improve manufacturability, maintainability, and structural efficiency

Ideal Qualifications:

• Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field

• Proficiency with CAD software such as Fusion,, SolidWorks, CATIA, or NX

• Strong understanding of structural design, stress analysis, and mechanical systems

• Experience with FEA tools such as ANSYS, Fusion Simulation, Nastran, or similar

• Ability to apply GD&T and mechanical tolerancing to production drawings

• Familiarity with composite and metallic fabrication methods

• Understanding of fundamentals of flight mechanics and aircraft dynamics

• Comfortable working hands-on with prototypes, test articles, and shop tools

• Capable of managing projects independently in a fast-paced, startup environment

Nice to Have:

• Experience with bonded composite structures or hybrid assemblies

• Background in actuation systems, linkages, or motion mechanisms

• Knowledge of vibration, fatigue, or modal analysis

• Hands-on experience with machining, additive manufacturing, or assembly tooling

• Familiarity with design for manufacturing (DFM) and design for assembly (DFA)

• Proficiency in MATLAB or Python for analysis and process automation

• Exposure to aerospace certification or flight test environments
  

Even if you don’t meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. At Poseidon Aerospace, we value engineers who take ownership, learn quickly, and deliver practical solutions that make aircraft real.