Lead - Mechanical Engineer

Who Are We? At HyPrix, we're building attritable payload delivery systems for autonomy. Things that fly fast, we're enabling them with conscious software. Replicating the capabilities of expensive conventional frontline systems, we're building the cheapest micro and cruise missile systems on the planet. Built for a war of attrition, built for the era of software-defined warfare, built to cater to the front lines of battlefields where no man should stand in the future.

Learn more about us: https://hyprix.in What You'll Do The Lead Mechanical Engineer is the design authority for the mechanical products of HyPrix. The position holder converts system requirements into complete mechanical products, and leads the mechanical design team that delivers them. This position owns each product from requirement to field support: CAD, calculations, drawings, BOMs, manufacture, qualification, production release, customer delivery and support after delivery.

Aerostructures, aerodynamics and flight dynamics are not in the primary scope of this role. Dedicated CAE engineers do the detailed simulation work.

• Mechanical architecture. Interpret system requirements, lead concept development and trade studies, and define the mechanical architecture of each product. Define the mechanical interfaces with systems engineering, electronics, harness, optics, thermal, controls, RF and test teams.
• Design authority. Approve mechanical CAD models, drawings and BOMs before release. Make sure that each released drawing is complete and correct, because it is the technical contract between design, manufacture, inspection, quality and the vendor.
• Design standards. Define and improve the mechanical CAD, drawing, GD&T, part-number, configuration management and PDM/PLM practices of the team. Make sure that CAD models stay stable when dimensions, interfaces or configurations change.
• Engineering calculations. Set the calculation standard of the team. Make sure that first-principles calculations guide each design before detailed CAE starts.
• CAE direction. Define the analysis needs with the CAE team: loads, interfaces, materials, operating conditions and acceptance criteria. Decide if the results are physically reasonable, and convert them into design changes.
• Design reviews. Lead peer reviews, Preliminary Design Reviews (PDR), Critical Design Reviews (CDR), manufacturing reviews and vendor DFM reviews. Close the review actions, and put the approved changes into controlled design data.
• Manufacture and vendors. Lead DFM and DFA work with vendors on tolerances, tooling, inspection, cost and lead time. Approve deviations and non-conformance dispositions, and own the corrective actions with the quality function.
• Cost and rate. Design for low unit cost and rate production from the first concept. Make sure that DFMEA, tolerance stacks and tool-access checks occur early, before they become production problems.
• Builds and flight trials. Lead engineering and pre-production builds. Support ground tests, flight trials and field operations, and approve fast design changes when a problem occurs.
• Qualification. Define the mechanical qualification and acceptance test strategy against MIL-STD-810 and the customer requirements. Lead failure investigation, root-cause analysis and corrective action.
• Configuration management. Own the mechanical engineering BOM, the make-vs-buy inputs, and the ECR and ECO decisions. Control effectivity, interchangeability and the traceability of delivered hardware.
• Customer and field. Represent mechanical engineering in customer technical reviews, qualification reviews and customer inspections. Lead field-failure investigations, retrofit plans and product improvements.
• Team. Take part in the recruitment of mechanical engineers, and lead, mentor and develop the team. Assign the work, check its quality and set clear technical expectations.

Requirements

Minimum Experience (Years) 7-10 years of mechanical product design, with at least 3 years as a lead engineer or design authority. HyPrix prefers this experience, but it is not mandatory. Demonstrated capability is more important than years.

Required Skills

• Product ownership. You personally designed and released real products that were manufactured, assembled, inspected, tested, qualified, delivered to a customer and supported after delivery. Experience limited to concept design, isolated CAD work, analysis support or prototype fabrication is not sufficient.
• Technical leadership. You led a mechanical design team or product, and you reviewed the CAD models and drawings of other engineers.
• CAD. Expert hands-on capability in CATIA, Creo, Siemens NX or SolidWorks. This includes top-down and skeleton-based design, interface-controlled modelling, large assemblies, configurations and product variants.
• Drawings and GD&T. Ability to create and check production drawings to ASME Y14.5 or ISO GPS. This includes functional datums, fits, finishes, materials, heat treatment, coatings, joining symbols, torque values and inspection requirements.
• Tolerance engineering. Worst-case and statistical tolerance-stack analysis, and tolerance allocation. You connect each tolerance to product function, process capability, inspection method and cost.
• First-principles calculations. Ability to calculate and justify loads, stresses and margins of safety. This includes load paths, combined stresses, deflection, joint and fastener loads, buckling, fatigue, thermal expansion, shock and natural frequencies.
• Vibration and shock design. Sine and random vibration, PSD profiles, Grms, resonance, mode separation, damping, mounting stiffness and SRS. You know that static strength alone does not show that a design is suitable for a vibration environment.
• CAE understanding. The inputs, assumptions and limits of linear static, modal and basic thermal FEA. This includes boundary conditions, mesh quality, stress singularities and correlation with hand calculations.
• Motion systems and precision alignment. Bearing selection, life, preload, fits and lubrication. Datum transfer, kinematic mounts, controlled shimming, runout control and alignment retention under temperature, vibration and shock.
• Military environmental design. Design for temperature, thermal cycling, humidity, water, dust, salt fog, altitude, shock, vibration and transport. Selection of materials, heat treatments, coatings, seals and adhesives, with galvanic compatibility and ingress protection.
• Manufacture. Practical knowledge of CNC machining, sheet metal, welding, brazing, casting, forging, moulding, additive manufacturing, heat treatment and surface treatment. Knowledge of assembly fixtures, inspection planning and First Article Inspection.
• Configuration management. ECR and ECO processes, revision control, effectivity, as-designed and as-built configuration, and non-conformance control.
• A bachelor's degree in mechanical, aerospace or production engineering.
• Ability to travel to vendors, test ranges and customer sites when necessary. Advantageous Skills/Qualifications
• Experience with electro-optical gimbals, sensor mounts, actuators or other precision motion systems.
• Experience with missile, UAV, munition or other airborne defence hardware.
• Practical application of MIL-STD-810, DO-160, MIL-STD-461, AS9100 and AS9102. Application is more important than knowledge of standard numbers.
• Experience with composite parts, structural adhesive bonding and inserts.
• Experience with energetic-material packaging, rocket-motor or warhead interfaces, and insensitive-munition practices.
• Experience with RF and antenna packaging, radomes or seeker mounts.
• Experience with DGAQA, CEMILAC or DGQA inspection and qualification processes.
• Experience with SolidWorks and Siemens NX, with a CAD migration, and with the setup of PDM/PLM standards for an engineering team.
• A master's degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering.

Benefits

Why Join HyPrix? HyPrix is a lean team with no rule book. Each person receives an end goal tied to a real product, and decides how to achieve it. The Lead Mechanical Engineer sets how HyPrix designs, releases and supports its mechanical hardware. The position holder works directly with the founders and the engineering leadership.