Lead Mechanical Engineer - Airframe
About the job
- A degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field is required.
- At least 7 years of relevant mechanical, structural, or aerospace engineering experience is required.
- Experience designing primary aircraft structures or large composite airframes is required.
- Experience with bonded composite structures, sandwich panels, bonded inserts, and hybrid composite-metallic assemblies is required.
- Experience with aircraft mechanisms, actuation systems, control surfaces, doors, landing gear, or deployable systems is required.
- Knowledge of composite failure criteria, buckling, fatigue, vibration, modal analysis, or damage tolerance is required.
- Experience taking safety-critical hardware from concept through manufacturing and testing is required.
- Strong proficiency with CAD software such as Fusion, SolidWorks, CATIA, NX, or Creo is required.
- Strong proficiency with finite element analysis tools such as ANSYS, Nastran, Abaqus, Fusion Simulation, or similar is required.
- Ability to verify analysis using hand calculations and first-principles methods is required.
- Strong understanding of structural mechanics, load paths, joint design, material behavior, and mechanical failure modes is required.
- Experience applying geometric dimensioning and tolerancing and mechanical tolerancing to production drawings is required.
- Experience designing for manufacturing, assembly, inspection, maintenance, and repair is required.
- Experience leading technical reviews and making design decisions across multiple engineering teams is required.
- Comfort working directly with aircraft hardware, prototypes, test fixtures, and shop tools is required.
- Lead the design of primary aircraft structures, mechanisms, and major airframe assemblies.
- Develop composite and metallic structures, joints, interfaces, and mounting systems.
- Define structural load paths, design requirements, margins, and validation methods.
- Perform and review hand calculations and finite element analysis.
- Evaluate strength, stiffness, buckling, fatigue, vibration, and composite failure modes.
- Lead preliminary and critical design reviews.
- Own CAD assemblies, production drawings, bills of materials, tolerances, and design releases.
- Manage mechanical interfaces between the airframe, propulsion, avionics, flight controls, landing systems, and other subsystems.
- Design aircraft mechanisms, including control surfaces, doors, landing gear, actuation systems, and deployable systems.
- Work with manufacturing to develop tooling, assembly processes, inspection methods, and repair procedures.
- Plan and support component, structural, subsystem, and vehicle-level testing.
- Investigate failures, determine root causes, and implement corrective actions.
- Mentor mechanical engineers and review their design and analysis work.
- Support aircraft assembly, integration, ground testing, and flight testing.
- Experience designing structures for marine environments.
- Experience developing structural test plans, fixtures, instrumentation, and acceptance criteria.
- Familiarity with Federal Aviation Administration certification, military airworthiness, or experimental flight-test programs.
- Proficiency with MATLAB or Python for engineering analysis.
- Experience with product lifecycle management and configuration control systems.
About the company
Poseidon Aerospace designs and builds unmanned fixed-wing cargo aircraft for defense and regional commercial air cargo. Its planes are combustion-powered and designed to shed crewed freighter mass (no cockpit or life-support) to improve payload-to-empty-weight and reduce operating costs, with variants including the Egret and a seaplane variant called Heron. The company uses a demonstrator (quarter-scale Seagull) and aims to mature to full-scale aircraft that can operate on remote routes with degraded infrastructure, rather than pursuing electric or hydrogen powertrains. Unlike many competitors, Poseidon plans to run its own regional cargo service instead of selling aircraft, focusing on remote, underserved corridors and a pilotless, hub-to-spoke model. The goal is to achieve a first full-scale Egret test flight by the end of 2026 from Alameda, followed by establishing a regional cargo operation to serve those challenging routes.
Company Size
11-50
Company Stage
Series A
Total Funding
$72.4M
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Founded
2023
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- September 8, 2026 Series A raised $60 million from TQ Ventures and Hanwha.
- Poseidon expects Egret's first uncrewed flight by year-end 2026, a near-term catalyst.
- Company says prior Seagull testing de-risked the full-scale program before flight testing.
What critics are saying
- FAA certification for pilotless cargo remains unresolved; commercial revenue waits until approval.
- The first full-scale Egret flight in 2026 is still the program's hardest milestone.
- A crash or failed autonomy demo in late 2026 kills customer trust and financing.
What makes Poseidon Aerospace unique
- Egret and Heron use combustion-powered fixed-wing designs, avoiding eVTOL and battery-range constraints.
- Poseidon operates aircraft itself, pairing hardware with logistics network economics, not pure aircraft sales.
- Heron reaches water, and Egret uses paved or unpaved runways, widening mission access.
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Benefits
401(k) Company Match
Health Insurance
Relocation Assistance
Company Equity
Meal Benefits
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
13%1 year growth
13%2 year growth
30%Unmanned cargo aircraft startup Poseidon Aerospace raises $60 million ahead flight testing. Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 Poseidon Aerospace, which is developing unmanned cargo aircraft for commercial and defense logistics, has raised $60 million in a Series A round that will be used for the upcoming flight-test campaign of its first full-scale aircraft, establish a production line and hire more employees. The investment was led by TQ Ventures. Egret is Poseidon's flagship unmanned aircraft, a regional freighter slated to conduct its first uncrewed flight this year. The aircraft has a payload capacity of 4,000 pounds, a range... Not a subscriber or registered user yet? Please contact us at [email protected] or call us at 888-707-5814 (Monday - Thursday 9:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. and Friday 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET.), to start a free trial, get pricing information, order a reprint, or post an article link on your website.
Poseidon Aerospace, which plans the first test flight of its pilotless cargo plane by year-end, raised a $60M Series A led by TQ Ventures, after an $11M seed (Sean O'Kane/TechCrunch). Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch: Poseidon Aerospace, which plans the primary check flight of its pilotless cargo airplane by year-end, raised a $60M Sequence A led by TQ Ventures, after an $11M seed - Silicon Valley is understood for embracing the ethos of "transfer quick and break issues." Poseidon Aerospace's co-founder and CEO David Zagaynov simply needs to maneuver issues quick. September 9, 2026 September 8, 2026
The startup is trying to rethink the economics of cargo aircraft by removing pilots from the equation entirely.
Poseidon Aerospace raises $60 million ahead of first pilotless cargo plane test flight. Poseidon Aerospace has raised $60 million to develop autonomous cargo aircraft and prepare for the first test flight of its Egret plane. Sep 8, 2026 - 12:27 Poseidon Aerospace has raised $60 million in Series A funding as the company prepares for the first test flight of its uncrewed cargo aircraft, Egret, expected by the end of this year. Consult Corporate Lawyers Discover more Form An LLC Compare Business Loans Try Operations Software The round follows an earlier $11 million seed investment and will help the startup expand development of autonomous cargo aircraft to reduce the cost of regional air logistics. The company's mission is to move freight more efficiently rather than develop expensive new aviation technologies. Building autonomous cargo aircraft. CEO David Zagaynov and co-founder Parker Tenney founded Poseidon Aerospace after identifying an opportunity to improve cargo transportation through automation and simpler aircraft designs. The company is avoiding some of the approaches used by many advanced air mobility startups. Instead of vertical takeoff systems or electric and hydrogen powertrains, Poseidon is developing fixed-wing aircraft powered by conventional combustion engines. The startup's Egret aircraft and its seaplane variant, Heron, are designed around autonomy and remote operation. Poseidon says removing the need for onboard pilots could cut operating costs and let aircraft spend more time transporting cargo. Defense and commercial cargo markets. Poseidon is initially targeting defence applications and regional commercial cargo operations. The company is designing aircraft to serve remote communities and areas with limited traditional air cargo infrastructure. For commercial operations, Poseidon plans to operate its own regional air cargo network instead of selling aircraft. The company aims to compete for logistics demand from major cargo operators and businesses. Discover more Join Trade Groups Try CAD Software Preparing for first flight. Poseidon previously developed and tested a smaller-scale version of its aircraft called Seagull before moving toward a full-size vehicle. The company has expanded operations into a former Navy hangar in Alameda, California, as it prepares for production and flight testing. Consult Corporate Lawyers The company previously announced its $11 million funding round to support the development of unmanned cargo aircraft technology. Poseidon has also shared details about its aircraft development through a video presentation showing its approach to autonomous cargo aviation. A changing aviation landscape. Poseidon is entering an aviation market where regulators have become more open to testing new aircraft technologies. The Federal Aviation Administration has introduced programs supporting emerging aviation companies, creating more opportunities for startups developing new aircraft systems. The company believes autonomous cargo aircraft could create a more flexible logistics network by allowing routes to change more easily based on demand without the limitations of traditional pilot-based operations.
Poseidon is reimagining logistics with autonomous aircraft built to move goods faster,cheaper, anywhere they're needed. We are building the unmanned backbone of tomorrow's logistics.