Sr. Mechanical Engineer, Ruggedization

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 operators, 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’ve opened a Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.

The Role and Your Impact:

We need a Senior Mechanical Engineer to lead ruggedization on Archimedes, with direct ownership of the turret and gimbal that carry the laser source. You'll set the bar for how we design hardware that survives transport, vibration, weather, and the conditions a real customer puts a system through. This is a lead role on the mechanical side, not a supporting one. You drive the design, you drive the test, and you own the path from a prototype that works in our lab to a system that works at a forward base.

What You'll Own:

• Mechanical design lead for the turret and gimbal subsystems including precision pointing structures, slew bearings, drive trains, and stowed-to-deployed transitions

• Ruggedization across the full system for outdoor and field-deployed conditions including shock, vibration, environmental sealing, and EMI

• Stress, vibration, and modal analysis using ANSYS, SolidWorks Simulation, or equivalent

• Hands-on prototyping, fabrication coordination, and test fixture development

• Plan and execute environmental, vibration, shock, and durability testing under real field conditions

• DFM and supplier engagement to take designs from prototype into production-ready

• Materials selection across metals, polymers, and composites for strength, stiffness, thermal behavior, and EMI compatibility

• GD&T drawings, BOMs, and assembly documentation meeting MIL-STD and ITAR requirements

• Cross-functional partnership with optics, electronics, firmware, controls, and the laser team during system integration and field testing

What We're Looking For:

• 5 to 10+ years in mechanical engineering on real, fielded hardware

• Direct, hands-on experience designing turrets or gimbals for military applications. Remote weapon station (RWS) backgrounds strongly preferred.

• Track record leading mechanical design on a system, not just supporting it

• Expert in CAD (SolidWorks, Creo, or similar)

• Strong FEA background (ANSYS, SolidWorks Simulation) with hands-on use, not just review

• Experience planning and executing environmental, vibration, and shock testing on real hardware

• Solid grounding in materials, stress analysis, and manufacturing methods including machining, casting, and sheet metal

Where you probably come from: Remote weapon station companies, defense gimbal and turret programs, EO/IR turret manufacturers, robotic vehicle weapon stations, or defense and aerospace programs where you owned ruggedized outdoor hardware end to end.

We want to talk if: You've led the mechanical design of a turret or gimbal that ended up bolted to a vehicle, vessel, or fixed site and survived. You think in failure modes before the first prototype is built. You've taken a system from CAD through environmental qualification.

Not a fit if: Your gimbal or turret experience is commercial-only (camera gimbals, lidar pods) without military ruggedization, your background is primarily simulation with limited build and test time, or you've supported turret design without ever owning it.

Nice to Haves:

• Direct experience on directed energy, counter-UAS, or air defense programs

• Slip-ring, rotary joint, and cable management design for continuous-rotation systems

• Vacuum or environmental chamber test experience

• EMI / EMC design and shielding

• Active security clearance or ability to obtain one

• Familiarity with MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-461, and related qualification standards

Education:

BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, 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, controls, 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 + equity

• United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage

• Flexible 18 days PTO + 5 sick days

• Travel to field test events and range days

• Covered daily lunches and office snacks + drinks

• E-bike / 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).