Astro Mechanica
Chief Engineer, Defense
About this role
Lead technical development of military aircraft applications at an aerospace startup integrating advanced propulsion and airframe technologies. Serve as the top engineering authority across all subsystems, balancing rigorous standards with fast-paced development while managing stakeholder communication and program delivery.
What you'll do
- Drive aircraft development across propulsion, structures, avionics, flight controls, and systems integration to achieve performance and mission objectives
- Serve as final design authority, ensuring configuration control and technical baseline integrity across the program
- Translate defense customer requirements into engineering specifications with full traceability through design, test, and verification
- Identify and mitigate technical risks; lead root-cause investigations for critical design or test issues
- Coordinate engineering, manufacturing, quality, and flight test teams around a unified technical plan
- Guide analysis, ground test, and flight test campaigns to validate performance and support certification milestones
What they're looking for
- Aircraft systems integration (propulsion, structures, aerodynamics, avionics)
- Defense acquisition and military aerospace program experience
- MIL-STD and DoD airworthiness certification processes
- Requirements management and configuration control
- Flight test planning and validation
- Technical leadership and team mentorship
- Government customer and prime contractor engagement
- Tactical mission systems integration
Benefits
- Leadership role in cutting-edge supersonic aircraft development
- Flat organizational structure with emphasis on engineering excellence
- Opportunity to mentor and grow high-performing engineering teams
- Work with vertically integrated advanced propulsion technology
- Involvement in U.S. defense sector innovation
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Astro Mechanica
Astro Mechanica develops advanced supersonic aircraft as a vertically integrated aerospace startup. The company is hiring flight software engineers, mechanical integration engineers, avionics engineers, GNC engineers, and software engineers to build control systems, propulsion avionics, design optimization tools, and systems that span structures, propulsion, and flight sciences.
View all jobs at Astro MechanicaLikely interview questions
- Walk us through a time you led a complex aircraft program from concept through flight test—what were the biggest technical challenges and how did you resolve them?
- How have you managed competing priorities between engineering rigor, schedule constraints, and budget realities in a defense program?