Senior Mechanical Engineer

Company Overview

Swarm Defense Technologies designs and builds small unmanned aircraft systems for the U.S. Department of Defense. We are headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, where electrical design, firmware, machining, assembly, and flight test all happen under one roof. Our current work is focused on moving production-ready small UAS from prototype to volume delivery on compressed program timelines, and we are building the engineering and manufacturing team to do it.

Job Summary

Swarm Defense is hiring a Senior Mechanical Engineer to own the mechanical design of our aircraft: airframe structure, payload interfaces, enclosures, and the fixtures and tooling needed to build them. You will carry designs from concept through production release and be the final word on mechanical decisions.

We machine and fabricate most of our own parts in-house, so you will be designing for our CNC and composite capabilities and working directly with the machinists who make your parts. Expect to be in the shop as much as at your desk, and on the flight line when a design is validated.

Key Responsibilities

• Own mechanical architecture and detailed design of airframes, structures, mounts, and enclosures.
• Produce production-ready CAD, drawings with GD&T, and BOMs.
• Design for manufacturability across CNC machining, composites, sheet metal, and injection molding.
• Design assembly fixtures, tooling, and test rigs for the production line.
• Plan and execute mechanical qualification testing, including environmental and durability.
• Mentor junior engineers and technicians; set drawing and CAD standards.
• Support flight test and drive root-cause analysis on mechanical failures.

Requirements

• BS in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• 7+ years of mechanical design experience with products that reached production.
• Expert in SolidWorks or a comparable parametric CAD tool, including large assemblies and configurations.
• Deep DFM knowledge for CNC machining; ability to program or closely direct machinists is a plus.
• Practical experience with composites (carbon fiber layup, cured parts, bonding).
• Fluency in GD&T, tolerance analysis, and fastener and joint design.
• Track record of owning a design end to end with minimal oversight.

Bonus Points

• UAS, aerospace, or defense hardware background.
• Experience taking a product from low-rate to volume production.
• Hands-on CNC programming (Fusion 360 CAM, Mastercam) or machining experience.
• Familiarity with MIL-STD-810 environmental test methods.

Benefits

• Health Insurance: We cover 100% of health insurance premiums for our employees.
• 401(k): Company retirement plan with employer match.

Swarm Defense is an early-stage defense company, and the pace is set by what the mission requires. The work is hands-on with engineers building what they design, testing it on real aircraft, and owning the result. 

We reward initiative and give people ownership of their area. If you want to see your work fly within weeks and you are comfortable operating without a large support structure around you, this is the right environment.