Senior Aero/Mechanical Engineer Lead, Skyways

Salary not provided
Senior and Expert level
Austin

4-5 days a week in office

Skyways

AI-driven autonomous delivery drones

Open for applications

Skyways

AI-driven autonomous delivery drones

21-100 employees

B2BArtificial IntelligenceSupply ChainAutomationDelivery

Open for applications

Salary not provided
Senior and Expert level
Austin

4-5 days a week in office

21-100 employees

B2BArtificial IntelligenceSupply ChainAutomationDelivery

Company mission

Skyways' mission is to satisfy international freight and supply chain needs through its AI-driven autonomous delivery drones.

Role

Who you are

  • Minimum 8 years of experience in a relevant environment (aerospace industry preferred)
  • Degree in mechanical, or aerospace engineering
  • Multi-year experience leading teams
  • Excellent communication skills across the entire org
  • Extensive experience with CAD (SolidWorks preferred)
  • Extensive experience with FEA (Ansys, Nastran)
  • In-depth understanding of mechanical engineering discipline as it relates to design and analysis
  • Well-versed in the manufacturing processes/techniques used in the aerospace industry
  • Experience working with outside vendors for manufacturing
  • Familiar with technical drawings and GD&T
  • You want to work at a small early stage startup
  • You want to wear many hats
  • Self starter and resilient: take a project from start to finish despite vague or little requirements

Desirable

  • You are a maker and doer! show us your projects!
  • Experience in the aero/aviation field
  • Experience with hands-on manufacturing (CAM, CNC, mill, lathe, composite layup, mold making) and shop tools
  • Experience with 3D printing
  • Experience flying planes and/or large drones
  • Design and analysis of compo

What the job involves

  • Lead hardware / aero effort at Skyways: design, development, and testing of all hardware systems, including flight control systems, navigation systems, propulsion systems, sensor systems, cargo systems, GCS, GSE, and communication systems.
  • Oversee the selection, specification, and qualification of hardware components, balancing performance, cost, and manufacturability.
  • Create and manage comprehensive hardware development plans and schedules, ensuring the timely delivery of projects.
  • Direct and mentor a team of junior to senior engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and high-performance.
  • Conduct feasibility studies and risk assessments for new hardware designs, providing recommendations based on technical and financial considerations.
  • Collaborate closely with software engineering, manufacturing, and quality teams to ensure that hardware designs meet all technical and operational requirements.
  • Drive the creation of prototypes and oversee rigorous testing, ensuring products meet company's objectives.
  • Take ownership of the overall performance and reliability of the company's product, including during post-launch operations.
  • Support the resolution of hardware-related issues in a timely and effective manner, troubleshooting problems and driving improvements.
  • Actively participate in design reviews, providing critical feedback and approval for hardware designs and modifications.
  • Contribute individually to hardware design and problem-solving when necessary, demonstrating a hands-on approach.
  • Exhibit a strong sense of ownership, taking responsibility for the outcomes of the engineering team and being accountable for their successes and setbacks.
  • Foster a culture of integrity, promoting transparency, and honesty in all interactions within the team and with other stakeholders.
  • Proactively anticipate and address potential issues, demonstrating foresight, and quick problem-solving.
  • Maintain ambitious goals for yourself and your team, continuously raising the bar for what is possible.

Our take

Maintaining smooth cargo shipments is essential to the integrity of supply chains, something that is equally important to both businesses and military forces. Such logistics are generally handled by cars and trucks, but this greatly limits the efficiency of routes and can negatively impact stealth for military supply chains.

Skyways develops AI-driven autonomous delivery drones, focussed on reducing supply chain bottlenecks for military forces as well as businesses. The company sells three models of electric and hybrid drones capable of delivering up to 25lbs of cargo across distances up to 500 miles, with each model being designed to fly low to help military forces stay under the radar.

Whilst offense and defense drones are commonplace in today’s military landscape, Skyways has identified the gap in the market of low-flying and autonomous delivery drones, helping to reduce loads carried by troops, increase resupply capabilities, and lower detection rates. The company currently focusses on facilitating military deliveries but shows promise to improve last-mile eCommerce order fulfillment in the future.

Kirsty headshot

Kirsty

Company Specialist

Insights

Top investors

Company

Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)

Dec 2021

$15m

SERIES A

Jul 2017

$1m

SEED

Total funding: $17m

Company HQ

Sixth Street Historic District, Austin, TX

Leadership

Senior Software Engineer for Google from 2008 to 2015. Was CEO & Co-founder of Elixir Labs.

Salary benchmarks

We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.

Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.

Share this job

View 2 more jobs at Skyways