Clera
Principal Mechanical Engineer
- Location
- San Francisco, CA, US
- Arrangement
- On-site
- Employment type
- Full-time
- Level
- Principal
- Posted
- 12 November 2026 (3 days ago)
Checked 2 days agoApplications go to the employer, never to RoleSprint
About this role
ABOUT THE ROLE
Join a small defense technology team developing autonomous, field-deployed directed energy systems. You will provide senior mechanical engineering judgment across the full system, guiding hardware from architecture and integration through production readiness and field use.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Own mechanical architecture across the system and lead integration with electrical, power, embedded, and optics disciplines.
- Make technical decisions on complex hardware problems from concept through production readiness.
- Guide hardware release and production processes in partnership with manufacturing.
- Review designs, analysis, and documentation to identify risks early and maintain strong engineering standards.
- Perform hands-on engineering work where your experience can resolve challenging problems quickly.
- Make design and manufacturing tradeoffs across cost, mass, reliability, schedule, and field performance.
- Share technical expertise through hands-on mentorship and design collaboration.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
- At least 10 years of experience designing and shipping complex hardware systems.
- Mechanical engineering is your primary discipline, with recent hands-on experience in CAD, structures, mechanisms, and packaging.
- Repeated experience taking hardware from prototype through manufacturing and field deployment.
- Experience leading full-system integration across mechanical and multiple engineering disciplines, with meaningful judgment in electrical, power electronics, or embedded systems.
- Experience with ruggedized hardware, real-world operating environments, and analysis such as FEA or hand calculations correlated against test data.
- A senior individual contributor or technical lead background at a hardware company that shipped products.
- Defense, aerospace, robotics, high-performance automotive, maritime, or directed energy experience is relevant. Experience with high-power thermal management, beam-directing mechanisms, manufacturing scale-up, or military-grade qualification is valuable.
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
Base salary: $235,000 to $305,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.
LOCATION
On-site in San Francisco, California, United States.
Work location
- San Francisco, CA, US
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About this listing
Published on Ashby under the board identifier Clera, which is the name the employer’s own job board carries. RoleSprint has not verified the company’s registered or trading name, so it is shown exactly as published rather than tidied up.
RoleSprint is not the employer and not a recruiter. Applications are made on the employer’s own site and never reach us; what RoleSprint does is help you decide whether a role is worth your time and prepare for it if it is.
Published 12 November 2026, last checked 2 days ago. A posting stops being advertised here 90 days after the employer published it, and one the employer takes down is marked closed rather than quietly removed.