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Clera

Principal Mechanical Engineer

Salary

$235K - $305K

Listed in the posting

Pays more than 85% of 24,028 six-figure listings in USD.

This job
$235k–$305k
Typical
$194k
Most pay
$158k–$240k
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Skills

CAD
Embedded Systems
FEA

Full job description

Description

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.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, California, United States.

Requirements

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.

Benefits

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary: $235,000 to $305,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.

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Opens Clera’s own application page in a new tab.

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