Mechanical Engineer, Missile Defense (Senior-Staff)

YOUR MISSION

The next generation of missile defense demands hardware that performs flawlessly at hypersonic speeds, survives extreme thermal and aerodynamic environments, and delivers precision intercept against the most advanced threats ever fielded. True Anomaly is building that hardware — and we are looking for engineers who want to be part of it.

As a Mechanical Engineer at True Anomaly, you will play a critical role in designing and developing flight hardware for some of the most technically demanding programs in the defense aerospace industry. From interceptor systems and kill vehicles to hypersonic flight vehicles, you will engineer mechanical systems that must perform flawlessly in extreme thermal, aerodynamic, and high-g environments — building the hardware that matters most when it counts.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Serve as technical authority and subject matter expert in missile defense and hypersonic vehicle mechanical design, providing engineering leadership across interceptor, kill vehicle, and hypersonic flight vehicle programs.
• Own and drive the full mechanical architecture of flight vehicle structures and systems — from system-level requirements definition and concept development through qualification, flight certification, and lessons learned capture.
• Define structural design philosophy, sizing criteria, and margins of safety for flight vehicle primary and secondary structures across high-dynamic-pressure, high-g maneuver, and thermally coupled hypersonic flight environments.
• Lead the design and development of guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) hardware and seeker packaging architectures, establishing integration standards for precision optical and RF sensor assemblies within highly constrained kill vehicle and interceptor envelopes.
• Own the thermal protection system (TPS) design strategy for hypersonic and re-entry flight vehicles, including material selection, panel and tile integration architecture, aeroheating-driven structural trades, and qualification approach for ablative, ceramic, and composite TPS systems.
• Lead mechanical integration of propulsion subsystems, including solid rocket motor structural interfaces, divert and attitude control system (DACS) packaging, nozzle and TVC structural design, and cross-discipline coordination with propulsion engineers to ensure system-level compliance.
• Define and maintain vehicle-level mechanical interface control documents (ICDs), mass properties reports, and configuration baselines across program milestones.
• Chair and lead formal vehicle design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FRR) and drive closure of technical risks, RFIs, and subsystem interface actions across the engineering team.
• Establish and enforce GD&T standards, drawing conventions, and CAD model management practices across the mechanical engineering team.
• Collaborate with systems engineering, aerodynamics, thermal, GN&C, and propulsion teams to derive and flow down mechanical requirements, perform requirements verification, and support IV&V activities.
• Develop and approve structural and environmental qualification and acceptance test plans, witness testing, and resolve anomalies and non-conformances against program requirements.
• Leverage spacecraft and space environment design expertise — including precision mechanisms, electronics packaging, and launch load structural design — to i