About The Role: 

Urban Sky is seeking a talented Mechanical Engineer to own the design, development, and fielding of advanced electro-optical imaging systems aboard our stratospheric balloon platforms. Our payloads operate in one of the harshest environments on Earth. They must survive temperature extremes, near-vacuum pressures, and high shock loads while delivering precision performance. This engineer will design systems that integrate optics (both custom and off-the-shelf), sensors, edge compute, 2-axis stabilization mechanisms, and thermal management systems into compact, flight-ready packages. 

The technical challenges are broad, and so is the ownership. This is a hands-on role on a fast-paced, multidisciplinary team. Your work will span the entire development lifecycle, from initial requirements and rapid prototyping through flight testing and production transition. You will work across a range of commercial and defense products that are making real and lasting impacts today. 

Key Responsibilities: 

• Translate product requirements and use cases into ruggedized design solutions for a diverse customer base spanning scientific, commercial, and defense applications 
• Design robust, reusable payload structures with an emphasis on protecting critical components and enabling rapid turnarounds between flights. Perform structural analysis and testing to validate designs against flight load cases 
• Support the design and development of 2-axis gimbal systems including structure design, motor and reducer selection, and feedback architecture to achieve precise pointing control 
• Select materials appropriate for stratospheric conditions balancing strength, thermal performance, weight, and cost constraints
• Design and analyze thermal management solutions to maintain components within operating temperature ranges across stratospheric conditions. Develop and verify thermal models against test and flight data to build confidence in system performance
• Contribute to payload architecture decisions, including evaluating new sensor technologies, identifying candidate hardware for integration, and proposing new payload concepts or capability expansions 
• Plan and execute benchtop testing of subsystems and prototypes to validate functionality prior to flight testing 
• Conduct environmental testing including thermal cycling, vacuum exposure, and shock qualification. Support field integration and test campaigns, incorporating operational feedback into design iterations 
• Develop and execute verification and validation plans, prepare prototypes for flight, and maintain flight safety documentation 
• Analyze flight performance data to identify issues and drive design iteration. Lead post-flight hardware teardowns and failure investigations to determine root cause and inform corrective actions
• Maintain thorough engineering documentation including design/analysis rationale, trade studies, assembly procedures, test reports, and lessons learned to support knowledge retention and production readiness 
• Generate high-quality engineering drawings with appropriate use of GD&T when necessary

Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related discipline; advanced degree is a plus but not required 
• 2-5 years of experience in mechanical design and integration of electromechanical systems operating in real-world environments 
• Proficiency in CAD software (e.g., OnShape, SolidWorks, or Fusion 360) for designing complex mechanical systems 
• Strong knowledge of materials and manufacturing processes, including CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication, 3D printing, and injection molding 
• Intuitive understanding of tolerance analysis, design for manufacturing (DFM), and design for assembly (DFA), with the ability to design parts and assemblies that are practical to build, inspect, and maintain 
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with experience using hand calculations and simulation tools to inform design decisions and the ability to systematically troubleshoot hardware issues when things don't go as planned 

Nice-to-Haves/Preferred Skills: 

• Knowledge in optics, optomechanics, or imaging systems 
• Experience working in aerospace or satellite development 
• Experience developing mechanisms, motion control applications, or gimbal systems  
• Familiarity with integrating mechanical systems with electronics and sensors 
• Knowledge of stratospheric or high-altitude conditions and their impact on mechanical systems 
• Experience with cable and wire harness design 
• Familiarity with Linux or embedded systems 

Requirements: 

• Must be US Citizen or Permanent Resident 
• Must be located near Denver, CO 

Benefits: 

• Medical, Vision and Dental 
• Unlimited Vacation Days 
• Parental Leave 
• Cell Phone Bill Stipend 
• Stock Options 

About The Role: 

The Head of Ground Support Systems will own the design, development, and productionization of all mechanical ground support equipment (GSE) that interfaces with Urban Sky’s flight systems but stays on the ground. This is the hardware that makes flight possible: high-pressure gas fill systems and plumbing, pressurized gas storage assemblies with regulators and complex packaging, ground anchors, mechanical releases, weight plate hold-downs, truck-mount anchors with balloon collars, and any other heavy mechanical system that touches a flight vehicle without leaving the surface of the earth.

This work is serious engineering. Many of these systems involve high-pressure gas handling where a packaging failure or an accidental impact — a forklift strike, a dropped component, a field mishap — can have real safety consequences. You will be responsible for designing systems that are robust, safe, and field-ready, while still moving at the pace of a startup that is leading the commercialization of the stratosphere.

You will operate with a high degree of autonomy. Urban Sky’s engineering culture is built around Responsible Engineers who act as CEOs of their products — owning every decision from concept through production. You will define the technical roadmap for ground support systems, set priorities, drive designs to completion, and ship products. Many of these systems are sold to customers as part of Urban Sky’s broader ecosystem, so the quality bar is high and the iteration pace is fast.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Lead the design, analysis, prototyping, and productionization of all mechanical ground support equipment, including high-pressure gas fill hoses and plumbing assemblies.
• Design and develop high-pressure gas storage systems with integrated plumbing, regulators, relief devices, and packaging that accounts for field hazards such as vehicle impacts and rough handling.
• Engineer ground anchoring systems, mechanical releases, weight plate hold-downs, truck-mount anchors, balloon collars, and other heavy mechanical devices used during launch and recovery operations.
• Own the full product lifecycle for GSE hardware — from requirements definition and concept development through detailed design, test, qualification, and production release.
• Perform structural, pressure, and thermal analyses to validate designs and ensure compliance with applicable codes and standards for high-pressure gas systems.
• Drive design-for-manufacturability and design-for-field-serviceability into every product, ensuring systems can be built efficiently and maintained by field crews.
• Develop and maintain safety documentation, operating procedures, and hazard analyses for all ground support systems involving pressurized gases or heavy mechanical loads.
• Collaborate with flight systems engineers, field operations, and manufacturing to ensure GSE interfaces cleanly with flight hardware and meets operational requirements.
• Rapidly iterate on designs through hands-on prototyping, testing, and real-world field validation — building and shipping products at startup speed.
• Support customer-facing product delivery when GSE is sold as part of Urban Sky’s commercial systems, ensuring products meet quality and reliability standards.

Who you Are:

• U.S. citizenship or permanent residency required.
• A mechanical engineer who deeply understands high-pressure gas systems, heavy mechanical assemblies, and robust product design. This is your craft and you are deeply skilled at it.
• A self-starter who thrives with autonomy and doesn’t need someone to tell you what to build next. You see what needs to be done, you make a plan, and you execute.
• Someone who thrives in ambiguity and moves fast. You are comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and iterating toward the right answer through building and testing.
• A builder who ships. You are not interested in analysis paralysis or endless design reviews. You want to get hardware into the real world, learn from it, and make it better.
• Safety-conscious by instinct. You understand that high-pressure gas systems and heavy mechanical equipment demand rigorous engineering discipline, and you bring that discipline naturally without slowing down.
• Hard-working and highly motivated. You want to be part of a company that is commercializing the stratosphere, and you are ready to work hard to make that happen.
• Scrappy and resourceful. You can work within constraints, find creative solutions, and deliver results without waiting for perfect conditions or unlimited budgets.
• A strong communicator who can work across teams, write clear documentation, and explain technical decisions to both engineers and non-engineers.

Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related discipline; advanced degree is a plus but not required.
• 5+ years of experience in mechanical design and engineering, with significant hands-on work involving high-pressure gas systems, pressure vessels, regulators, and associated plumbing.
• Strong foundation in solid mechanics, structural analysis, and pressure system design. Proficiency with CAD tools (SolidWorks preferred) and FEA software.
• Experience designing products for field use in demanding or uncontrolled environments — not just lab hardware.
• Demonstrated ability to take products from concept through production, including design-for-manufacturing considerations.
• Familiarity with relevant codes and standards for pressure systems (e.g., ASME BPVC, CGA, DOT) is strongly preferred.
• Experience with anchoring systems, mechanical releases, or heavy rigging is a plus.
• Comfortable with hands-on prototyping, shop work, and field testing.
• U.S. citizenship or permanent residency required.

Requirements: 

• Must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident
• Must be located near Denver, CO
• Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance may be required for certain programs 

Benefits: 

• Medical, Vision and Dental 
• Unlimited Vacation Days 
• Parental Leave 
• Cell Phone Bill Stipend 
• Stock Options 

About The Role: 

Urban Sky is seeking a Payload Integration & Customer Success Engineer to serve as the primary interface between our customers and our stratospheric balloon platform. This is a highly cross-functional role centered on ensuring that third-party payloads are successfully integrated, qualified, and operated aboard our mHAB (micro High-Altitude Balloon) systems. You will be a trusted technical partner for our customers, many of whom have existing payloads not yet designed for the stratospheric environment, and will guide them from initial interface design through flight operations.

This role demands the mindset of a systems engineer and the heart of a customer advocate. At times you will function as a deputy project lead, independently coordinating across customers, vendors, and internal teams. You will be in the field, at launches, and at customer sites, ready to support at a moment's notice. Above all, you will live, eat, and breathe the success of our customers.

Key Responsibilities: 

Customer Integration & Technical Support

• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for customers integrating third-party payloads onto Urban Sky's balloon platforms
• Guide customers through mechanical interface design, including structural provisions for stratospheric shock loads, thermal environments, and near-vacuum pressure conditions
• Review and provide feedback on customer payload designs to ensure compatibility with Urban Sky's mHAB systems and the stratospheric environment
• Support customers in developing environmental design provisions so that payloads can survive and operate in the stratosphere

Integration, Test, & Verification

• Lead and support payload integration checkout activities, including mechanical fit checks and functional verification
• Execute and coordinate shock load testing and environmental qualification testing for customer payloads
• Support flight testing and post-flight assessment, working closely with our flight operations team
• Develop and maintain integration procedures, test plans, and technical documentation

RF & Communications

• Support customers requiring RF solutions, including tactical direct line-of-sight radio and SDR (Software Defined Radio) integrations
• Provide guidance on mechanical interfacing for antenna systems, antenna selection and optimization, and RF isolation techniques
• Interface with HUSKY bus integration, including power distribution, communications connectivity, and data relay and/or backhaul

Field Operations & Logistics

• Travel with customers and join them in the field for launches, demonstrations, and field exercises
• Coordinate logistics for customer events: travel arrangements, timelines, event preparation, and on-site provisions
• Build and maintain a deployable field provisions to ensure customers and Urban Sky team members can operate with all necessary provisions in the field
• Maintain the payload integration facility - keeping it clean, organized, and stocked with the tools and hardware customers need

Program & Customer Relationship Management

• Act as project lead for customer payload integration programs, independently managing customer and vendor coordination
• Proactively identify customer needs before they arise and take initiative to address them
• Continuously identify opportunities to improve the customer experience throughout the integration and operations lifecycle
• Document procedures, integration guides, and lessons learned to build institutional knowledge and improve repeatability

Qualifications: 

• 5+ years of engineering experience with a strong mechanical engineering foundation
• Demonstrated experience supporting integration and test programs, including environmental or structural testing
• Systems engineering mindset with the ability to independently lead customer and vendor coordination
• Strong RF knowledge, including experience with tactical radios, SDR solutions, antenna selection, and RF isolation
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; comfortable writing procedures, technical documentation, and customer-facing materials
• Highly organized, with the ability to manage logistics and coordinate details across multiple concurrent programs
• Self-driven, proactive, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced startup environment with ambiguous requirements
• Willingness and ability to travel frequently, including on short notice, for field operations and customer site visits

Nice-to-Haves/Preferred Skills: 

• Experience working with defense customers or in a defense-adjacent environment
• Familiarity with network architectures, Ethernet communications, and power systems in embedded or payload contexts
• Experience with stratospheric, high-altitude, or aerospace payload integration
• Prior experience in a startup environment
• Background in program or project management

Requirements: 

• Must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident
• Must be located near Denver, CO
• Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance may be required for certain programs 

Benefits: 

• Medical, Vision and Dental 
• Unlimited Vacation Days 
• Parental Leave 
• Cell Phone Bill Stipend 
• Stock Options 

About The Role: 

Urban Sky is seeking an Embedded Firmware Engineer to own the technical development and product evolution of our HUSKY bus platform – the backbone of our stratospheric flight systems. HUSKY provides integrated power distribution, Ethernet-based communications, and onboard compute for our balloon vehicles and customer payloads. This role sits at the intersection of firmware engineering, systems architecture, and product development.

As the product lead for HUSKY, you will work closely with the portfolio manager to drive R&D iteration cycles from architecture through validation and handoff to manufacturing. You will also interface directly with defense customers, supporting integration, network accreditation, and cybersecurity compliance requirements. This is a senior, high-ownership role for an engineer who thrives in a vertically integrated startup where decisions at the firmware layer have direct consequences on flight safety, mission success, and customer outcomes.

Key Responsibilities: 

HUSKY Bus Product Ownership

• Serve as the technical product lead for the HUSKY bus platform, owning the firmware architecture and driving iterative development cycles in collaboration with the portfolio manager
• Define firmware requirements with the portfolio manager, as informed by hardware trade studies, system-level constraints, and customer mission needs
• Lead design reviews, architecture decisions, and trade space analyses for new HUSKY revisions
• Manage the transition of validated designs from R&D into the manufacturing pipeline, ensuring design-for-manufacturability and documentation completeness
• Maintain version-controlled firmware baselines and establish robust release processes and configuration management practices
• Manage and develop firmware configuration tools to enable an automated customer interface

Embedded Firmware Development

• Design, develop, and verify embedded firmware for real-time systems operating in the stratospheric environment, including power management, communication schemas, network architecture, and compute subsystems
• Develop and maintain firmware for low-level hardware interfaces including I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, and Ethernet
• Implement and optimize RTOS-based or bare-metal firmware for microcontrollers and FPGAs as appropriate
• Ensure firmware robustness for operation in extreme stratospheric conditions: low temperatures, low pressure, radiation effects, and power constraints
• Develop and execute firmware-level unit tests, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test benches, and integration test procedures

Systems Architecture & Model-Based Development

• Define and document the HUSKY system architecture, including interface control documents (ICDs), data flow diagrams, and power budgets
• Apply model-based systems engineering (MBSE) principles to capture system behavior, manage requirements traceability, and support design verification
• Develop and maintain network topology models covering onboard Ethernet, serial communications, and payload interfaces
• Collaborate with mechanical and electrical engineers to ensure firmware design is tightly coupled with hardware constraints and thermal/power profiles

Electrical Engineering Interface

• Leverage a strong working knowledge of electrical engineering principles to inform firmware design decisions, including signal integrity, power sequencing, and peripheral driver development
• Partner with PCB designers and electrical engineers to review schematics, validate hardware bring-up, and debug hardware-firmware interaction issues
• Participate in hardware trade studies and component selection decisions where firmware implications are significant

Defense Customer & Cybersecurity Support

• Serve as a technical point of contact for defense customers integrating with the HUSKY bus, supporting requirements definition, interface documentation, and integration activities
• Support defense cybersecurity and network accreditation efforts, including Risk Management Framework (RMF) processes, STIGs, and authority-to-operate (ATO) activities
• Implement and maintain security controls for networked operational systems, including secure boot, encrypted communications, and access control
• Interface with government program offices and defense contractors in a professional and technically credible manner

Flight Safety & Reliability

• Design firmware with flight safety as a primary constraint, including watchdog management, fault detection and isolation, graceful degradation, and safe-state behaviors
• Conduct failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) at the firmware and system level to identify and mitigate risk
• Support field operations and anomaly investigations, providing rapid firmware diagnostics and patching as needed
• Maintain thorough documentation of known failure modes, workarounds, and operational limitations

Field Operations & Communications Exercises

• Support field test flights and customer demonstrations, providing on-site firmware expertise to ensure HUSKY bus systems perform reliably throughout all phases of flight operations
• Lead network integration communication exercises with defense customers, evaluating security boundaries, verifying data flows across the HUSKY bus, and validating that network segmentation and access controls perform as designed under operational conditions
• Document exercise findings, network architecture decisions, and security boundary assessments; communicate results clearly to both internal engineering teams and defense customer stakeholders
• Coordinate with the flight operations team and customer representatives to plan and execute pre-flight network checkout procedures, ensuring all payload communications and security configurations are verified prior to launch

Qualifications: 

• 5+ years of embedded firmware engineering experience, with at least 2 years in a lead or senior individual contributor capacity
• Proficiency in C and C++ for embedded targets; Python scripting for test automation and tooling is a plus
• Strong understanding of network topology, including Ethernet, TCP/IP, UDP, and serial communications protocols
• Demonstrated experience with systems architecture, requirements development, and interface definition
• Working knowledge of electrical engineering fundamentals sufficient to read schematics, debug hardware, and drive hardware-firmware co-design
• Experience with version control (Git), CI/CD pipelines for embedded targets, and configuration management
• Excellent technical communication skills; able to produce clear architecture documents, ICDs, and test reports
• Self-directed and capable of managing multiple concurrent workstreams in a fast-paced environment

Nice-to-Haves/Preferred Skills: 

• Experience with model-based systems engineering (MBSE) tools such as Cameo, MagicDraw, or equivalent
• Background working with defense customers or on DoD programs; familiarity with RMF, CMMC, and ATO processes
• Experience with cybersecurity controls for networked embedded systems, including NIST SP 800-171 or STIG compliance
• Familiarity with aerospace or high-altitude platform avionics, including stratospheric balloon, UAS, or small satellite systems
• Experience with FPGAs (Xilinx/AMD or Intel/Altera) and HDL development (VHDL or Verilog)
• Background in power electronics firmware, including battery management, solar charging, or DC-DC converter control
• Experience bringing hardware-firmware products from R&D through manufacturing transition
• Startup or small-team engineering experience

Requirements: 

• Must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident
• Must be located near Denver, CO
• Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance may be required for certain programs 

Benefits: 

• Medical, Vision and Dental 
• Unlimited Vacation Days 
• Parental Leave 
• Cell Phone Bill Stipend 
• Stock Options 

The Role 

Urban Sky’s Vice President of Engineering will take over leadership of the company’s full engineering organization from the CTO, overseeing the Software Team, Firmware Team, Electrical Engineering Team, Mechanical Engineering Team, and Systems Engineering Integration and Test (SEIT) Team  

This leader will be responsible for unifying these groups under a shared technical and cultural framework, fostering collaboration across hardware and software, and driving products from concept through production with a hands-on, iterative mindset. 

You will report directly to the CTO, inheriting a deeply technical, highly motivated team that values autonomy, ownership, and rapid, spiral development. This is not a process-heavy or bureaucratic organization — this is an engineering culture of building, testing, learning, and improving, quickly and aggressively. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Lead and unify Urban Sky’s multi-disciplinary engineering teams under one mission-focused organization. 

• Drive product execution from concept through productionization, ensuring rapid iteration cycles that yield real, tested, working systems without design gridlock. 

• Champion spiral development: Build–test–learn–repeat. Minimize paperwork and long analysis cycles; prioritize real-world experimentation and learning. 

• Empower Responsible Engineers (REs): Maintain Urban Sky’s RE model, where individual engineers act as CEOs of their products, owning every decision from design through production. Provide resources, remove barriers, and ensure accountability without micromanagement. 

• Foster technical excellence and practical innovation in both hardware and software domains, with a bias toward pragmatic, test-driven engineering. 

• Partner with company leadership to align technical priorities with company vision and operational goals. 

• Mentor and develop technical leaders across disciplines; build capacity for future growth without compromising agility. 

• Ensure effective cross-functional collaboration between software, firmware, hardware, and systems teams to accelerate integration and testing. 

• Maintain a culture of ownership, urgency, and accountability that matches Urban Sky’s aggressive pace and mission-driven focus. 

Who You Are 

• A hands-on technical leader who has successfully built and shipped complex hardware–software systems. 

• Deep experience in both hardware and software development — and the scars to prove it. 

• A believer in spiral development and rapid iteration, not bureaucratic gates. You know that the fastest way to learn is to build and test. 

• A champion of engineer autonomy. You know how to lead by supporting, not controlling. 

• Someone who thrives in ambiguity, takes ownership, and pushes relentlessly toward working results. 

• A systems thinker with strong instincts for integration, testing, and design–build–test cycles. 

• A builder of people and teams — you know how to align diverse disciplines and personalities around a common goal. 

• A doer and decision-maker, not a theorist. You’ve taken projects across the finish line and know what it takes to deliver. 

Qualifications 

• 10+ years of experience leading engineering teams across hardware and software disciplines. 

• Proven record of delivering complex integrated systems to production or flight. 

• Experience scaling teams and processes in a rapidly evolving, high-velocity environment. 

• Strong technical foundation in mechanical, electrical, firmware, or systems engineering — with working familiarity across domains. 

• Experience in a fast-paced startup that makes hardware-software products 

• Comfortable working in a hands-on, test-driven environment. 

• Excellent communication and leadership skills — able to inspire technical teams and communicate clearly with executives. 

Why Urban Sky 

At Urban Sky, you’ll help shape the next frontier of aviation — not in theory, but in hardware, firmware, and software that’s flying today. You’ll lead a team of passionate, brilliant engineers building systems that operate in challenging environments where everything from component cost, to aviation safety in active class-A airspace matters.

Benefits: 

• Medical, Vision and Dental 

• Unlimited Vacation Days 

• Parental Leave 

• Cell Phone Bill Stipend 

• Stock Options