About this Staff Mechanical Engineer role at Red Cell Partners
About Us
Red Cell Partners is an incubation firm building and investing in rapidly scalable technology-led companies that are bringing revolutionary advancements to market in three distinct practice areas: healthcare, cyber, and national security. United by a shared sense of duty and deep belief in the power of innovation, Red Cell is developing powerful tools and solutions to address our Nation’s most pressing problems.
D2 is building a new class of advanced communications systems powered by the integration of plasma physics, radio-frequency engineering, and novel antenna architectures. Our work is aimed at overcoming fundamental limits in conventional antennas and enabling communications capabilities that are smaller, more wideband, and more resilient in demanding environments. We are taking breakthrough technology from the laboratory through rapid prototyping, rigorous modeling and test, product qualification, and operational deployment.
This is an opportunity to join a hands-on, multidisciplinary team working at the edge of electromagnetics, materials, electronics, plasma science, and mission-focused product development. The systems we are developing will reshape how defense, aerospace, and commercial users communicate across contested and congested RF environments.
About the RoleDash 2 Dynamics (D2) is seeking a practical, inventive Staff Mechanical Engineer to serve as the senior mechanical technical owner for plasma-enabled antenna and advanced communications hardware. You will shape mechanical architecture, lead critical design trades, and drive antenna assemblies, plasma devices, electronics housings, fixtures for installation and platform integration, thermal interfaces, and test hardware from early concepts through qualification-ready designs, while raising engineering rigor across the team.
What You Will Do
Mechanical Architecture & Technical Leadership
- Own the mechanical architecture for advanced antenna, plasma-device, electronics, and communications-system hardware.
- Lead mechanical design reviews, establish analysis and documentation standards, and guide critical decisions involving performance, risk, cost, schedule, and manufacturability.
- Define modular product architectures that can evolve from laboratory prototypes to fieldable systems and future product variants.
- Mentor engineers and provide trusted technical guidance across multidisciplinary programs.
Detailed Design, Thermal & Structural Engineering
- Create and maintain CAD models, production drawings, GD&T schemes, tolerance analyses, bills of material, and configuration-controlled design documentation.
- Perform or direct thermal and structural analyses for electronics, antenna assemblies, plasma devices, and environmental loads.
- Select materials and joining methods for high voltage, RF exposure, thermal cycling, vacuum or controlled environments, and rugged use.
- Engineer interfaces involving ceramics, metals, seals, brazed or bonded joints, precision alignment, thermal expansion, shock, vibration, and fatigue.
Prototype, Test & Qualification
- Drive rapid hardware iteration from concept through prototype, integration, environmental test, qualification, and design release.
- Design fixtures and test articles; support instrumentation, assembly, troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and corrective action.
- Define test procedures and acceptance criteria that retire the highest mechanical risks and produce defensible design evidence.
- Correlate thermal and structural predictions with measured hardware behavior and incorporate learning into subsequent designs.
Manufacturing & Supplier Execution
- Apply DFM and DFA principles while preserving RF, plasma, thermal, structural, and serviceability requirements.
- Lead technical engagement with machine shops, specialty joining and brazing vendors, additive manufacturers, and contract manufacturing partners.
- Review quotes, supplier capabilities, first articles, inspection results, nonconformances, and corrective actions.
- Establish repeatable assembly, inspection, quality, and configuration-management processes.
Qualifications
Required
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Materials Engineering, or a related field.
- 7+ years of relevant mechanical product-development experience, including technical ownership of complex electromechanical hardware through design, build, integration, and test.
- Advanced proficiency with a modern 3D CAD platform, production drawings, GD&T, and tolerance analysis.
- Strong command of thermal management, structural mechanics, materials selection, and manufacturing processes.
- Demonstrated ability to lead design reviews, mentor engineers, communicate technical risk, and make sound decisions with incomplete information.
- Hands-on experience with experimental hardware and disciplined technical documentation.
- Ability to meet requirements associated with work on U.S. government and national-security programs.
Nice to Have
- Experience with antenna systems, RF electronics packaging, aerospace hardware, high-voltage equipment, vacuum systems, or plasma devices.
- Experience with ceramics, metal-ceramic interfaces, brazing, adhesives, seals, coatings, or high-temperature assemblies.
- Proficiency with finite-element thermal or structural analysis and model-to-test correlation.
- Experience supporting environmental qualification, including shock, vibration, temperature, ingress, or related testing.
- Experience in an early-stage company, rapid-prototyping organization, defense program, or SBIR/STTR environment.
- Active U.S. security clearance or eligibility to obtain one.
Salary Range: $145,000-$170,000. This represents the typical base salary range for this position based on experience, skills, and other factors.
Our Red Cell Partners Benefits (may differ for each incubation):
For full-time roles
- Career track opportunity with potential for rapid advancement with strong performance as the firm grows
- 100% employer paid, comprehensive health care including medical, dental, and vision for you and your family.
- Paid maternity and paternity for 14 weeks at employees' normal pay.
- Unlimited PTO, with management approval.
- Opportunities for professional development and continued learning.
- Optional 401K, FSA, and equity incentives available.
- Mental health benefits are available through Tara Mind.
- Cost effective GLP-1 solutions available through Crux.
We’re an Equal Opportunity Employer: You’ll receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or on the basis of disability.
Applicant Data Disclosure
By submitting an application, you acknowledge that Red Cell Partners, LLC ("Red Cell") uses third-party service providers to facilitate its recruitment and hiring processes. These providers include applicant tracking systems, candidate verification platforms, and fraud detection tools (collectively, "Hiring Platforms"). Your application materials, including your résumé, cover letter, work samples, responses to application questions, and any other information you submit, may be transmitted to and processed by these Hiring Platforms for the following purposes:
- Managing and administering your application throughout the hiring process;
- Verifying the accuracy and authenticity of application materials, including by cross-referencing information you provide against publicly available sources and proprietary databases;
- Identifying indicators of potentially fraudulent, fabricated, or materially misleading application content, including but not limited to discrepancies between submitted materials and publicly available professional profiles, geographic anomalies, and fabricated work histories.
Applications that are flagged through this process as containing indicators of fraud or material misrepresentation may be declined from further consideration. If you have questions about the status of your application or the evaluation process, please contact talent@redcellpartners.com.
Red Cell requires its Hiring Platform providers to process your information solely for the purposes described above and in accordance with applicable law. Your information will be retained only for as long as necessary to fulfill these purposes and any applicable legal obligations, after which it will be deleted in accordance with Red Cell's data retention policies.
For more information about how your data is used, please refer to our Privacy Policy and Applicant Privacy Notice.
