Senior/ Staff Mechanical Design Engineer, Motor

You will own the mechanical design, analysis, and integration of electric motors and related assemblies for Zipline's next-generation autonomous aircraft, from concept through production. You will lead the design of rotor-stator assemblies, housings, cooling systems, and controller enclosures, balancing performance, reliability, manufacturability, thermal management, and mass efficiency. Collaborating with cross-functional teams, you will ensure successful aircraft-level integration and support prototyping, validation, and high-volume production readiness.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end mechanical delivery of electric motors and related assemblies from requirements → concept → design → analysis → prototype → validation → release → production.
• Design rotor-stator subassemblies, motor housings, cooling solutions, controller enclosures, mounting interfaces, and other propulsion hardware.
• Collaborate with electromagnetic, structural, thermal, controls, firmware, power electronics, and systems engineers to ensure successful aircraft-level integration.
• Perform and support system-level FEA/CAE and engineering analyses, including rotor dynamics, propeller interactions, motor thermals and magnetics, mounting vibration loads, transient conditions, steady-state performance, and hand calculations.
• Develop mechanical architectures that meet aircraft performance, structural, thermal, vibration, shock, waterproofing, and reliability requirements.
• Create production-ready CAD assemblies, detailed drawings, GD&T, and tolerance stack-ups for motor components and assemblies.
• Lead design-for-manufacturing and design-for-assembly activities with internal teams, suppliers, and manufacturing partners.
• Support prototyping, supplier development, validation, and high-volume production readiness for motor hardware.
• Define and execute durability and reliability test plans, including load cycling, waterproofing, mechanical shock, vibration, and thermal testing.
• Design supporting test fixtures, analyze failures and test results, and drive corrective actions through design improvements.
• Lead cost-down efforts that improve manufacturability, reduce product cost, and enable production and operations scaling.

Requirements

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering or a related field; M.S. preferred.
• 5+ years of experience designing mechanical components for electric machines, motors, or high-speed rotating equipment.
• Demonstrated ownership of complex electromechanical products through design, analysis, prototyping, validation, and production.
• Expert CAD skills and experience owning complex mechanical assemblies and production drawings. Experience with NX, CATIA, Creo, or equivalent.
• Strong engineering fundamentals, including structural and thermal FEA, heat transfer, materials selection, trade studies, tolerance analysis, and hand calculations.
• Experience with structural and thermal analysis tools such as ANSYS, Nastran, Abaqus, or equivalent.
• Demonstrated understanding of integrated cooling strategies for thermally constrained electromechanical systems.
• Familiarity with motor assembly processes, manufacturing Familiarity methods, and design guidelines.
• Experience planning and executing durability, environmental, vibration, shock, waterproofing, or reliability testing.
• Hands-on prototyping and test fixture development experience.
• Working knowledge of GD&T and tolerance stack analysis.
• Experience with design-for-manufacturing, design-for-assembly, DFMEA, and risk management frameworks.
• Familiarity with electromagnetic design principles and electric motor design workflows.
• Experience with high-torque-density or high-efficiency permanent-magnet synchronous motors.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical tradeoffs and collaborate across disciplines.

Benefits

• The starting cash range for this role is $160,000 - $240,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.