Mechanical Engineer

Mechanical Engineer - JD

Helicon's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to advanced materials. We combine AI software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing to reinvent how the West maintains a competitive edge.

We hire people with high agency and high urgency. We look for slope over intercept. We care about what you’ve built. At Helicon, everyone owns problems end to end and makes consequential decisions that shape the outcome. Every day we build what most think is impossible.

We're backed by the investors who were first believers in Applied Intuition, Valar Atomics, Factory, Astranis, Flock Safety and Relativity Space.

What You'll Do

• Own production processes from build readiness through steady-state manufacturing
• Work with customers and complete DFM to make parts manufacturable at scale
• Own equipment installation, procurement and testing
• Lead the mechanical design for robotic cells (effector design, fixturing and layout)
• Collaborate with world-class software engineers to teach real manufacturing constraints to Argos (our OS for supply chain, quoting, pricing, simulation)

Who We're Looking For

Need:

• Strong understanding of first principles physics.
• Proven track record of exceptional ability driven by engineering fundamentals

Nice to have

• Experience designing and commissioning tooling for industrial robotic applications
• Strong skills in integrating sensors and mechanical components
• Experience with high volume composites processes and hydraulic presses

We're not for you if:

• You think composites will never be used at industrial scale
• You're not looking for a role where you work with customers

Why Join

Bethlehem for steel. Helicon for composites.

For too long the most advanced materials in the world have been left to the exquisite, we're industrializing composites enabling the systems of the future to be built at mass scale.

We want the best people and have no bureaucracy. That includes covering meals and paying for products that make you more productive and our partners stronger.

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

HIRING MANAGER INTAKE NOTES

BUSINESS CONTEXT

• Why this role exists now: Helicon's production system requires someone who can sit at the intersection of product design, manufacturing process, and software — taking information from the factory floor and translating it back into design improvements, and working with software engineers to encode those learnings. The composite engineering side handles material expertise. This role handles the product geometry, DFM, and CAD-to-production pipeline.
• Success at 6 months: DFM gaps are identified and addressed. CAD files are adapted to production realities. This person is a bridge between what the customer product requires and what the factory can reliably produce.
• Success at 12 months: Actively contributing to the feedback loop between physical production and the simulation stack. Has gone beyond their initial mechanical scope and built something that makes another team's job meaningfully easier.
• Where this role fits in the org: Embedded on the factory floor alongside composite engineers and software engineers. Expected to overlap with both.

ROLE-SPECIFIC SELLING POINTS

• Why this role vs similar roles at other companies: You are not executing a spec that someone else defined. You are defining what the production system needs and building the tools that make it work. If you have ever wanted your mechanical work to directly feed into software that runs autonomously, this is the opportunity.
• Unique scope, impact, or growth opportunity: First principles manufacturing system. The learnings from this factory floor will be embedded into production lines at some of the largest drone and defense programs in the country.
• What candidates consistently get excited about: Not yet captured — first calibration will surface this.
• Growth path / what's on the table in 12-18 months: Scope will expand as the company scales. No ceiling defined at this stage.

COMPENSATION

• Base range: Not yet captured — AP to provide benchmarks.
• Bonus: Not yet captured — raise at next touchpoint.
• Equity: Not yet captured — AP to provide benchmarks.
• Flexibility (what can move, what cannot): Alex hires the best regardless of cost. No ceiling discussed.
• Out of scope (internal only): Not yet established.

LOGISTICS

• Location: Torrance, CA. Onsite. Factory floor.
• Work environment: Onsite, full-time. Same building as the entire team.
• Relocation support: Not yet captured — raise at next touchpoint.
• Work authorization: Strong preference for US persons. Not a hard disqualifier. Flag on every screen.
• Clearance requirements: Not discussed. Raise at next touchpoint.
• Start timing: P1. Active but not as urgent as Head of Ops and Composite Engineer.

WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE

This person can be younger than the composite engineering hires — Alex was explicit about that. What matters is not years of aerospace experience but whether they refuse to stay in a comfortable, narrow lane. They should understand the products customers are building and be able to trace design decisions from customer requirements all the way through the production process. DFM is a core competency. CAD is assumed. But the differentiator is whether they have any overlap with software — whether they have written scripts, built tooling, or worked alongside software engineers to encode what they know into something that runs without them. If they have done that even once and liked it, that is a strong signal. Exquisite CAD for its own sake is not what Helicon needs — the mold design and precision composites work sits more with the composite engineers. This person fills the gaps.

MUST-HAVES

• DFM experience — can adapt designs to production realities, not just generate clean CAD
• Willingness to leave their comfort zone and engage across composite engineering and software disciplines
• High agency — self-directed problem-solving, does not need scope defined from above
• Willing to work weekends when needed and responsive outside business hours

NICE-TO-HAVES

• Any meaningful overlap between mechanical engineering and software — even lightweight scripting, simulation tool use, or experience working directly with software teams to build tooling
• Experience at a startup or small company where scope was not well-defined
• Exposure to composite parts or composite-adjacent manufacturing (molds, tooling, layup fixtures)
• Experience in drone, aerospace, or defense hardware programs

AUTO-DISQUALIFIERS

• Stays rigidly inside a mechanical engineering lane and refuses to engage with software or composites
• Has an exquisite-CAD-for-its-own-sake mentality with no interest in production realities
• Unresponsive or unavailable on weekends

TARGET PROFILE

• Target companies: SpaceX, Hadrian, Joby Aviation, Relativity Space, Anduril, Hermeus, VAST, smaller drone hardware companies, Saronic, any advanced manufacturing startup where mechanical engineers were also expected to do things that were not strictly mechanical
• Target titles: Mechanical Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, Design Engineer, DFM Engineer, Mechatronics Engineer — titles are less important than what they have actually done
• Target backgrounds and career paths: Engineers who graduated into a hardware startup and had to stretch. People who have done engineering across two or more disciplines out of necessity. People who have held a composites part, understood what it cost, and wanted to make it cheaper.
• Experience range (years): Can be early career — 2-5 years is fine per Alex. Mindset matters more than tenure.

HOW TO EVALUATE QUICKLY

• Question 1: Tell me about a time you had to adapt a design because the manufacturing process could not support it — how did you figure out what needed to change?
• Question 2: Have you ever worked with a software engineer to encode a manufacturing process into a tool or system? What did that look like?
• Question 3: What is the most outside-your-job-description thing you have done in a previous role, and did you like doing it?

CULTURE FIT

• Looking for: Engineers who are bored by comfort. People who actively seek out problems that are adjacent to their job description and solve them. People who are not territorial about their discipline and enjoy working alongside engineers from other backgrounds. People who communicate fast and work fast.
• Avoid: Engineers who need a perfectly scoped role before they can start. People who are heads-down in CAD and do not want to be involved in anything else. People who are not curious about the software and simulation systems their designs feed into.

BOTTOM LINE — SEND

Send this person if they have real DFM chops, they get restless when their work is too clean and too narrow, and they have at least one example of doing something that was not technically their job — especially if that something touched software or simulation. They do not need to be senior. They need to be curious, fast, and unwilling to stop at the edge of their lane.

BOTTOM LINE — DO NOT SEND

Do not send someone whose entire track record is beautiful CAD inside a large engineering organization where someone else handled production reality. Do not send someone who has never worked alongside a software team and is not interested in starting. Do not send someone who needs the role to be defined before they can be productive. And do not send anyone who treats weekends as unreachable time.

CALIBRATION LOG — MECHANICAL ENGINEER [Date: 05/29/2025]

No entries yet — first entry added after initial profile reviews.