Mechanical Design Lead role leading a team of designers delivering product and packaging mechanical designs for high-reliability space and defense programs at Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense (EBAD). You’ll own technical oversight and people leadership, ensuring designs meet DFM/DFC, performance, reliability, and compliance requirements. Standout: direct impact on missions supporting space systems and U.S. defense.
- Lead and develop design team
- Work on space/defense missions
- Cutting-edge aerospace technology
Job Description
Job Description
EBAD seeks an engineer for the position of Mechanical Design Lead, reporting to the Mechanical Design Manager.
Responsibilities
The Mechanical Design Lead provides front line leadership for a team of designers responsible for product and packaging mechanical design. This role ensures mechanical designs satisfy program design for cost (DFC), design for manufacturability (DFM), performance, and reliability objectives while meeting design best practices.
The Mechanical Design Lead is responsible for:
- Providing clear direction, performance feedback, and career development guidance to direct reports
- Setting clear goals and expectations aligned with business core values and priorities
- Conducting regular one-on-ones, tag-ups, and team meetings to foster communication and alignment
- Fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement
- Supporting hiring, onboarding, and retention of talent
- Allocating resources effectively across projects to balance workload and priorities
- Identify skill gaps and implement training, mentoring, or development plans to strengthen team capability
- Assigning and reviewing design tasks to meet schedule, technical requirements, and budget constraints
- Reviewing/approving CAD models, drawings, and BOMs for technical accuracy, DFM, and DFC.
- Driving DFM by collaborating with operations and supply chain to ensure designs are producible, repeatable, and scalable.
- Driving DFC by optimizing materials, processes, tolerances, and part counts
- Ensuring compliance with applicable standards (ASME, MIL-STD, NASA-STD, AS9100, DoD, customer)
- Partnering with Development and Test Engineering to ensure designs are suitable for harsh environments, including thermal, vibration, shock, vacuum, and radiation exposure.
- Support formal design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR), with emphasis on manufacturability and cost readiness.
- Lead or support root cause analysis, corrective actions, and cost-reduction or producibility improvement initiatives.
Requirements
Education
- Bachelor's Degree (Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering Preferred)
Required Experience/Skills
- 5+ years of mechanical design experience in space, defense, or other high-reliability industries.
- 2+ years of experience in a technical lead or supervisory role.
- Proficiency in CAD tools such as Creo, SolidWorks, or CATIA.
- Strong understanding of GD&T, tolerance analysis, materials, and process.
- Demonstrated experience implementing DFM and DFC principles in regulated environments
- Working knowledge of configuration management, CO/CR processes, and change control
- Experience with PLM/PDM systems (e.g., SolidWorks PDM, Windchill, Teamcenter)
- Ability to balance performance, reliability, schedule, and cost tradeoffs
- Experience working cross functional teams engineering, operations, supply chain, and program management.
- Highly detail-oriented with a disciplined approach to compliance and documentation.
- Familiarity with ITAR/EAR, AS9100, NASA-STD, MIL-STD, and/or CUI requirements.
- Experience working directly with machine shops and contract manufacturers
- Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance
- Must be a U.S or naturalized Citizen capable of working on U.S. DoD and ITAR restricted products
Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE). Qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, national origin, or veteran status.