C-UAS Mechanical Design Engineer (All genders)

STARK is a new kind of defence technology company revolutionising the way autonomous systems are deployed across multiple domains. We design, develop, and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are software-defined, mass-scalable, and cost-effective — providing operators with a decisive edge in contested environments.

We are focused on delivering deployable, high-performance systems — not future promises. In a time of rising threats, STARK is bolstering the technological edge of NATO Allies and their Partners to deter aggression and defend Europe, today.

Your mission

You’ll design the mechanical backbone of STARK’s CUAS platforms, structures, mechanisms, and interfaces that need to work reliably across multiple programs, not just one. You’ll be responsible for mechanical design decisions owning real hardware from concept through flight test, not just push CAD models toward a deadline.

Responsibilities

• Design and detail mechanical structures, mechanisms, and payload/subsystem interfaces for UAS airframes, balancing weight, manufacturability, and structural margin.
• Own design work across multiple concurrent programs, adapting core platform components to program-specific requirements without duplicating effort from scratch each time.
• Run tolerance stack-ups, material selection, and design-for-manufacture (DFM) reviews to keep designs producible at the volumes STARK is scaling toward.
• Collaborate directly with systems, avionics, and payload integration engineers to close mechanical interface requirements early, before they become integration problems.
• Support prototype build, assembly, and test activities hands-on — being on the floor when a design needs to prove itself, not just in the model.
• Drive design reviews and maintain documentation (drawings, BOMs, change records) to a standard that supports both rapid iteration and eventual certification/production needs.
• Work with suppliers and manufacturing partners on producibility, cost, and lead time trade-offs for mechanical components.
• Flag cross-program design risks and reuse opportunities to the platform team, helping the core architecture stay coherent as the product portfolio grows.

Qualifications

• Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a closely related field.
• 5+ years of hands-on mechanical design experience in aerospace, UAS, automotive, or another weight- and reliability-critical industry.
• Strong working knowledge of 3D CAD (SolidWorks, CATIA, NX, or Creo) and associated PDM/drawing workflows.
• Practical understanding of DFM/DFA principles and sheet metal, machined, and/or composite part design.
• Experience designing mechanical interfaces between subsystems (structural, payload, electrical) in a multi-disciplinary engineering environment.
• Comfortable working across multiple projects in parallel without losing design rigor on any one of them.
• Hands-on orientation: willing to be in the lab or on the build floor when a design needs validation, not purely desk-based.

Nice to have

• Experience with composite structures or additive manufacturing for flight hardware.
• Exposure to structural analysis/FEA, even if not the primary role (ability to sanity-check your own designs).
• Prior experience on a platform/core engineering team supporting multiple downstream programs.
• Working German — useful for day-to-day collaboration with the Munich engineering team, though not a hard requirement.