Senior - Principal Robotics Mechanical Engineer
At WingXpand®
Locations:
Chicago (Schaumburg), IL | St. Louis, MO
Type:
Full-time | Open 1/26/26 | Close 2/9/26
About WingXpand
WingXpand is Expanding What’s Possible™ with Autonomous Systems, building long-endurance, backpackable smart plane drones and robotics systems that support defense, public safety, disaster response, and commercial missions. Our platforms operate across air, ground, and maritime domains, integrating autonomy, AI-powered sensing, edge computing, and networked systems to deliver real-world intelligence and threat detection. We design, build, and deploy complete systems — hardware, software, and data — and we move fast. As WingXpand scales, we are seeking high performers to grow with our team.
Position Description
We are seeking a senior or principal level drone / uncrewed aircraft vehicle (UAV) engineer to join our team to support new contract work. The successful candidate will be responsible for designing, developing, and optimizing WingXpand® UAV platforms. This is a high impact role with the pathway to senior level positions in the future.
Key Responsibilities:
- Design, develop and execute engineering optimization approaches for robotics systems
- Test and validate mechanical design constraints through software simulations, lab and flight tests
- Seamlessly collaborate with software and manufacturing engineers to achieve robotics design requirements
- Select, integrate, and design aircraft payloads, and sub-systems
- Assesses robotics structural requirements and optimizes construction to meet requirements, while minimizing weight
- Designs, develops, and tests drone / uncrewed vehicle (UxV) components to ensure they are optimized for manufacturability
- Support the creation of manufacturing production systems, balancing strength requirements, throughput requirements and cost
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a closely-related field
- 7 - 15 + year of experience designing, testing and optimizing robotics systems
- Experience with performing engineering sensitivity / trade space assessments
- Expert CAD designer with experiences in Solidworks.
- Strong communication and teamwork skills
Additional qualifications:
- Prefer those with a background in developing robotics
- Prefer those with a proven track record of succeeding in fast paced environments
- Prefer those with the ability to tune drone software settings and directly support robotics test activitie
What Else You Need to Know
To conform to U.S. Government aerospace technology export regulations, applicant must be a 'U.S. Person' (U.S. Citizen or a Permanent Resident/Green Card Holder).
If you are a self-motivated, results-driven individual with a passion for innovation and technology, we want to hear from you!
Apply with your resume and optional cover letter (CV), including the types of engineering or technical roles you have hired.
