Head of Mechanical Engineering

As the Head of Mechanical Engineering at Manna, you'll report to the Director of Hardware Engineering and lead a team of talented engineers developing the next generation of our aircraft. You'll combine deep technical mastery across mechanical design, analysis, testing & product development disciplines, with strong leadership. This is a hands on, high impact role where you'll contribute both as a technical leader and as a mentor to junior engineers. You'll work across teams to deliver reliable, scalable, and elegant solutions to real-world challenges.

The ideal candidate must have a track record of delivering complex safety critical engineering projects from concept through to production and certification. You'll play a critical role in scaling our mechanical engineering capabilities as we expand our commercial deployments.

Lead, mentor, and grow a team of mechanical engineers, fostering creativity, accountability, and technical excellence.

Cultivate a collaborative, values driven culture that thrives on solving tough problems together.

Drive cross functional coordination with electrical, software, and operations teams to resolve complex system integration challenges.

Establish clear DRI accountability and technical decision making frameworks across mechanical subsystems.

Own mechanical architecture for next generation aircraft systems, including composite airframes, propulsion integration, and cargo handling mechanisms.

Lead design solutions for extreme environment operations, including thermal management and environmental protection systems.

Drive DFM/DFA optimization for volume manufacturing while meeting EASA certification requirements.

Champion reliability engineering practices to achieve commercial aviation safety standards.

Bring a first principles approach to technical challenges.

Establish design standards, analysis methods, and testing protocols for safety critical systems.

Lead root cause analysis and corrective action processes for field issues.

Drive adoption of modern CAD/PLM tools and simulation workflows.

Build knowledge base for lessons learned and design best practices.

Technical mastery in CAD, simulation, DFM/DFA, thermal analysis, and multi disciplinary system integration.

Team leadership & mentorship, developing engineers and fostering collaboration in high stakes environments.

Project & program management, including planning, resourcing, and risk management for safety critical systems.

Cross functional leadership, aligning mechanical design with electrical, software, manufacturing, and regulatory requirements.

Supplier & manufacturing engagement, managing vendor relationships, ensuring scalability from prototype to production.

Decision making & problem solving in regulated environments, balancing performance, cost, certification requirements, and timelines.

Communication & stakeholder management, presenting technical concepts clearly to executives, regulators, and customers.

Innovation & continuous improvement, driving technical excellence while maintaining compliance and process rigor.