Head of Mechanical Engineering

Whisper Aero

Whisper Aero

Other Engineering
Crossville, TN, USA
Posted 6+ months ago
Location: Nashville, TN

About the Role

Whisper is looking for a leader to help mature Whisper’s technology from hand sketch to product. This role will be focused on mechanical design, prototyping, and preparing designs for manufacturing. In this role you will lead the mechanical engineering team to identify high level needs for future propulsors and test equipment and develop concepts to address these needs. Individually, you will be responsible for doing first principles analysis, modeling, prototyping, and getting assemblies manufactured (internally and externally). As a part of a team, you will participate in and present during reviews, assist in designing/building/running rig tests, and other related tasks as needed.
The successful candidate will be someone who is comfortable both working with their hands as well as working at a computer. They will be eager to ask questions and build new insights into how things work. The candidate will work closely with Whisper’s Chief Engineer, CEO, COO, Program TPM’s and other engineering leaders across the team to ensure plans meet company-wide goals without sacrificing standout product performance or acoustics.

What You’ll Do

Build, grow, and develop a mechanical design team and shepherd products through the design and prototyping phase into production
Collaborate closely with Whisper’s internal design teams, testing teams, product teams, and manufacturing teams to bring Whisper’s prototypes to market
Create and maintain product data management (PDM), design release, and revision structure. Define standards for design tracking, drawing templates, and PDM approval workflows. Ensure best practices are adopted across the design team.
Work with projects PMs and distribute tasks appropriately within the team
Act as an individual contributor designing, building, and testing Whisper products and associated ground support equipment.

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering with 7+ years of directly related experience.
Relevant mechanical design experience, ideally with a focus on transitioning prototype units to commercial products
Demonstrated experience delegating tasks and managing the workload of others
Demonstrated experience successfully managing projects with external suppliers
Demonstrated experience leading a team while providing mentorship and professional development opportunities for a team of mechanical engineers, designers, and technicians
Familiarity trading off competing priorities between cost, manufacturing, complexity, schedule, and product performance
Effective communicator (both written and verbal)
Proficient in CAD and solid modeling (SOLIDWORKS ideally)
Proficient in PDM (SOLIDWORKS VAULT PDM preferred)
Proficient in hand calcs and/or computational analysis methods to support mechanical design

Bonus Qualifications

Demonstrated experience with designing parts for, or hands on experience using, at least one of the following; CNC machining, composites, 3D printing, prototyping, mechanical assembly, injection molding
Qualified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
Pilot experience and/or aircraft maintenance experience
Experience designing or working on turbomachinery, electric motors, and/or aerospace grade products
Familiarity conforming to AS9100 and/or ISO9001
Familiarity with design for manufacturing (DFM)

Application Process

Identify a role that’s a solid fit. We realize that perfect fits are hard to find, so if something doesn’t exactly line up, but you believe you could be the one, you should still consider applying.
Read through our values. We want every one of our team members to be a culture add. This means sharing our core values and the way we work.
Prepare your application. If you’ve found a job fit AND think you’ll be a culture add, we’d love to hear from you.
Email
with the following subject line
[name_of_the_role] first_name last_name for Whisper Aero
ex. [CFD Engineer] Jane Doe for Whisper Aero
Attach reference materials
• Resumé
• Portfolio of prior work
• Links to your LinkedIn, website, and/or Github repo