ABOUT THE ROLE
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We need a Mechatronics Engineer based in Abu Dhabi to support the integration of electromechanical actuation, sensing, and control subsystems that enable Omen's hover-to-cruise transition, as well as support the integration of Omen sensor and payload modules. You will be partnering closely with our Costa Mesa engineering team and regional manufacturing and test partners.
ABOUT THE TEAM
The Maneuver Dominance team develops operationally relevant, multi-asset autonomy. Omen is the company’s hover-to-cruise autonomous air vehicle (AAV) that combines the endurance, payload, and mission flexibility of larger airplanes into a runway-independent Group 3 platform. Operating from ship decks, beaches, or remote island clearings, Omen provides true runway independence and freedom of maneuver across defense and civilian domains. Omen is the first tail-sitter aircraft with a mass-production contract, featuring an order of 50 systems that anchor production and accelerate the development of future systems.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Bridge the mission system team and air vehicle teams, ensuring both teams are in alignment.
- Own payload hardware integration end-to-end, including EO/IR and imaging sensors, RF payloads, gimbals, rangefinders, and inertial and position sensing.
- Drive mission system selection through trade studies balancing performance, SWaP, thermal, latency, and environmental robustness.
- Interface with regional customers and partners to align and deliver on end-user requirements.
- Characterize sensors on the bench and in flight, assessing noise, latency, bias and drift, boresight stability, and failure modes.
- Define and own payload interface control; mechanical mounting and alignment, power and signal definitions, harnessing, vehicle bus integration, and time synchronization.
- Write production software and firmware for payload subsystems; drivers, sensor processing, pointing and stabilization control loops, calibration and coordinate frame libraries, health management.
- Support aircraft integration, bring-up, and functional checkout, and plan and execute ground and flight test campaigns for payload performance.
- Lead root-cause investigations for payload and pointing anomalies across mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software boundaries.
- Feed lessons learned back into ICDs, calibration procedures, and production assembly and acceptance test documentation.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Strong engineering background from industry or school, ideally in Mechatronics, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace, Computer Science, or Physics.
- 4+ years of hands-on electromechanical and sensor integration experience in robotics, aerospace, or similar fields.
- Basic proficiency in scripting or programming (e.g., Python, MATLAB, C++, Bash or Rust) for automating testing, collecting data, or interfacing with onboard software.
- Proficiency across a meaningful portion of the robotics stack, from sensor interfacing to actuation.
- Solid grasp of low-level communications (Ethernet, CAN, UART, SPI, I2C), real-time systems, and motor control.
- Experience with sensor characterization, calibration, and coordinate frame management (e.g., cameras, IMUs, encoders, GNSS, or LIDAR).
- Experience building and executing hardware test rigs, with competence on oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, DMMs, and test automation.
- Ability to read schematics, support board bring-up, and define harnesses alongside EEs; familiarity with CAD (SolidWorks, NX, or equivalent).
- High ownership and a bias toward action.
- Ability to travel 25% with potential surges above 25%.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- VTOL, tail-sitter, or rotorcraft experience, along with familiarity with the payload environment they create (vibration, EMI, rotor wash).
- 3+ years of Rust (or C++) experience in a Linux environment, along with tooling in Python; demonstrated experience developing software for hardware.
- Experience with rapid payload/sensor integration onto unmanned platforms, including flight test support.
- Experience with gimbals, stabilized pointing, boresighting, and geo-referencing or targeting chains.
- Understanding of perception, localization, mapping, tracking, or guidance, and related system performance metrics.
- Experience troubleshooting remotely deployed software on fielded hardware.
- Familiarity with avionics buses (ARINC 429, MIL-STD-1553, Ethernet avionics) and time synchronization (PTP, PPS).
- Modeling and controls experience in MATLAB/Simulink; familiarity with building SIL/HIL simulators.
- Experience with environmental qualification testing (MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-461) for electromechanical assemblies.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
The salary range for this role is an estimate based on various compensation factors, including work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are included in most full-time offers and are considered part of the overall compensation package.
The company offers a comprehensive, competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees), ensuring you’re supported in health, recovery, and whatever comes next.
