About Nordic Air Defence

Nordic Air Defence is a hardware-software company building Counter-UAS technology for both commercial and defence customers. We build high-speed kinetic drone interceptors, at low cost and at scale. Our technology protects people and assets. We are a world-class team from Acast, Zipline, Palantir, McKinsey, Kratos, Katla Aero, SAAB, Quantum-Systems, FOI, FMV and other Swedish national security agencies.

The Role

We’re looking for a Mechanical Engineer to join our fast-paced prototyping and development team. You will be designing, building and iterating on airframes and components for our kinetic interceptor drones. This is a hands-on role—ideal for someone who’s taken prototypes from napkin sketch to real-world flight and is comfortable working across CAD, physical tooling, and iterative testing environments.

Responsibilities

• Structural & Mechanical Design and Modeling: Expertise in designing mechanical systems and airframe structures for high-speed UAVs, with a solid understanding of load paths, structural weight optimization and experience integrating flight control actuated systems.
• CAD Proficiency: Advanced skills in creating and managing CAD models using SolidWorks, Siemens NX, or equivalent; maintain part material properties, manage assembly configuration control and maintain a buildup mass model.
• Prototyping & Development: Hands-on experience supporting full-cycle development of mechanical components—from concept sketches through rapid prototyping (3D printing, CNC machining, composites) to functional testing—incorporating iterative feedback.
• FEA & CFD Simulation: Proficiency in finite element analysis (structural, modal, thermal) and computational fluid dynamics to validate designs, predict performance under high-speed conditions, and inform material or geometry choices.
• Manufacturing Technologies: Practical knowledge of additive manufacturing (FDM, SLS, SLA), CNC machining processes (milling, turning), and composite tooling designs, fixtures and fabrication techniques (layup, curing) to ensure designs are producible.
• Materials & Manufacturing Knowledge: Deep understanding of aerospace-grade materials (aluminum alloys, carbon fiber composites, high-temperature polymers) and the ability to specify appropriate materials to meet strength, stiffness, and environmental requirements.
• Design Iteration & Optimization: Ability to analyze prototype test results, identify failure modes or performance gaps, and implement rapid design improvements—balancing stiffness, strength, and weight for UAV applications.
• Systems Integration & Collaboration: Strong communication skills to work closely with aerodynamics, software, electronics, and flight-control teams—ensuring mechanical designs accommodate wiring, sensors, actuators, and avionics integration.
• Technical Documentation & Standards Compliance: Skilled at producing clear engineering documentation—requirements trackability, bills of materials, test procedures, and assembly instructions—while ensuring designs adhere to aerospace standards (e.g., ASTM, MIL-STD).
• Participate in and support flight tests, system integration, and field troubleshooting.

Requirements (Required)

• Degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering (BSc required, MSc preferred).
• CAD Proficiency in at least one major CAD design tool (e.g. SolidWorks, Siemens NX, Catia, AutoCAD, Inventor, Fusion360).
• Systems Engineering & Requirements Traceability: Demonstrated ability to develop, manage, and maintain requirements, ensuring full traceability from customer needs through design, verification, and validation within a model-based systems engineering framework.
• Technical Drawings & Specifications: Experience preparing detailed engineering drawings and specification sheets to support manufacturing, procurement, and quality assurance processes.
• Prototyping Expertise: Experience in hands-on prototyping, including rapid fabrication, iterative testing, and design refinement to accelerate development cycles. Experience in prototyping drones, rockets, vehicles, or other specialized systems is considered a plus.
• FEA Tools Proficiency: Experience using FEA software such as ANSYS, NASTRAN, Abaqus, or SolidWorks Simulation for structural analysis (especially isotropic vs anisotropic structures) and validation.
• Manufacturing Processes Knowledge: Knowledge of 3D printing, CNC milling and turning, and composite tooling and fixtures for effective prototyping and production.
• Low-Rate Initial Production Manufacturing: Experience developing and managing manufacturing processes for low-rate initial production, including vendor qualification, process documentation, assembly line setup, and quality-control procedures.
• Trade Study & Optimization: Capability to conduct multidisciplinary trade studies (airframe versus propulsion), perform aerodynamic/structural optimization under mission constraints, and translate findings into actionable design requirements.
• Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Strong communication and teamwork skills to interface effectively with aerodynamics, avionics, and control-systems engineers—ensuring aerodynamic, structural, and systems decisions remain aligned throughout development.
• Fluent in English, both written and spoken.
• Future eligibility for NATO security clearance.

Requirements (Nice-to-have)

• Experience with UAV or RC aircraft design.
• Experience from the defence or aerospace industry.

Ethics & Security

Developing dual-use technology, that can be used in military contexts, requires deliberate and constant consideration of ethics. At Nordic Air Defence, ethics comes first in all engineering discussions we make. We consider our choice of customers carefully, and implement rigorous safeguards to ensure our technology is used as intended.

Our interview process involves a security background screening.

Contact Information

Apply today via nordicairdefence.com. We do not accept consultants and are not interested in recruiters or agencies. For questions, please contact us at info@nordicairdefence.com.