Mechanical Sustaining Engineer

Pyka is looking for a Mechanical Sustaining Engineer to help us produce the safest, most reliable and most effective electric aircraft systems possible. In this role you will advance the design of our aircraft by finding root causes and coming up with robust solutions to issues found during flight testing operations. You will quickly test and implement those solutions on the Pyka fleet.

You will work closely with Flight Test Engineers, Manufacturing Engineers, and Mechanical Engineers to make sure that your solutions are thoroughly tested, easily manufacturable and properly documented. This role is not for the faint of heart -- the Pyka ME team handles the same amount of hardware as teams 10x the size. You’ll have the opportunity to work with a team that moves extremely quickly with significant opportunities for ownership/contribution, professional development, and growth. 

In your first few projects you will:

• Make design changes to mechanical components that have been damaged or failed during flight testing to ensure that type of failure never happens again
  
  
• Improve the operator's physical interface with the aircraft when loading payload, swapping batteries or transporting it to the field by designing ergonomic tools and features
  
  
• Address corrosion issues and water ingress by improving seals and enclosures, and by selecting proper fasteners and electrical connectors
  
  
• Update mechanical drawing sets based on feedback and findings encountered during the manufacture and integration of composite airframes
  
  
• Work with manufacturing teams to create tools and documentation that ensure correct and repeatable processes

Candidates who are detail oriented, self-motivated, and are excited about continuous improvement of a complex production level product will love this role.  

About Pyka

Pyka’s goal is to provide society with a new form of fast, environmentally friendly, and accessible transportation enabled by autonomous electric aviation.

To get there, we’re taking a different approach than most. We're applying our technologies to every industry where electric aircraft can be useful, starting with the highest value and most dangerous jobs. In doing so, we're building useful, game-changing products manufactured at scale, while perfecting the safety, reliability, and capabilities of our autonomy engine and electric propulsion systems. 

Today, we supply our aircraft to agricultural service providers and farmers as an autonomous tool that makes aerial crop protection safer, more targeted and less harmful to surrounding environments. Our vehicles are highly economical to operate and easy to deploy. What you work on at Pyka makes people’s lives better now and brings the future of electric aviation one-step closer each day.

We design, develop and manufacture an ecosystem of technologies including proprietary flight control software, avionics, high power density motors, motor controllers, batteries, and custom carbon-fiber composite airframes.

We foster a welcoming community within our company that promotes experimentation, asking questions, making simple solutions to complex problems, and expressing different views and opinions. We are a transparent company both internally and externally and do not believe in operating in “stealth mode.” Lastly, we don’t work 60 hour weeks, and don’t expect you to either. In this role you will have a great deal of responsibility, earn a competitive salary and benefits, and contribute to the development of groundbreaking technology.

Responsibilities

• Take engineering ownership over several aircraft and ground support subsystems and components. You will advance these systems to a reliable and production ready state.
  
  
• Dig down to find the root cause of issues, design solutions, and thoroughly test them.
  
  
• Design tests and test fixtures. Examples: An automated endurance test stand for centrifugal pumps, testing environmental effects on various 3D printing materials, testing seals and durability of liquid spray system components.  
  
  
• Create 3D CAD, drawings and manufacturing documents with meticulous attention to detail.
  
  
• Work with manufacturing teams to build tools and processes to facilitate the manufacture of in-house and parts and subsystems.
  
  
• Communicate closely with external suppliers and fabricators to ensure receipt of quality products, on time.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• 2–6 years of professional experience in mechanical design, preferably in aerospace, automotive or a related industry
  
  
• An inquisitive attitude with an ability to quickly and deftly research new topics, and try new things
  
  
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; the ideal candidate is not afraid to ask for clarification or give feedback
  
  
• Proven record of taking ideas from napkin sketches to iterative prototyping, to manufactured products
  
  
• Expertise in any 3D CAD package (Solidworks, NX, Inventor)
  
  
• Experience using FEA and hand calculations to validate mechanical designs
  
  
• Ability and excitement to be in a prototyping shop building things with your hands
  
  

Company Perks

• $85,000–$135,000 per year base salary + equity. Compensation will vary depending on location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Salary ranges are subject to change.
  
  
• Employer-sponsored health, dental and vision insurance, FSA with employer matching, and 401(k)
  
  
• Paid time off, company holidays, and parental leave
  
  
• Free catered lunch and plenty of snacks
  
  

Export Control Requirements

This position requires access to technology, software and other information that is subject to governmental access control restrictions, due to export controls.  Employment in this position is conditioned on the continued availability of government authorization to authorize release of such items, to the extent required, including without limitation an export license, or other documentation required to establish authorization to receive access to such items. 

Company may delay commencement of employment, rescind an offer of employment, terminate employment, and/or may modify job responsibilities, compensation, benefits, and/or access to Company facilities and information systems, as Company deems appropriate, in order to ensure compliance with applicable government access control restrictions.