Mantis Space seeks a Principal Mechanical Engineer to join our Mechanical Engineering team, reporting to the Director of Mechanical Engineering. This role will be deeply technical with a focus on solving demanding design, analysis, test, reliability, and manufacturing challenges. You will serve as a subject matter expert on the mechanical team, leveraging previous experience in designing spacecraft optical payloads. This role requires onsite work at our Santa Clara location with occasional travel to New Mexico or vendor sites Full range of competitive benefits including 100% employer paid health insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement plan, and unlimited PTO 12+ years of experience designing, building, and testing flight hardware in the space industry, with multiple programs through on-orbit operations. Mastery of Finite Element Analysis methods. Experience with Multiphysics simulation. (FEMAP, ANSYS, NASTRAN) Proficiency in SolidWorks design and large assembly management in SolidWorks PDM, or similar PLM Optomechanical instrument or payload design experience Skill with producing drawings, GD&T, BOMs, FAIs, tolerance budgets, and mass budgets Excellent communication, presentation, and coordination skills M.S. or higher in Structural Engineering or related field Desired FEA skills and specialty Qualifications Quantitative design of pointing mechanisms for precision pointing in space environment of vibration, temperature variation and radiation. FEA analysis concurrent with design to verify LOS stability over environment. Quick FEA analysis to support quantitative design trades. FEA export of transfer functions to support controls analysis. Collaboration with other ME, optical, system and controls engineers to meet system requirements. Experience with selection of actuators (motors, voice coil, piezo), structural materials, sensors to support system objectives. Experience with bearing selection, launch lock and passive vibration suppression for space payloads.