Principal Mechanical Engineer

Description

Duluth, GA (Onsite) | Aerospace & Avionics
9/80 Schedule Available – Every Other Friday Off

Mechanical engineering in avionics is about far more than packaging electronics. It means designing systems that must perform reliably through vibration, temperature extremes, structural loads, and the demanding realities of flight.

At Universal Avionics, we’re looking for a Principal Mechanical Engineer who can take on complex engineering challenges with a high degree of independence and technical ownership. You’ll combine advanced mechanical design, analysis, prototyping, and testing to help transform sophisticated electronic and opto-mechanical concepts into reliable aerospace products.

If you enjoy solving difficult design problems and seeing your engineering decisions move from CAD to prototype to qualified flight hardware, this is an opportunity to make a meaningful technical impact.

At Universal Avionics, we develop advanced avionics, enhanced vision systems, and intelligent cockpit technologies that help improve aviation safety and situational awareness around the world.

As a Principal Mechanical Engineer, you’ll take ownership of complex mechanical and opto-mechanical engineering assignments supporting our avionics products. Working from requirements and early concepts, you’ll develop designs, perform thermal and structural analysis, validate your engineering through prototypes and testing, and support products through environmental qualification and sustaining activities.

You’ll work within an integrated project environment, partnering across engineering disciplines to solve packaging, structural, thermal, manufacturability, and reliability challenges. This is a role for an experienced engineer who can operate with limited oversight, exercise strong technical judgement, and drive solutions from concept through validation.

• Turn aerospace and product requirements into practical, reliable mechanical and opto-mechanical designs
• Own complex mechanical design activities using PTC Creo, from early concepts through detailed product definition
• Apply thermal and structural analysis to evaluate design performance and reliability before hardware reaches qualification
• Validate analytical results through mock-ups, prototypes, and hands‑on testing
• Support environmental qualification activities and help resolve technical challenges identified during testing
• Design with the realities of aerospace requirements in mind, including applicable FAA, RTCA, ARINC, and MIL-STD considerations
• Work with PCB assemblies, machined components, and sheet‑metal designs to create integrated electromechanical solutions
• Collaborate across engineering functions to ensure mechanical designs align with broader system and product requirements
• Provide technical support for sustaining engineering and existing-product challenges
• Help maintain effective engineering design and configuration practices using PTC Creo and Windchill
• Apply independent technical judgment to complex assignments where the solution may not always be obvious

• Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering
• 5+ years of electromechanical design experience
• Strong experience with thermal and structural finite element analysis
• Proficiency with PTC Creo 3D CAD
• Practical knowledge of PCB assemblies and the mechanical considerations involved in electronic product design
• Experience designing for machining/mill operations and sheet‑metal fabrication
• 5+ years working within integrated, multidisciplinary project teams
• Ability to independently define problems, evaluate limited or incomplete information, and develop sound engineering solutions
• Strong understanding of how analysis, prototyping,…