Mechanical Engineering Manager

Mechanical Engineering Manager

Liquid Robotics is seeking a Mechanical Engineering Manager to lead and manage a team of Mechanical Engineers in the development of autonomous ocean robots. You and your team will work with a cross‑discipline group of engineers in the development, testing, integration, and maintenance of the Wave Glider platform and associated payloads and peripherals. The successful candidate will bring proven experience in mechanical design, naval architecture, and personnel management.

This position is hybrid and requires a minimum of one day a week onsite at our Jessup, Maryland facility. This position reports to the Head of Engineering.

• Manage the mechanical engineering work within the company. Provide expert advice to leadership, set goals for the mechanical design team, and help set company vision for mechanical solutions.
• Lead, guide, and develop a team of Mechanical Engineers of varying skills and skill levels.
• Lead efforts to translate customer and business needs into viable, proven solutions within time and funding limits. Interface with counterparts in systems, electrical, software and operations groups to develop solutions and coordinate design tradeoffs.
• Define schedules, budgets, and solutions, both for customer proposals and internal development. Develop risk analyses and mitigations.
• Identify hardware requirements based on user and business needs.
• Develop architectures and designs that meet defined hardware requirements, capturing artifacts in 3D CAD and Product Lifecycle Management tools.
• Apply mechanical engineering principles to naval architecture tasks, leveraging tools such as Orca3D for structural and hydrodynamic vessel design.
• Perform trade studies to help optimize designs for cost, schedule and performance. Create prototypes for early validation of product architectures and design solutions.
• Review designs and drawings against: general standards, design requirements, geometric tolerances, drafting practices and the applicable manufacturing process.
• Oversee in change control and escalation processes as a Mechanical Engineering expert.
• Perform and oversee methodical root cause analysis and resolve non-compliance in part performance.
• Support the capital procurement process by selecting tools, equipment, and facilities needed to support the organization.
• Provide technical support for the production and operations teams as well as other business functions.
• Own the company’s design practices, standards, and policies for Mechanical Design and Analysis. Enforce and improve the company’s Mechanical Engineering tools, design processes, and methodologies.

• Demonstrates broad engineering knowledge applicable to robotics development for maritime environments. Able to apply deep experience in mechanical design; strong understanding of how the various aspects of a system affect and influence one another.
• Stays aware of technology advancements. Applies knowledge across a variety of solution spaces.
• Applies excellent problem solving and technical abilities to complex problems; able to guide a team in executing root cause analysis and problem resolutions.
• Demonstrated experience with 3‑D CAD, particularly Solidworks, and PDM tools to manage design databases. Experience in Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) with focus on Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation software.
• Familiarity with PLM and other product life‑cycle tools such as Arena, JIRA, and Confluence.
• Ability to manage creative and cost effective electro‑mechanical designs and systems (motors, controls, sensors, robotics).
• Experience designing for varied manufacturing and assembly processes such as composite materials construction, CNC machining, injection molding, cable over‑molding and sheet metal fabrication.
• Experience designing with materials such as stainless steel, titanium, acetal, and fiberglass.
• Knowledge of ASME Y14.5 and ISO standards, GD&T and accepted drafting practices.
• Possesses excellent communication and interpersonal skills, is able to effectively exchange information with technical teams, non‑technical stakeholders, and customers.
• Maintain…