Mechanical Engineer, Satellite Hardware

Job :  | Amazon Kuiper Manufacturing Enterprises LLC

Amazon Leo is Amazon's low Earth orbit satellite network. Our mission is to deliver fast, reliable internet connectivity to customers beyond the reach of existing networks. From individual households to schools, hospitals, businesses, and government agencies, Amazon Leo will serve people and organizations operating in locations without reliable connectivity.

• Design mechanical hardware, assemblies, fixtures, or test equipment using engineering fundamentals and sound design practices.
• Create and release 3D models, drawings, specifications, and other engineering documentation.
• Perform engineering analysis and calculations to support design decisions and verify performance.
• Work directly with technicians, machinists, manufacturing engineers, suppliers, and other partners to build and evaluate hardware.
• Develop and execute engineering tests to characterize hardware, validate designs, and investigate failures.
• Participate in design reviews and communicate technical decisions, risks, and tradeoffs to multidisciplinary teams.
• Apply Design for Manufacturing and Assembly principles to improve hardware manufacturability, reliability, cost, and production scalability.
• Troubleshoot hardware issues using data, testing, and first‑principles engineering.
• Support hardware from early prototype development through qualification, production, and flight.
• Develop increasing technical ownership of hardware and engineering decisions as experience grows.

There is no single typical day for a mechanical engineer on the team. You might begin the morning reviewing test data from hardware tested overnight, then update a CAD model based on what you learned. Later, you could work alongside a technician assembling a prototype, perform a hand calculation or finite element analysis to evaluate a design change, or meet with electrical and thermal engineers to resolve competing packaging requirements.

You may spend the afternoon in the lab troubleshooting hardware, preparing for a design review, working with a supplier on a manufacturing issue, or developing a fixture to test a new design.

Our engineers are expected to move comfortably between analysis, design, hardware, and data. The goal is not simply to produce drawings or calculations, but to understand the hardware, make sound engineering decisions, and help carry those decisions through to a successful product.

The Leo Mechanical Engineering organization designs, develops, tests, and industrializes the hardware that enables our satellite constellation. Our teams span spacecraft structures and integration, avionics packaging, harnessing, solar arrays, mechanisms, test development, and manufacturing process development. Engineers work across disciplines and throughout the full product lifecycle, from early concepts and prototypes through qualification, production, launch, and on‑orbit operation. We combine deep technical expertise with strong hardware ownership and rapid iteration, giving engineers the opportunity to solve challenging multidisciplinary problems while seeing their designs progress from an idea to flight hardware.

• 2+ years of hardware design and validation of components, subsystems and systems experience
• Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, material science, physics or equivalent
• Experience in 3D CAD
• Experience communicating technical concepts and processes using clear, simple language and visuals

• Knowledge of engineering practices and patterns for the full software/hardware/networks development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build…