Senior Mechanical Engineer (Maritime)

Job description

ABOUT ODIN DYNAMICS Founded in 2025, Odin Dynamics is a defense technology company building autonomous underwater vehicles that will define the next era of undersea warfare. We are focused on delivering capable, resilient autonomous systems that strengthen the strategic advantage of the United States and its allied navies. We move fast, build real hardware, and operate with the urgency that the mission demands. We are building a new platform from the ground up. This is not a role where you will inherit a mature product with every architectural decision already made. You will take incomplete requirements, early hardware, and difficult physical constraints and turn them into dependable, production-ready mechanical systems that survive and perform at depth. We value rigorous engineering without unnecessary process. Decisions should be driven by physics, test data, and product outcomes—not inherited convention or documentation volume. THE ROLE Odin Dynamics is hiring multiple Senior Mechanical Engineers to serve as Responsible Engineers for critical mechanical subsystems across our platform. Each engineer will take primary technical ownership of one of five areas: - Hull and hydrodynamics - Structures and integration - Mechanisms and actuation - Battery and energy storage (mechanical) - Propulsion (mechanical) Candidates will apply to a common requisition, and Odin Dynamics will determine the best area of focus through the interview process. We are looking for engineers with deep expertise in at least one area who are also comfortable working across structures, hydrodynamics, mechanisms, thermal, materials, manufacturing, and test. As the Responsible Engineer for your subsystem, you will own it throughout its lifecycle: requirements, architecture, detailed design, analysis, prototyping, integration, verification, field testing, production support, failure analysis, and continued improvement after deployment. This is a hands-on individual-contributor position. You will be expected to produce substantial design and analysis work, make technical decisions, mentor other engineers, and remain accountable for the performance and reliability of your subsystem. There are no organizational handoffs when a difficult problem crosses the boundary between mechanical, electrical, and software domains. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Serve as the Responsible Engineer for a major mechanical subsystem. - Develop greenfield mechanical designs from initial requirements and architecture through field-tested, production-ready hardware. - Produce detailed designs and complete assemblies in CAD, managing interfaces and integration across the vehicle. - Perform structural, thermal, and fluid analyses—using both hand calculations and FEA—and apply the judgment to know which approach a problem needs. - Select materials and design for the marine environment, accounting for pressure, corrosion, sealing, and long-duration reliability. - Design for manufacturing, working directly with machine shops, fabrication partners, and internal technicians to ensure designs translate cleanly from CAD to production. - Bring up, assemble, and validate hardware on the bench, in test fixtures, and in the water. - Define mechanical interfaces and coordinate closely with electrical, firmware, and software engineers to ensure clean cross-disciplinary integration. - Develop and execute test plans for your subsystem, from component-level validation through full-vehicle pressure testing and ocean trials. - Support production, investigate failures on deployed hardware, and own corrective improvements throughout the product lifecycle. - Produce concise, functional engineering documentation that enables fabrication, assembly, testing, operation, and future development. - Use AI-assisted design and analysis tools to accelerate work while independently validating outputs and maintaining a first-principles understanding of the resulting system. - Mentor other engineers and contribute to technical reviews without moving away from hands-on engineering. AREAS OF FOCUS HULL AND HYDRODYNAMICS The Hull Responsible Engineer will own the external vehicle form and the primary pressure boundary, including: - Hull and fairing geometry design - Pressure boundary design and analysis, including structural margin, buckling, and fatigue - Sealing strategies and penetrator interfaces - Material selection for pressure-loaded and corrosive environments - Vehicle-body hydrodynamic performance, including drag, stability, and flow interaction over the hull - Depth qualification and pressure-cycle testing - Trade studies balancing performance, manufacturability, and packaging - Coordination with controls and propulsion on vehicle dynamics - Verification, field testing, production support, and failure investigation STRUCTURES AND INTEGRATION The Structures Responsible Engineer will own the load-bearing and integration structures that are not part of the primary pressure boundary, including: - Nose cone, payload bay, and secondary structure design - Sensor and payload mounting and integration - Internal component packaging, racks, and mounting structures - Load path design, vibration, and shock considerations - Tolerance analysis and interface management across subsystems - Material selection and design for the marine environment - Verification, field testing, production support, and failure investigation MECHANISMS AND ACTUATION The Mechanisms Responsible Engineer will own the moving systems of the vehicle, including: - Design of mechanisms and actuated subsystems, including control surfaces and payload deployment - Actuator selection, integration, and motion design - Tolerance analysis, kinematics, and load path design - Sealing and reliability of moving systems in the marine environment - Integration with electrical and control systems - Validation through bench, fixture, and in-water testing - Verification, field testing, production support, and failure investigation BATTERY AND ENE