Clera

Principal Mechanical Engineer

San Francisco

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hirly's read of this role

Seniority: Lead / management
Stated salary: $235,000 – $305,000 per year
Country: US
Work mode: On-site / unstated
First seen by hirly: 21 Oct 2026

Derived automatically from the posting. Upload your resume above to see how the role scores against it.

the posting

About the Role

Join a small defense technology engineering team developing autonomous, field-deployed directed energy systems. As Principal Mechanical Engineer, you will own system-level mechanical architecture and help take complex hardware from prototype through production and deployment.

What You'll Do

Lead mechanical architecture across the system and integrate it with electrical, power, embedded, and optics disciplines.

Make technical decisions on challenging engineering problems from concept through production readiness.

Guide hardware release and production processes in close collaboration with the manufacturing team.

Identify technical risks early and review designs, analyses, documentation, and release standards.

Perform hands-on design and analysis when your experience can resolve difficult problems quickly.

Balance cost, mass, reliability, schedule, and field performance in design and manufacturing decisions.

Share technical judgment and mentor engineers through direct collaboration and example.

What We're Looking For

At least 10 years of experience designing and shipping complex hardware systems.

Mechanical design as your primary discipline, including recent personal CAD and engineering analysis work.

Repeated experience taking hardware from prototype through manufacturing and field deployment.

Experience designing ruggedized systems for real-world conditions and correlating FEA or hand calculations with test data.

Strong mechanical expertise, with sound technical judgment in electrical engineering, power electronics, or embedded systems.

Experience owning mechanical architecture and integrating multiple engineering disciplines.

A senior individual contributor or technical lead background at a hardware company that has shipped products.

Relevant backgrounds may include defense, aerospace, high-performance automotive, maritime, robotics, or directed energy.

Experience with lasers or high-power systems, thermal management, gimbals or beam directors, military qualification standards, or production line development is useful.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary is $235,000 to $305,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is not available. Equity and benefits details were not provided.

Location

This is an on-site role in San Francisco, California, United States.

Original posting on Clera's site ↗

Listed on hirly, a job board. hirly is not the employer: Clera is hiring for this role.

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