Senior Mechanical Design Engineer

Senior Mechanical Design Engineer
Location: Hubli, Karnataka
Experience: 3–10 years in Mechanical New Product Development
Note: Experience in service-based industries will not be considered.
About the Role
Astr Defence is looking for a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer to lead our mechanical design function and drive the development of next-generation defence hardware.
This is a leadership role for someone who can combine strong hands-on engineering with team leadership, process building, and product ownership. You will lead mechanical design engineers, drive development from concept to field trials, and establish the structure and discipline needed to build rugged, reliable, field-ready systems in a fast-moving defence environment.
This role is for someone who wants to do more than create CAD models and drawings. You should want to lead engineers, solve difficult product problems, and build hardware that performs in the real world.
What You’ll Be Doing
Lead end-to-end mechanical design and development of new defence products, from concept sketches to certified field hardware
Supervise and mentor Mechanical Design Engineers and freshers, helping them grow into strong independent contributors
Establish and strengthen structured mechanical design practices including DFMEA, tolerance stack-ups, BOM management, revision control, and release systems
Drive prototyping and validation cycles in coordination with production and cross-functional teams
Oversee mechanical builds, testing, debugging, and iteration for rugged, field-ready systems
Conduct structured design reviews and quality gates to ensure manufacturability, ruggedness, reliability, and serviceability
Drive simulation and engineering analysis using tools such as FEA, vibration, fatigue, and structural analysis
Work closely with electronics, embedded, manufacturing, testing, and quality teams to deliver integrated products
Support certification, compliance, and external defence evaluations with strong technical documentation
Requirements
3–10 years of hands-on experience in mechanical new product development
Experience in defence, aerospace, automotive, robotics, industrial equipment, or hardware startups is strongly preferred
Experience in service-based industries will not be considered
Strong command of CAD tools such as SolidWorks and/or Fusion 360
Strong command of engineering analysis tools such as ANSYS and MATLAB
Deep understanding of materials, GD&T, tolerances, ruggedization, MIL standards, and real-world manufacturing constraints
Solid experience with manufacturing processes such as CNC machining.
Experience leading prototype-to-production transitions in complex mechanical systems
Ability to conduct root-cause analysis and solve practical engineering problems under time pressure
Strong documentation and review discipline
Evidence of what you have personally designed, built, tested, and shipped
A builder’s mindset: you should care about product performance in the field, not just design completion on paper
Read Before Applying
This role demands hard work, ownership, and tenacity.
If you prefer routine over ambiguity, this role is not for you.
If you want a predictable, low-intensity environment, this role is not for you.
Here, you will be expected to design, build, test, break, fix, and repeat — fast.
We are creating products that do not yet exist in the world. That means ambiguity, speed, setbacks, iteration, and steep learning curves are part of the job.
But if you want to solve real engineering problems that matter to national security, and you want your work to exist in the field rather than in presentations, you’ll feel at home here.
Why Join Astr Defence
Work on mission-critical defence hardware, not just paper designs
Lead real product development and shape how mechanical engineering is done in the company
Build products with direct real-world impact on national security
Collaborate closely with highly driven cross-functional engineers
Experience the full cycle: design → prototype → test → deployment
Operate in a high-trust environment with meaningful technical responsibility
What You’ll Get
Extreme ownership and autonomy
Freedom to experiment, fail, learn, and ship
A high-intensity, high-growth learning environment
Direct exposure to core product development challenges
The satisfaction of building hardware that actually works in the field
About Us
Astr Defence is a new-age Indian defence technology company building next-generation systems for the modern battlefield.
We are not just designing hardware.
We are building India’s defence future.
This is not just a job.
It’s a mission.

Work arrangement
No