---
title: 'Director of Mechanical Engineering at Red 6'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-mechanical-engineering-red-6-denver-p39pt5v5j5wk'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-04'
---

# Director of Mechanical Engineering at Red 6

- **Company:** Red 6
- **Location:** Denver, CO
- **Compensation:** $200k–$250k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-29
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-04
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/red6/141e90e6-d340-4e0d-bfa5-e97674af99d1

## Job description

Company Overview Red 6 is an innovative Augmented Reality (AR) technology startup leading the way in synthetic air combat training. Our primary technology, supporting our ATARS product, enables pilots to simulate the cognitive challenges of flying while accessing realistic, scalable training in dynamic outdoor environments. Director of Mechanical Engineering The Director of Mechanical Engineering provides strategic and technical leadership for the design, integration, qualification, and production of advanced mechanical systems supporting Red 6's augmented reality (AR) aerospace products. This role oversees the end-to-end development of mechanical designs for human-worn systems, avionics hardware, optical assemblies, sensors, and aircraft-integrated equipment, ensuring mission-critical performance, environmental robustness, manufacturability, and maintainability.

This individual will lead the mechanical engineering functional teams responsible for developing lightweight, ruggedized mechanical solutions that operate reliably in demanding airborne environments. The Director will establish mechanical engineering best practices, drive technical innovation, and ensure mechanical designs meet performance, environmental, airworthiness, and production objectives while supporting rapid product development.

## Key Responsibilities

- Provide functional leadership and people management for the Mechanical Engineering organization, including functional capability, engineering standards, staffing strategy, technical skills development, staff career development and discipline performance.
- Work with the CTO and Director of Systems Engineering to define and improve hardware engineering processes, design practices, analysis methods, and tools.
- Enable hardware development and technical execution for ruggedized avionics and aircraft installed hardware. Ensure designs meet electrical, mechanical, environmental, thermal, vibration, EMI/EMC, and aircraft interface requirements.
- Partner with Manufacturing Engineering, Operations, Quality, and Supply Chain to drive design for manufacturing, producibility, supplier readiness, and cost reductions.
- Identify gaps in hardware capability and drive strategic investments in tools, processes, laboratories, analytical methods, and emerging technologies that improve product performance across future programs
- Participate in architecture reviews, peer reviews, SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, flight readiness reviews, and other major program technical milestones.
- Perform as a technical leader on product development and integration programs, in a Chief Engineer, IPT Lead, or SME role as applicable.
- Support bid and proposal efforts by defining solution architectures, performing engineering cost estimates for labor and material, and supporting technical volume writing.
- Innovation & Technology Advancement: Drive adoption of advanced materials, manufacturing, and wearable system technologies.

Required Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or related STEM discipline (master's preferred).
- 12+ years of relevant experience and progressive leadership in developmental system hardware design in the defense, aerospace, or related industries.
- Experience leading mechanical engineering through the complete product development lifecycle, from requirements development, through architecture, design, prototype, test and qualification.
- Experience in ruggedized avionics hardware design, including SWaP-C optimization in military environments.
- Expertise in relevant mechanical analysis and modeling techniques such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), including analysis validation such as hand calculation and test correlation, to evaluate structural, thermal and aerodynamic performance of mechanical designs.
- Experience with aerospace environmental and qualification standards such as MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-1472, MIL-STD-882, MIL-STD-889, MIL-STD-130, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-704, DO-160, or equivalent standards applicable to airborne hardware.
- Demonstrated expertise with CAD, GD&T, tolerance analysis, and configuration management using a PLM.
- Demonstrated experience making complex technical trades involving performance, weight, power, thermal management, reliability, producibility, cost, schedule, and maintainability.
- Demonstrated excellence in technical communication to leadership, customers, and between engineering disciplines.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Security Clearance, so much have US Citizenship.

## Preferred Qualifications

- Experience with helmet mounted displays, augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, or other human worn aerospace systems.
- Experience with opto-mechanical systems, near eye displays, head tracking, eye tracking, cameras, sensors, or precision optical alignment.
- Experience supporting flight tests, aircraft qualification, military airworthiness using MIL‑HDBK‑516D, or other formal certification activities.
- Experience applying Model Based Systems Engineering, Model Based Design, or other Digital Engineering methods to hardware development.
- Experience with modularity, containerization, open architectures and similar approaches to system integration, optimization, and rapid deployment.
- Experience with composites, lightweight materials, and additive manufacturing.
- Active Secret or Top Secret DoD Security Clearance.

Estimated base salary range given work expereince $200,000 to $250,000 Full-Time Employee Benefits

- Healthcare, Dental, and Vision (100% coverage for Employees)
- Paid time off, including vacation, sick, paid holidays, and parental leave
- Short and Long-Term Disability
- Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
- 401(k) Retirement Plan
- Voluntary Worksite Benefits (Accident, Critical Illness, and Hospital Indemnity)
- May be eligible for a discretionary annual bonus based on individual and company performance, subject to plan terms.

Note Red 6 reserves the right to change its current benefits program at any time, in a manner that is consistent with applicable federal and state regulations. This job description is not a contract and confers no contractual rights, privileges, or benefits on any applicant or potential applicant. Red 6 has the right to change any and all terms of this job description, including, but not limited to, job responsibilities, qualifications, and benefits. Nothing in this job description constitutes an offer or guarantee of employment. Red Six Aerospace, Inc, is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. California: https://www.caljobs.ca.gov/vosnet/Default.aspx Colorado: https://www.connectingcolorado.com/ Florida: https://www.employflorida.com/vosnet/Default.aspx

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), Red 6 Aerospace, Inc. operating company you are applying to work for (hereinafter, “we”, “our”, or “us”) may collect personal information and use it for certain business purposes as described below in this Job Applicant and Employee Privacy Notice. We are required to disclose the following information to California “consumers” regarding our collection of their personal information. Under the CCPA, “consumers” means California residents, including job applicants, employees, or contractors of a business. [Candidate Privacy Notice](https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:a94896ca-279e-421c-a4eb-8c50a46fcbf4)

## About Red 6

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Red 6 develops a revolutionary outdoor augmented reality system for military flight training, enabling pilots to see and interact with synthetic threats in real-world environments at high speeds.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, last round in 2022; $111.3M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Orlando, Florida, United States
- **Founded**: 2018
- **Founders**: Daniel Robinson (CEO/Founder) and Jeremy Stovall (CPO/Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Defense and Space Manufacturing; Military Flight Training; Augmented Reality Hardware/Software
- **Target customers**: Government defense agencies (U.S. Air Force, Royal Air Force, NATO), prime defense contractors (Lockheed Martin, SNC, Northrop Grumman), and allied air forces.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Create adaptive, immersive, simulated environments, outdoors to solve a national security problem threatening the readiness of warfighters; a chronic lack of relevant, affordable training delivered at scale and frequency.” (from team page)

## Products & Services
- **Advanced Tactical Augmented Reality System (ATARS)**: A platform that generates fully immersive, data-driven, AI-enabled 3D synthetic training worlds outdoors. ATARS uses extremely low-latency, waveform-agnostic protocols to enable multi-player AR experiences at high speeds. It is designed to work with fighter jets, collaborative combat aircraft (CCA), and ground systems.
- **EVE Headset (Enhanced Visual Environment)**: A wearable AR headset purpose-built for outdoor, high-speed environments. It offers 18,000 nits brightness (usable in full daylight), a wide field of view, low latency (~10 ms), and high optical efficiency. The headset enables pilots to see virtual assets overlaid on the real world while maneuvering.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue $15M (LinkedIn estimate) | Total Funding $111.3M as of 2026
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Lockheed Martin Ventures (lead), Disney Accelerator, SNC (Sierra Nevada Corporation), Palantir Technologies, AERALIS, and the U.K. Royal Air Force.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 50.4% YoY to 139 employees (2026). Active job postings (12 positions as of mid-2026). Secured a U.S. Air Force contract to revolutionize F-16 pilot training with ATARS (Aug 2025). Signed strategic partnership with SNC to transform military flight training (Jul 2025). RAF Hawk jets successfully trialed Red 6 AR technology (2024–2025). Expansion into Denver and Santa Monica offices.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-mover in outdoor airborne AR**: No other company has demonstrated an augmented reality system that works reliably in full daylight, at high speeds, and in dynamic outdoor environments.
- **Deep domain expertise**: Founded by a former RAF pilot and augmented reality veterans; leadership includes retired USAF Major General, former Lockheed Martin/Sierra Space executives, and F-22/F-35 instructors.
- **Low-latency, waveform-agnostic architecture**: ATARS can run on existing military networks without requiring new hardware, enabling rapid integration with current aircraft.
- **Strong government and prime contractor partnerships**: Direct contracts with U.S. Air Force and RAF, plus strategic alliances with Lockheed Martin, SNC, Palantir, and Northrop Grumman.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling ATARS across multiple platforms**: Expanding from fighter jets (F-16, Hawk) to include collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) and ground-based training.
- **International expansion**: Deepening presence in the United Kingdom (subsidiary in UK, trials with RAF) and pursuing NATO allies.
- **Integration with AI and data analytics**: Partnering with Palantir to leverage ontology software for real-time data fusion and readiness measurement.
- **Contract growth**: Targeting larger production contracts and multi-year programs as ATARS moves from prototype to operational deployment.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as “an agile startup changing the way the world engages with digital information.” Emphasis on impact (every employee closely involved with tech), autonomy (trusted contributor from Day 1), and community (unique team sharing a common mission).
- **Locations**: Three primary offices – Santa Monica, CA; Denver, CO (Louisville); and Orlando, FL (HQ). Roles are likely on-site given the hardware/defense nature.
- **Work environment**: Fast iteration cycles (concept to flying prototype in days), collaboration with veterans and top aerospace engineers. Typical startup perks are not explicitly listed but the reviews on LinkedIn give a 4.2/5 rating (25 reviews) with high marks for Culture (4.3) and Work-Life (4.2).
- **Engineering culture**: Heavy technical focus – 37% of employees work in technical roles, tech stack includes Unreal Engine, Python, Docker, TypeScript, JavaScript, Altium, NetSuite, Confluence. Cross-functional teams include optics, systems engineering, mechanical engineering, and software.

## Sources
1. [red6ar.com – Company home and team page](https://red6ar.com)
2. [red6ar.com – ATARS product page](https://red6ar.com/atars/)
3. [red6ar.com – Careers page](https://red6ar.com/careers/)
4. [linkedin.com – Red 6 company profile](https://www.linkedin.com/company/red6)
5. [prnewswire.co.uk – US Air Force contract announcement](https://prnewswire.co.uk)
6. [washingtontechnology.com – Northrop autonomous flight cohort](https://washingtontechnology.com)
7. [prnewswire.co.uk – SNC partnership](https://prnewswire.co.uk)

## Other roles at Red 6

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- [Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-red-6-denver-wdq2zte8f7ba) — Denver, CO
- [Program Planner](https://feeny.ai/job/program-planner-red-6-denver-bygk5pd6mvh7) — Denver, CO
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