---
title: 'Mechanical Engineer at Aurelius Systems'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-b663msw1yfxm'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Mechanical Engineer at Aurelius Systems

- **Company:** Aurelius Systems
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $130k–$180k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-06
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/aureliussystems/79984e84-c869-489e-a02e-a5a7dd856272

## Job description

Who We Are: Aurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones. We're a small team of engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system. Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate — small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable. In addition to our San Francisco lab, we’ve opened a Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.

The Role and Your Impact: We need a Mechanical Engineer focused on design ruggedization across Archimedes — survivability across shock, vibration, moisture, and environmental extremes for a fiber laser system in a deployable, field-rugged package. MIL-spec is one of the harder problems in directed energy and a make-or-break domain for the platform. You'll work hands on from architecture through bench validation and field correlation. What You'll Own:

- Structural and mechanical design for survivability across MIL-STD shock, vibration, humidity, dust, and austere environments
- Ruggedization architecture across the laser source, laser head, and supporting subsystems
- Sealing, ingress protection, and moisture/corrosion mitigation strategies (IP ratings, conformal coatings, gasket design)
- Vibration isolation system design including isolator selection, snubbing, and modal analysis
- Shock analysis and design including fragility assessment, cushion design, and drop/transportation survivability
- FEA modeling including static, modal, random vibration, and shock response spectrum analysis
- Structural validation including instrumentation, test rigs, and correlation to model
- Trades between ruggedization performance, mass, stiffness, and packaging across the system

What We're Looking For:

- 3 to 10+ years in mechanical engineering on ruggedized or field-deployable systems
- Strong FEA experience with ANSYS, Nastran, Abaqus, or equivalent
- Hands on experience designing to MIL-STD-810 or equivalent shock and vibration standards
- Track record building and instrumenting structural test rigs and correlating model to bench
- Experience with sealing, EMI/EMC gaskets, conformal coating, and environmental protection design
- Experience designing enclosures and structures for field-deployable or military conditions

Where you probably come from: Defense hardware companies, airborne or ground vehicle systems, ruggedized electronics enclosures, directed energy programs, or field-deployed sensor or radar systems. We want to talk if: You've designed a system that had to survive shock, vibration, and environmental extremes in a constrained, deployable package. You can model it, build it, instrument it, and correlate it. Not a fit if: You've only done commercial or consumer product design, your work is simulation-only with no bench validation, or you've never designed to a MIL or DO-160 standard.

Nice to Haves:

- Direct laser system or directed energy hardware experience
- MIL-STD-461 EMI/EMC design awareness for mechanical hardware integration
- Experience with optical bench or precision instrument ruggedization
- Field-deployable or vehicle-mounted system experience

Education:

- BS or MS in Mechanical, Aerospace, or related engineering field. PhD welcome but not required.

How You Operate:

- Extreme bias for action. You'd rather build and instrument the rig tomorrow than model it for a month
- You characterize your own systems before the field does
- Comfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration in a startup environment
- Clear communicator across mechanical, electrical, optical, and software teams
- Self directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told

How We Work: Core hours are Monday through Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up — nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship. When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show. Benefits:

- Competitive salary and equity
- United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Flexible 18 days PTO plus 5 sick days
- Travel to field test events and range days
- Covered daily lunches and office snacks and drinks
- E-bike and scooter stipend up to $500
- Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work

Export Control Notice: This role requires access to export-controlled information or items that require U.S. Person status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a U.S. Person: (1) U.S. citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

## About Aurelius Systems

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Aurelius Systems builds autonomous, directed-energy laser systems to neutralize drone threats for military and defense applications.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, CA, USA
- **Founded**: Not publicly available (likely 2024 or early 2025 based on funding timeline)
- **Founders**: Michael LaFramboise (CEO, Co-Founder), John Marmaduke (CTO, Co-Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Defense and Space Manufacturing (Directed Energy / Counter-UAS)
- **Target customers**: Military and defense organizations (DoD, allied nations) needing scalable, cost-effective defense against unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/drones).
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Build the future of defense with autonomous directed energy built to stop drone threats at the speed of light, for the cost of electricity, anywhere they appear."

## Products & Services
- **[Archimedes]**: An autonomous counter-UAS laser defense system. Combines high-power directed energy lasers, advanced optical sensors, and AI-driven autonomy to detect, track, and neutralize aerial threats in seconds. Designed for field-portability, rapid deployment, and operation in a networked "defense grid" formation.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: $10.0M in total funding (Seed round, closed October 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: General Catalyst (lead), Draper Associates (lead), and 9 other unnamed investors. The company has also been selected by the U.S. Army for testing (T-REX 26-2 exercise).
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew +187.5% year-over-year (to ~16 employees). 17 active job postings (monthly postings up +13.3%, quarterly +240%). Demonstrated live field performance at a major U.S. Army exercise in June 2026.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Cost-per-kill advantage**: Directed energy lasers fire for the cost of electricity (dollars per shot) vs. traditional missile-based counter-UAS systems that cost "hundreds of thousands per kill."
- **Full autonomy**: The system uses machine learning and optical sensing to detect and engage threats without requiring a human operator to watch a screen — a stated differentiator from other solutions on the market.
- **Speed of light engagement**: Neutralizes threats in seconds, not minutes.
- **COTS-based hardware**: Built on commercial off-the-shelf components for lower cost, faster production, and easier maintenance.
- **Field-proven**: Successfully demonstrated in adverse weather during the T-REX 26-2 exercise.

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling the company and its manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand from the U.S. military and allied nations.
- Deploying a networked defense grid of multiple Archimedes units for persistent, scalable protection of forces, facilities, and critical infrastructure.
- Continuing rapid R&D iterations driven by real-world field testing.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven work**: Directly contribute to protecting warfighters and critical assets — "build something that matters."
- **Fast-paced, small team culture**: Described as a small team that moves fast, tests in the field, and owns the full lifecycle from R&D to deployment.
- **Early-stage impact**: With only ~16 employees, new hires will have outsized influence and responsibility on the core product.
- **Location**: Based in San Francisco, CA — one of the few defense companies in a city built for tech talent.
- **Benefits**: Full medical, dental, and vision (United Healthcare), 18 days PTO + flexible sick days + 2-week winter break, daily catered lunch + stocked snacks, commuter stipend (up to $500 toward e-bike/scooter), on-site gym, and professional development reimbursement.
- **Work model**: In-office presence (San Francisco HQ). No hybrid/remote-first policy stated.
- **Engineering culture**: Emphasis on building hard things quickly, robotics, photonics, mechanical engineering, and AI/ML autonomy.

## Sources
1. [aureliussystems.com](https://www.aureliussystems.com/)
2. [aureliussystems.com/careers](https://www.aureliussystems.com/careers)
3. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/aureliussystems](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/aureliussystems)
4. [linkedin.com/company/aurelius-systems](https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurelius-systems)
5. [aureliussystems.com/leadership](https://www.aureliussystems.com/leadership)

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