Senior Methods Engineer at Harmattan AI (Orly, France)
Harmattan AI· Orly, France·
Role details
Harmattan AI at a glance
France's first defense-tech unicorn, building attritable AI-piloted strike, interception, and ISR drones for allied militaries.
Harmattan AI is a vertically integrated defense prime building autonomous drone systems for allied militaries. It designs the full stack, from airframes and payloads to embedded compute and the autonomy algorithms that let drones sense, decide, and act at the edge without GPS or a network link, coordinated across a swarm by its mission-orchestration layer.
$242M raised · latest: Series B · $200M · January 2026 · backed by Dassault Aviation, FirstMark Capital, Atlantic, Motier Ventures
Summary
Join Harmattan AI's production plant in Wissous to build and optimize manufacturing processes, lean systems, and automation roadmaps. This role bridges Production, Quality, and Supply Chain teams through shopfloor engagement and structured engineering work.
Job description
About Us
Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces. Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected.
About the Role
We are looking for a Senior Methods Engineer to join our production plant in Wissous. In our context of fast growth, you will act as the connector between Production, Quality, Supply Chain, and our Industrialisation & Automation team. We are not asking for you to maintain what someone else built, we are asking for you to build it yourself: every process, standard, lean system.
Responsibilities
An ideal day in this position starts on the shopfloor: quick walk, performance standup, catching issues early. Mid-day splits between desk work (time studies, routing updates, ERP automation) and cross-functional sessions with Production, Quality, and the Automation team. Afternoons are hands-on: kaizen walks, work instruction updates, problem-solving with supervisors. You close the day feeding data back into the system.
Roughly 50% floor, 50% structured engineering work, every day. In a nutshell:
- Continuous Improvement & Shopfloor Performance
- Production Line Design & Internal Flow
- Process Knowledge & Documentation
- Automation Roadmap Contribution
Candidate Requirements
- Diploma in Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Production Engineering. A strong profile from a different engineering discipline associated with strong shopfloor experience is also valued.
- Experience in building methods structure in a fast-moving manufacturing environment (written work instructions from scratch, run time studies, 5S,...). Has owned a lean improvement roadmap, not just contributed to one.
- Ideally has navigated a ramp-up, a new plant launch, or a new product introduction where the structure did not exist yet.
- Detail-oriented, rigorous, and comfortable working on the shop floor.
- Team player with good communication skills.
- Very good level of English and French
- Full alignment with Harmattan AI's mission and willingness to go the extra mile to support our growth.
We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.
Why work at Harmattan AI
- Culture: “Elite builders” who “thrive on complexity, move with urgency, and own their work end to end.” Emphasis on purpose, technical excellence, and real‑world impact. harmattan.ai
- Values: Tackle the hardest problems, build what matters, move at the speed of relevance, and aim to redefine frontiers. harmattan.ai
- Work policy: Hybrid model with a mix of remote and on‑site; many roles are in‑office at locations in Paris, Lausanne, London, Arlington (TX), Wissous, Poland, UAE, and Morocco. builtin.com
- Engineering culture: Hands‑on development of mission‑critical autonomous systems; strong R&D focus across AI, computer vision, RF hardware, propulsion, and mission planning.
- Perks: Not explicitly listed, but the company highlights the opportunity to protect front‑line personnel and shape the future of autonomous defence.