Head of Mechanical Engineering

About Manna

At Manna, we’re changing how the world receives things — by taking delivery to the skies.

Our mission is simple but ambitious: to make high-speed suburban delivery affordable, green, and safe. We design and build our own aviation-grade drones that deliver food, coffee, groceries, and more — directly from local stores and vendors to people’s doors in just a few minutes.

We’re a team that Drive with Impact, are Safety Focused, and knows that the best ideas come from Team Players who show up as their Authentic Selves. We move fast, we are passionate about what we do, and we’re always pushing a growth mindset to be better — in everything we do.

If you want to build world-changing technology with real-world impact (and have a bit of fun while doing it), you’ll love it here.

Welcome to Manna — where we deliver the future.

Role Purpose

As the Head of Mechanical Engineering at Manna, you’ll report to the Director of Hardware Engineering and lead a team of talented engineers developing the next generation of our aircraft. You’ll combine deep technical mastery across mechanical design, analysis, testing & product development disciplines, with strong leadership. This is a hands-on, high-impact role where you’ll contribute both as a technical leader and as a mentor to junior engineers. You’ll work across teams to deliver reliable, scalable, and elegant solutions to real-world challenges.

The ideal candidate must have a track record of delivering complex safety-critical engineering projects from concept through to production and certification. You'll play a critical role in scaling our mechanical engineering capabilities as we expand our commercial deployments.

Requirements

Leadership & Collaboration

Lead, mentor, and grow a team of mechanical engineers, fostering creativity, accountability, and technical excellence.

Cultivate a collaborative, values-driven culture that thrives on solving tough problems together.

Drive cross-functional coordination with electrical, software, and operations teams to resolve complex system integration challenges

Establish clear DRI accountability and technical decision-making frameworks across mechanical subsystems

Mechanical Design & Development

Own mechanical architecture for next-generation aircraft systems, including composite airframes, propulsion integration, and cargo handling mechanisms

Lead design solutions for extreme environment operations, including thermal management and environmental protection systems

Drive DFM/DFA optimization for volume manufacturing while meeting EASA certification requirements

Champion reliability engineering practices to achieve commercial aviation safety standards

Technical Excellence & Innovation

Bring a first principles approach to technical challenges.

Establish design standards, analysis methods, and testing protocols for safety-critical systems

Lead root cause analysis and corrective action processes for field issues

Drive adoption of modern CAD/PLM tools and simulation workflows

Build knowledge base for lessons learned and design best practices

Core Competencies

Technical mastery in CAD, simulation, DFM/DFA, thermal analysis, and multi-disciplinary system integration

Team leadership & mentorship, developing engineers and fostering collaboration in high-stakes environments

Project & program management, including planning, resourcing, and risk management for safety-critical systems

Cross-functional leadership, aligning mechanical design with electrical, software, manufacturing, and regulatory requirements

Supplier & manufacturing engagement, managing vendor relationships, ensuring scalability from prototype to production

Decision-making & problem-solving in regulated environments, balancing performance, cost, certification requirements, and timelines

Communication & stakeholder management, presenting technical concepts clearly to executives, regulators, and customers

Innovation & continuous improvement, driving technical excellence while maintaining compliance and process rigor