Job Title: Founding Mechanical Engineer
Location: Bangalore, Karnataka (On-site)
Employment Type: Full-time
Experience: 0 to 3 years
CTC: Up to 12.2 LPA (Fixed + ESOPs + Performance Bonus)
Department: Engineering / R&D
Role Category: Mechanical Design / Product Design
About Zerowings Aerospace
Zerowings Aerospace was founded on a simple belief: India should not depend on anyone else for the autonomous UAVs that guard its coastline and borders. Our team brings experience from AWS, P&G, Boeing, and Caterpillar, and we build unmanned aircraft from first principles. Our platforms include maritime VTOL systems, Drone-in-a-Box autonomous systems, and industrial drones for solar farms, wind turbines, and building facades.
About the Role
You will be our founding mechanical engineer. The airframes you design will fly over the Indian coastline within months of your joining, not years. You will own every step, from concept and structural analysis through fabrication, flight test, and production. The pace is fast, and your decisions will become the DNA of every aircraft we build.
What Makes This a Founding Role
- First engineering hire for the mechanical function. The airframe discipline is built around you, not handed to you.
- Direct design authority over materials, structures, and manufacturing decisions, which are yours to make and defend in flight test.
- Ownership from day one, with equity in year one and further grants as you and the company grow.
- A defined path to lead the mechanical engineering team as we scale.
Key Responsibilities
- Take UAV airframes, mechanical subsystems, and payload structures from whiteboard to flight line for VTOL and multirotor platforms.
- Run structural, modal, and basic CFD analyses, and prove your design on paper before it proves itself in the air.
- Own CAD, detailed part design, assembly layouts, and production-ready drawings. If it cannot be manufactured, it does not ship.
- Build your own prototypes using carbon fiber layups, machined aluminum, and additive manufacturing.
- Break your designs in ground and flight testing before the field does, and iterate until they hold.
- Drive vendors on fabrication, tooling, and sourcing, and hold them to your tolerances.
- Document everything to defense-grade standards. Build logs and test reports are how aircraft earn trust.
Basic Qualifications
- 2 to 3 years of experience at a drone or UAV company, or a fresh graduate from an IIT or NIT with serious student team experience (aeromodelling, SAE Aero Design, DBF, or similar).
- A degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, or clear evidence of exceptional ability.
- Strong command of mechanical design, mechanics of materials, and structural behavior, with fluency in Fusion 360 or SolidWorks.
- Willingness to live in labs, workshops, and outdoor flight test sites, and to work long hours when a build, test window, or customer trial demands it.
Preferred Qualifications
- Hands-on experience with composites (carbon fiber, fiberglass).
- Working knowledge of GD&T, DFM, and DFA.
- Experience with ANSYS or equivalent FEA tools.
- Anything you have built that flies. Show us, do not tell us.
Compensation and Benefits
- Fixed salary: 7.2 lakhs per year, paid monthly.
- Equity (ESOPs): 3.0 lakhs, granted in year one, with additional grants in subsequent years based on performance.
- Performance bonus: 2.0 lakhs, paid at year-end and linked to shipped milestones.
- First-year CTC: 12.2 LPA (fixed plus equity plus bonus).
- Lunch and dinner provided at the office.
Selection Process
Application with proof of work, then 3 to 4 interview rounds (technical and founder), then a final in-person round at our Bangalore office. Offer within 10 days of your final interview.
Pay: ₹800,000.00 - ₹1,300,000.00 per year
Benefits:
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Bengaluru, Karnataka (Bengaluru Urban District): Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Required)
Work Location: In person
