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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Onsite
Gecko Robotics is helping the world’s most important organizations ensure the availability, reliability, and sustainability of critical infrastructure. Gecko's complete and connected solutions combine wall-climbing robots, industry-leading sensors, and an AI-powered data platform to provide customers with a unique window into the current and future health of their physical assets. This enables real-time decision making to increase the efficiency and safety of operations, promote mission readiness, and protect the environment and civilization from the effects of infrastructure failure.
Role At A Glance
This role supports U.S. Navy manufacturing programs. Its essential functions require regular access to export-controlled technical data, U.S. Government information systems, and customer facilities subject to U.S.-person access requirements. To satisfy the U.S. Government contractual and customer-access requirements applicable to this role, the selected candidate must qualify as a “U.S. person," that is, a U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, or other protected individual, including a refugee or asylee, as defined by 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3). This requirement applies only to roles with these access needs and is not a general condition of employment at Gecko Robotics or its affiliates.
We're hiring a Product Strategist - Aeromechanical Engineering who combines hands-on aircraft engineering with customer-facing technical judgment. You'll work with customer engineers and Gecko's software and robotics teams to understand their engineering workflows, identify where our technology can help, and deliver practical solutions. You should be comfortable doing aerostructural engineering work yourself and representing Gecko as a peer to senior customer and stakeholder engineering leadership.
Your initial focus will be our work supporting a major defense aircraft program of record through reverse engineering, structural design, GD&T automation, and related workflows.
The planned initial mix is roughly two-thirds program execution and one-third broader aerospace product direction and go-to-market support.
Expect roughly 20% travel to customer and program sites. For team members based in cities where Gecko maintains an office, regular in-office presence is expected as part of our in-person operating culture.
What You Will Do
Engineering execution
Provide hands-on aircraft engineering support: support creation and review of CAD models, interpret drawings and scan data, and assess geometry, tolerances, materials, and design intent.
Translate customer requirements, technical standards, and work instructions into clear engineering and software requirements, with outputs suited to the customer's design-review, analysis, and data-management processes.
Own assigned technical work packages, including scope, schedule, risk, and quality. Coordinate with software and delivery leads, and pair with forward-deployed engineers to develop and validate useful tools and workflows.
Methods development & qualification
Develop and qualify novel analytical methodologies, design tools, and engineering toolchains, establishing their technical basis, validation approach, assumptions, and limits of applicability.
Build and defend the case for using these methods and tools with internal and external stakeholders, including chief engineering, quality, and airworthiness. Lead the technical reviews and develop the supporting evidence needed to gain acceptance for their intended use.
Customer engagement & technical leadership
Lead technical discussions with customer engineering and sustainment teams, engineering managers, primes, and program offices. Clarify needs and tradeoffs, resolve technical questions, and build confidence in Gecko's work.
Use customer feedback and delivery experience to shape product priorities and a technically credible path to follow-on work or renewal.
Product & GTM support
Support broader aerospace product and go-to-market efforts through technical discovery, early concepts, demonstrations, and proposals that connect customer needs to feasible solutions.
Coaching & enablement
Raise the team's fluency in aircraft structures, engineering toolchains, design reviews, and customer processes through hands-on collaboration and mentoring.
About You
Required Skills
B.S. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent engineering experience.
8+ years in aerospace mechanical design or structural engineering, including hands-on engineering responsibility on new-build or modification aircraft programs.
Strong hands-on CAD skills and fluency across mechanical engineering toolchains, including PLM/PDM and finite-element modeling; the toolchain family matters more than any specific vendor's tools. Strong command of aircraft structures, GD&T, metrology, tolerance stack-ups, and design conventions.
Experience developing new analytical methods, design tools, or engineering approaches and carrying them through validation and formal acceptance for program use.
Fluency in the aircraft development lifecycle, including requirements, design, and related reviews (e.g., SRR, SDR, PDR, CDR), and experience working across interrelated requirements, technical standards, and command media.
Demonstrated ability to scope technical work, make tradeoffs, and deliver to a schedule.
Practical software fluency and ability to work effectively with software engineers; deep software-development expertise is not required.
Eligibility to access export-controlled information.
Preferred Skills
Advanced degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering.
Background at an aerospace prime, tier 1 supplier, or government customer.
Experience with applied R&D or technical proposals; familiarity with government contracting.
Eligibility for a security clearance.
Experience with aircraft materials and properties, manufacturing processes, and non-destructive testing (NDT). Composite structures experience is a plus.
Reverse engineering, digital-twin, or digital-engineering exposure.
At Gecko, our people are our greatest investment. In addition to competitive compensation packages, we offer company equity, 401(k) matching, gender-neutral parental leave, full medical, dental, and vision insurance, mental health, ongoing professional development, family planning assistance, and flexible paid time off.
Gecko values collaboration, innovation, and partnership, and we believe we do our best work when we're together in person. We’re an office-first culture but understand that sometimes you may need to work from home. Many people are in the office five days a week, others need a bit more flexibility. Ultimately, we care about the outcomes we achieve - and creating a culture of autonomy and trust that enables that impact.
Gecko is committed to creating a culture of inclusion and belonging, and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We believe it is our collective responsibility to uphold these values and encourage candidates from all backgrounds to join us in our mission to protect today’s infrastructure and give form to tomorrow’s. All qualified applicants will be treated with respect and receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, uniform service, veteran status, age, or any other protected characteristic per federal, state, or local law. If you are passionate about what you do and want to use your talents to support our critical mission, we’d love to hear from you.