Principal Mechanical Engineer

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Leidos is seeking a Principal Mechanical Engineer to join our Directed Energy team in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The ideal candidate will have a background in thermal analysis, engineering design, and thermal controls.

The successful candidate will work with a multidisciplinary team of engineers, scientists, technicians, and fabricators in a research and development environment supporting advanced directed energy technologies, including high-power microwave, RF, electromagnetic, and pulsed-power systems.

If this sounds like the kind of environment where you can thrive, keep reading!

Leidos Defense Sector / Non-Kinetic Effects provides a diverse portfolio of systems, solutions, and services covering land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace for customers worldwide. Solutions for Defense include enterprise and mission IT, large-scale intelligence systems, command and control, geospatial and data analytics, cybersecurity, logistics, training, and intelligence analysis and operations support. Our team is solving the world’s toughest security challenges for customers with “can’t fail” missions. To explore and learn more, click here!

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Primary Responsibilities

The engineer will be responsible for taking mechanical designs from concept through detailed design, fabrication, assembly, integration, and test. The position requires an individual who can work independently, communicate effectively across technical disciplines, and collaborate closely with machinists, fabricators, vendors, and other engineers to develop robust, manufacturable hardware.

You will have secondary responsibility for capturing cooling requirements for directed energy systems, developing thermal control systems that satisfy those requirements, supervising their construction, and conducting testing and troubleshooting on cooling equipment to verify performance. Duties may include documenting designs and presenting them to the customers, generating bills of materials and coordinating their purchase, auditing as-build systems for compliance to design, and documenting test results.

• Create 3D solid models and detailed mechanical designs for innovative hardware, equipment, and systems, carrying designs from initial requirements and concepts through fabrication, assembly, integration, and testing.
• Perform appropriate engineering analysis to support design decisions and verify mechanical performance.
• Create and maintain engineering drawings, including appropriate dimensions, tolerances, and other manufacturing requirements, in accordance with company standards and customer specifications.
• Design hardware with consideration for manufacturability, material selection, machining, welding, fabrication, assembly, and maintenance requirements.
• Work directly with Leidos machinists, fabricators, technicians, and external vendors to develop, procure, and support fabrication of mechanical components and assemblies.
• Resolve design, fabrication, assembly, and testing issues by developing practical and effective mechanical solutions.
• Support hands-on assembly, integration, troubleshooting, modification, and testing of prototype and experimental hardware.
• Collaborate with engineers and scientists from multiple technical disciplines to develop mechanical interfaces and integrated system solutions.
• Manage multiple engineering tasks and projects while effectively balancing technical requirements, schedules, and priorities.
• Communicate technical concepts, design decisions, and status effectively to engineering teams, project leadership, customers, and manufacturing personnel.
• Provide technical leadership for significant mechanical subsystems or projects, including establishing mechanical approaches, interfaces, and solutions for complex multidisciplinary problems.
• Collaborate with customers, engineers, and technicians to develop cooling requirements
• Conduct FEA thermal analysis to quantify heat loads and cooling needs.
• Design cold plates and heat exchangers to manage heat flow.
• Conduct CFD analysis to calculate flow rates, pressure drop and heat removal.
• Size commercial heat exchangers, fluid pumps and fans in accordance with thermal requirements and analysis.
• Develop 3D models, drawings and flow diagrams to document the design of thermal control systems.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with more than 20 years of experience prior experience with mechanical and/or thermal systems or a master’s degree with 15 years of related experience.
• Demonstrated experience developing mechanical hardware from concept through detailed design, fabrication, assembly, integration, and testing
• Proficiency with SolidWorks, including 3D part and assembly modeling and creation of detailed engineering drawings; experience with PDMWorks.
• Working familiarity with cooling components such as heat exchangers, chillers, pumps, and cooling fans.
• Mastery of applying mechanical design principles, material selection, tolerancing, and design for manufacturability in the development of fabricated hardware.
• Ability to work independently and collaborate effectively with machinists, fabricators, technicians, engineers, and scientists.
• Experience with thermal measurement diagnostics such as thermocouples, flow gauges, and pressure sensors.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and be able to lead meetings with large groups of people.
• Work location is predominantly Albuquerque, NM. Candidate must be a resident of, or be willing to relocate to, Albuquerque, NM.
• Demonstrated ability to develop practical solutions to complex mechanical design, fabrication, assembly, and testing problems
• Must be a US Citizen and possess (and be able to maintain) a Final Secret Clearance OR meet the eligibility to obtain (and maintain) a Secret Clearance.
• Ability and willingness to adhere to government and company safety requirements
• Ability to manage multiple projects or engineering tasks while maintaining project schedules and priorities

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with directed energy systems, vacuum components, and pulsed power systems.
• Skilled in the use of Simulink to model thermal control systems.
• Adaptable in fast-paced environments.
• Experience with SolidWorks Simulation
• Application of GD&T to mechanical engineering drawings
• Design of machined, welded, sheet metal, and fabricated mechanical components and assemblies, including designs requiring multiple manufacturing processes
• Experience with prototype, low-volume, and research and development hardware
• Structural analysis of mechanical components, assemblies, and systems using analytical methods and FEA as appropriate
• Thermal and heat-transfer analysis of mechanical and electromechanical systems, including development of practical thermal management solutions
• Mechanical packaging and integration of multidisciplinary systems
• Hardware assembly, integration, testing, troubleshooting, and field operations
• Expert knowledge of vacuum systems, vacuum hardware, and pressure vessels
• Experience with mechanical design and integration for electromagnetic, RF, high-power microwave, or pulsed-power systems
• Department of Defense or other government research and development programs experience
• Active DoD security clearance

NKE

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting

November 6, 2026

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range

Pay Range $154,050.00 - $278,475.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.