Role
Hive Robotics is building Europe's first full-stack orchestration platform for unmanned systems: connecting, controlling, and commanding multi-vendor drone and robot swarms. Our RF communication systems are Made in Germany, deployed on active frontlines, and targeting a highly valued tactical communication market with zero sovereign alternatives today.
Our radios are small, dense and hot. Airborne units pack a complete radio into about 100 g of machined aluminum that must deliver full performance from arctic cold to desert heat. Our ground stations push high RF power through sealed housings that stand in the sun all day. Our product portfolio keeps growing, and every new product needs a housing that keeps the electronics cool, sealed and shielded, while staying lighter than the competition.
We are looking for an experienced Mechanical Design Engineer who takes those housings from concept to series production. You own your designs end to end and work daily with our RF architect, electronics designers and manufacturing team. You report into our CTO organization.
This role is hands-on by design: you work on-site in our Munich office, lab and workshop most of the week. Travel is limited to occasional supplier visits, tests and customer integrations.
Coming from automotive electronics? If you have designed housings for control units, power electronics, sensors, radar or lighting, you already know most of this job: sealed, thermally loaded, EMC-critical electronics enclosures that must survive vibration and weather. With us you'll apply it to products that go from CAD to the field in months, in a small team where your decisions count. No prior defense experience is needed.
Responsibilities
Enclosure & Thermal Design
- Own the mechanical design of electronics housings from concept to series release: lightweight, EMI-shielded, conduction-cooled airborne units for drones, sealed outdoor ground stations, and RF modules and antenna assemblies
- Design the heat path from day one together with the electronics engineers: from the hot components through thermal interface materials and heat spreaders into the housing and the host platform, and out of the housing by conduction, convection and radiation, with fins, surface finishes and mounting concepts that work without fans
- Design for the field: IP65/IP67 sealing, pressure compensation and EMI shielding (gaskets, seams, conductive surface finishes), connector integration (Type N, SMA, circular power connectors), and shock, vibration and weight optimization for UAV payloads
- Co-design board outlines, keep-outs and component placement with the electronics team
- Write integration guidelines for customers who build our modules into their own platforms, covering mounting, heat transfer and interfaces
Prototype to Production
- Build prototypes fast with 3D printing, CNC and our in-house prototyping facilities, measure them, and iterate
- Release production-ready documentation: drawings with GD&T and tolerance analysis, eBOMs and assembly instructions
- Hand designs over to our EMS partners and machining suppliers
- Drive DFM/DFA with suppliers for CNC parts, sheet metal, surface treatments (anodizing, conversion coatings) and gaskets
- Design assembly and test fixtures, and support first production builds
- Maintain released designs through engineering change management as products evolve
- Plan and run environmental and thermal tests (temperature, climate, vibration, ingress), and support CE (RED) and EMC testing
Collaboration & Integration
- Work with RF, electronics, firmware and manufacturing engineers, and turn field feedback from our Field Application Engineers into design improvements
- Integrate our products into customer platforms: drones, UGVs and maritime systems
- Support mechanical work across the wider Hive portfolio (autopilot, GNSS, antennas) when needed
- Document designs, measurements and test results clearly
Requirements
You do not need to tick every box from day one. If the core is there and you have the drive to grow into the rest, we want to hear from you.
Must Have
- Degree in mechanical engineering, mechatronics, aerospace or a similar field
- 3+ years designing housings or enclosures for electronics, in any industry (automotive, industrial, telecom, aerospace, defense), with at least one product taken into series production
- A practical understanding of thermal design: you can explain how heat leaves a sealed box and which design levers you would pull to get a hot component cooler, and you back your choices with simple hand estimates and verify them with measurements
- Proven experience with sealing, EMC-aware and vibration-robust design of electronics housings
- Design for manufacturing of metal parts: CNC machining, die casting or sheet metal, including aluminum surface treatments
- Production drawings with GD&T (ISO GPS) and tolerance stack-ups
- Very good 3D CAD skills: we work in Fusion and SolidWorks, and if you come from CATIA, NX or Creo, we expect you to switch quickly
- Hands-on attitude: you build, measure and fix prototypes yourself and are comfortable in the lab and workshop
- Structured, independent way of working and clear communication
- Fluent English; good German is a strong plus, as many of our suppliers work in German
- Willingness to undergo security vetting where projects require it
- Based in Munich or willing to relocate
Nice to Have
- Thermal simulation experience (any tool)
- Experience with RF hardware: shielding, RF connectors and cable routing, antenna and radome integration
- Environmental, EMC and ingress standards such as ISO 16750, IEC 60529 (IP codes), MIL-STD-810H, MIL-STD-461 or DO-160
- Weight-optimized design for UAV payloads
- Thermal measurement experience: thermocouples, IR camera, climate chamber
- Experience bringing designs into production with EMS partners or machining suppliers
- Basic scripting (e.g. Python) for test automation and data logging
- Background with drones, robotics or other unmanned systems
- Experience setting up mechanical design processes (drawing standards, release and change management) in a young company rather than inheriting them
About us
We work in deep-tech and dual-use technology, an industry where women and other underrepresented groups have historically had limited access. We encourage you to apply even if you don't check every box below.
Why Hive
- Build sovereign technology that matters. We build RF communication and orchestration systems for unmanned platforms across air, land, sea, and space, at a moment when European technological sovereignty is a real strategic question, not an abstract one.
- Real ownership, real deployment. Our products are already in serial production and in the field. What you build ships, and you see the result.
- Small team, direct access. Around 30 people. You'll work directly with founders and not through multiple layers of management.
- You shape the foundations. We're still building the structures, career paths, controlling, compliance, that let a fast-growing company scale well. You'll help decide what they look like.
- Modern Munich office , with the tools and equipment to do your best work.
What You Get
- Compensation. We benchmark salaries to stay competitive for the market and the role, not just what an early-stage budget can spare.
- Equity. You participate in Hive through equity/VSOP, a genuine stake in what we build, not just a paycheck.
- A role you shape, not one you're handed. We're too early for fixed job descriptions or a career ladder. What you own grows as you take on more, not by climbing steps someone else defined.
- No bureaucracy. Small, flat team. Decisions happen in a conversation, not a sign-off chain.
Compensation and equity terms vary by role and level. Hive Robotics is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications regardless of race, ethnic origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or marital status. Please don't include data on ethnic origin, political views, religious beliefs, union membership, health, or sexual orientation in your application.